Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jan 03, 2009 7:16 pm Can any of our WA forumers give me some info on Dale Alcock Homes?
My builder has recently been bought out by them and I was just wondering about them in general. The base price of my house has gone up $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$! Thank god I've already signed!!! Yay! Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Jo I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: Calling all from WA: Dale Alcock Homes 3Jan 03, 2009 7:35 pm Boutique. I'm not at all worried, but was just wondering about the quality of their homes in WA and their overall reputation.
I'm surprised that for such a big builder, no-one in WA that's on homeone has built with them. I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: Calling all from WA: Dale Alcock Homes 4Jan 03, 2009 8:24 pm Really? If it helps, a couple of people I know have built with them, and only had good experiences with them and recommended them to us but they were a bit too $$ for us. They were very happy with the finishes and said everyone they dealt with were excellent. Re: Calling all from WA: Dale Alcock Homes 5Jan 03, 2009 9:20 pm Same here, I know people who have built with them and I've only ever heard good things, we didn't really look at them because of $$. But would have if we had a bigger budget.
I'm sure you'll be fine! Re: Calling all from WA: Dale Alcock Homes 6Jan 03, 2009 11:47 pm We almost went with them but then found another house with Summit that didnt need as many changes.
Dale Alcock does have a good reputation. They also own Webb Brown Neaves which is a high end builder & Celebration Homes which is their middle range & also have Hombuyers Centre which is their first home owner range. Friends built with them & only had a couple of minor issues. Re: Calling all from WA: Dale Alcock Homes 7Jan 04, 2009 9:07 am A good friend of ours is a building supervisor with them, and he thinks very highly of them. Other friends have also built with them and they have been happy with the process so far. Re: Calling all from WA: Dale Alcock Homes 8Jan 04, 2009 3:17 pm Hi,
We have just finished building with them, never again, the quality of our very expensive house is crap. I will never recommend them or ever build with them again! They are definately on par for quality with the cheapest builders around but because they spend alot of time and money on saying how good they are, they charge alot more for their houses. We have around 6 Dales being built around us and the quality of all is pretty poor. We have been very disappointed, especially with the quality. Still it all depends on the tradies you get and they can really vary. Even now after being in the house for 3 months, I still feel very disappointed and it is not at all a pleasure living here. Very stressful building experience, with major issues, heaps of things still not resolved. Not fun! Re: Calling all from WA: Dale Alcock Homes 9Jan 04, 2009 5:43 pm Not doubting what you say, but a few examples would give a bit of perspective. I'd be grateful if you could elaborate on the things you considered not up to scratch. For instance, when a friend was explaining to me the difference in "quality" between my Ford Falcon and his BMW, we found some striking similarities in areas where we both expected contrasts. (hey, I'm not suggesting for a moment the Ford quality is on a par with the German product....just that the compromises in owning the Aussie car seem quite tolerable given the price difference)
I have seen some very cheap homes where the actual build quality was on a par with the most expensive. Sure, the pricier homes have generally more expensive finishes and better specifications, but is the concrete slab any smoother, are the walls straighter or the plasterboard joint sanding any more thorough? Does a brickie lay the bricks any more carefully or evenly on a 15 sq budget special or on a multi-level mansion? My guess is that the premium builders tend to attract the better tradies and offer more thorough supervision, but I doubt if this always translates to a better build quality in all respects. One thing I have noticed on our current build is that the tradies generally seem happy to chat, to discuss any queries or concerns and offer options where there's more than one way to interpret the plans. This is a major bonus and goes a long way in making us feel happy to have chosen a premium builder. But I'm not yet convinced that all the work is done to a "premium" standard. Probably compliance with the normal building codes is all you can expect unless you pay megadollars for a personalised service from a boutique builder and have constant architectural supervision.....something that's welll outside my capacity or willingness to afford. I'd be really interested in other opinions on how best to pick the differences in quality between the best and worst builders given that they al work to essentially the same codes. As I alluded to before, flexibility, timeliness and communication are probably better with the better builders but it's raw build "quality" I'm curious about. Cheers zeke Re: Calling all from WA: Dale Alcock Homes 10Jan 07, 2009 11:19 pm We didn't build with them but got very very close to the final stages after spending 7 mths with them. They had prepared house plans that did not suit our block's restrictive convenents (despite us providing them with copies of our title on THREE separate occasions... they kept losing them!) and would therefore NEVER have been approved by shire. We find this out after wasting 7mths of our lives... which we were paying rent for as we'd sold our previous place. We were released from contract and moved onto our current builder which by comparison has been an absolute dream... and it took them only around 4 mths to get to the same point we were at with DAH before we pulled the pin.
Can't vouch for the building side, but the admin side was a f**king nightmare!!! Building the Grand Harmony Triple with Scott Park Homes Re: Calling all from WA: Dale Alcock Homes 11Jan 08, 2009 10:32 am Trades should all be working to the same codes but as we found out, there is also a level of acceptance which is far short of the code. We were told by Dale Alcock management and our own building supervisor that our brickwork was "bad" and at the lowest end of what was acceptable BUT was still just acceptable!!! Also told at a meeting at Dale Alcocks office, where they go into what will be happening in the build and the timeline etc. that if the tradies are rude or gruff, they are there to build not to be friendly, we thought that was amazing. The staff were friendly but pretty thick, never seemed to speak to anyone that knew anything.
Our brickwork took 20 weeks to complete and we had 3 different sets of brickies (1 lot were sacked!) Some walls were rebuilt 3 times over, and some weren't tied in properly. Still finished up with barely acceptable and rooms the wrong size and walls crooked and leaning, huge holes, cracked and broken bricks. Walls that were within tolerance and with assurances that the plaster would straighten them up are still crooked and with tiles on them (especially the ensuite bathroom) plainly show up the crooked and wonky walls. The front door was replaced 3 times, crooked and forgotten to be tied in to the brickwork, so was just loose in the wall! Roof replaced twice and the colourbond is still dented over the garage and every single fascia and gutter is dented, on the front of the garage about 15 dents, told it couldn't be fixed and everyone has some dents, but 15 in one small area looks so crappy. Brickwork on the front of the house was so bad they couldn't rendered it properly, so ended up with unitex, which was put on so badly we had it patched 3 times and it is still cracking and crumbling off today! And don't get me started on the finishing quality inside the house! We have a cheaper house being built next door at the mo. a Scott Park and the brickwork is a pleasure to look at, sigh, spent heaps more and have a crudier house. Just don't believe they are better because they cost more, go with a cheaper house and save money, even if the build was no better, we would be better off financially! Re: Calling all from WA: Dale Alcock Homes 12Jan 09, 2009 8:43 am Kirribilli - agreed! We saved about $40k during the change from DAH to SPH!
DAH seems to have spent alot of money and effort on their new 'showroom' in Osborne Park but have forgotten the key part to their business: providing quality service and a quality build to their customers. I wrote to D@le Alcock personally and told him that his staff are very busy undermining his good reputation! Building the Grand Harmony Triple with Scott Park Homes Re: Calling all from WA: Dale Alcock Homes 13Jan 09, 2009 9:14 pm We too wrote to Dale Alcock personally about our build and received a letter back from the manager of DAH saying that Dale has passed this onto him to deal with, and I'm passing you back to the people your already dealing with. Pretty much saying I don't care, don't bother me, deal with the underlings, so back to the very people that we were having trouble with! We were not impressed! Agree too, with the new premises - certainly alot of money spent, but they can't build us a decent house to live in! After our experience - can only recommend again to anyone thinking of building with them - DON'T Re: Calling all from WA: Dale Alcock Homes 14Jan 09, 2009 9:19 pm By the way Starlet, the Grand Harmony is a lovely house, I like the floorplan, especially with bed 1 at the rear, Nice! Re: Calling all from WA: Dale Alcock Homes 15Jan 09, 2009 9:26 pm Sorry Joles, highjacking your thread - dollars will go up I'm afraid, we had massive increases to upgrade some things, like the toilets, wanted to upgrade from the basic to the Fowler Regent, basic $200, Regent $450, wanted to charge us $2500 for an upgrade of 2 toilets! I'm glad you have a contract and I hope your build is a really good one for you, I would hate to have anyone go thru. what we did! All the best!! A question. Im in Queensland and building a new home. We managed to reach practical completion 6 weeks ago but we haven't heard any date for handover yet. Who should we… 0 6118 This is one of the reasons I decided to go overseas for my double glazed windows. As the builder indicated, he's worked on many upmarket builds, these were the most well… 13 19572 Ask for references and speak to them. If they are defensive or try to avoid the request, walk. 1 77466 |