Hi guys,

First time poster, and figured I'd create a thread about my own build. For a start, here's a look at my plan:

[ img ]

While we're pretty happy with it, if I ever build again in the future I'm going to ask for absolutely everything, and then go wherever I get all the yes's that I want.

Anyway, I'd like to start by actually asking a question. My wife and I just returned from having visited our build in progress, and we have some concerns. Most of our brick work has been done, but the quality of some parts of it leaves much to be desired.

It wasn't a problem at first, we figured it's probably just how it is with every build, but then we went to have a look around a house on the adjacent street (also building with Homebuyers), and the quality of theirs is a lot better than ours.

I'll just go ahead now and show some of the pictures I took:

[ img ]
[ img ]
[ img ]
[ img ]
[ img ]

Now I'm no expert, but some of the work is actually quite rubbish, if I'm being honest. Many of our internal bricks are chipped, some quite badly, and there are gaps between the bricks, some just a bit too large. One of the holes was big enough for me to slip my mobile through to my wife on the other side, and I'm not talking an iPhone, it's an older, thicker bugger.

I realise I'm probably just getting all worked up over nothing, I mean, they just plaster over the lot anyway, right? I know it's a work in progress, and don't want to bother emailing our Homebuyer's Centre rep if it's not necessary, but is this sort of thing to be expected? As I said, it wouldn't have been a concern had I not visited that other house, but the build quality over there was world's ahead of ours.

Thanks for reading guys. Great forum this one, I'll be spending a lot of time here over the coming months

I've just double checked this with the other half, who used to be a building supervisor (and both of us are still in the building industry now). He has said that it looks like your home didn't have as good a brickie team as the other home you looked at, however the standard of work that was done at yours is reasonably common and is acceptable, as it won't affect the structural integrity of the home - it's just that your brickie seems to have done a bit of a messy and lazy job. Normally the brickie should have neatened up and filled in the broken bricks and gaps using cement, now your plasterer will need to do it instead. If you were having a 2-storey home it would be a whole different story, because a 2-storey home must have cement between every brick to ensure it can take the weight of the 2nd storey.

In his opinion, you're better off holding off on contacting the builder, save your "allocation" of complaints until something else comes up that will be visible or a structural issue later

Thanks CA3105, for looking into it.

I had a chat with some family members, and have sent along an email anyway. Considering that we're no doubt paying around the same as everyone else, I don't see why we should have to put up with a job that's obviously not as good. I browsed a few of the blogs linked at the top of this forum, and had a hard time finding any pictures where the work done was as poor as this. That's a worry.

I was nice about it though, told the rep to just let us know if this is pretty much the standard, and that we realise it's all going to be plastered over anyway. Just, like everyone we've put a lot of money into this house already, and going up there to see really ** work like that, kinda rubbed us the wrong way.

We'll see what she says

Well, our rep got back to us.

She said gaps in the brickwork like this are normal, as when the concrete is applied to the walls it gives the concrete something to grip to. Apparently if there weren't any holes, the plaster would just chip off the walls over time.

Is this right, or have I just been fed a whole load of baloney?

ours was like that and we built with HBC, 2 years on and we have 2 decent splits in the plaster from the house moving and the roof doesnt stop poping from the heat expansion etc

have it inspected by a licenced contractor if you have any concerns. photograph everything and the house has a 25 year warrenty..

I'm not sure it's an advantage but I'm pretty sure it's not a problem as CA said. It's not an overly neat job but so long as it's only the internals I'd not worry, it'll be covered soon enough.

Thanks for your reassurances guys. It was just a bit disappointing, I mean, we're first home buyers and all that, paying through the nose for this thing, so to go there and see such poor work, it hit a nerve. I wrote back to her, said I have no problem with her bringing our concerns to the attention of our site manager, and that I trust better care will be taken with our home from this point onwards.

I'm sorry to say, but I wouldn't go with Homebuyers Centre again. Our first rep bailed a few weeks before the land titled, and since then, it's been hard to shake that red-headed stepchild feeling. Not good when you're spending half a million bucks.

Received our Progress Payment Authority today. Our build is scheduled to reach the stage of Plate High this Friday 30th, and we have to authorise the payment to Homebuyers so that construction can continue. Basically, we're going to have to sign off on the work that has been done, stating that it has "been completed in a satisfactory workmanlike manner".

Which, if you've seen the condition of our walls, isn't going to be the easiest thing in the world to do.

So we're going up again this coming Saturday. I'll take some more pictures, but I'm not expecting many changes, and I'd be surprised if any improvements had been made given the concerns I raised recently.

That said, no doubt we'll sign, if just because there'd be hell to pay if we didn't.

You can always get an independant inspector to come have a look at it and use his report to hand in to them. If he finds it unsatisfactory, it will have to be fixed. You should have an inspector come anyway at least twice throughout the build if your not from a trade backround.

I personally wouldn't be too worried about it. Having holes in it makes a lot of sense to me to get the plaster to grip properly.

Yeah it does kinda make sense when you think about it, but what gets me is that, if it's such a good idea, why wasn't the other house we looked at done the same way?

I'm surprised they have the owner 'verify' that the work has been done to a satisfactory level, to be honest. How many of us are going to know anything about what constitutes good and safe work in this industry? That's something that should be handled themselves, with the signing of the forms to release funds being just a formality.

I'd love to be able to hire an independant inspector to have a look, but we couldn't really afford to do that, even if we wanted to, because you have to start making payments to the property even before you get in there, and we still have to pay for accomodation where we're at. Still, maybe we'll save up so we'll be able to afford to do it once during our build.

Well, we went up there, and were very surprised to see the roof frame on. They've done a lot considering it's only been a week, and especially so because we had rain on Monday and Tuesday.

[ img ]
[ img ]
[ img ]
[ img ]
[ img ]

Very interested to notice that portions of the walls have been filled in a little. Considering the "it's how it's meant to be done" line that was fed to us, I really wasn't expecting them to have done that.

Still, getting happier. Nice to see it all coming together. Still wouldn't build with Homebuyers again, but all in all it continues to be a fabulous learning experience.

Your hat won't be far off now!

It's good they have fixed up some bits, even if just to make you feel better.

Hello

Yeah those gaps really look bad, I had similar gaps on my house, but one builder said to me, when the bricks are as smooth as those they need to have a good roughing for the plaster to hold well, hence those gaps. Your bricks though don't really look the best. I mean just like you, i thought am no expect therefore no go complaining for nothing, but if you can get a phone through that is wide, that's also a lot of plaster just to seal a gap, double handling in my view.

How is it going now.

Things are going better now, to be honest. While they did fix up some of the holes though, it was a messy job, all in all. Just as well they plaster over it all, otherwise I'd have been damn near livid.

Anyway, our roof's on, and progress is continuing quite well. Here's a few more recent shots:

[ img ]
[ img ]
[ img ]
[ img ]
[ img ]

We were hoping to be in by Christmas though, as that's what we were told by the two Homebuyers Centre reps we had before building commenced, but it's looking like that won't be the case. We asked for an estimate on its completion, but were told we're looking at approximately 6 months from when the slab went down, which was in August. They'll know more when we reach the lock up stage however.

That said, I do have a question. I've been led to believe that the construction industry pretty much takes a month or so off over Christmas, so if your house isn't finished by mid December, they pretty much go away and leave it alone until well into January. Is this true?

I only ask because we really had our heart set on Christmas, and also because we're not going to be able to continue to pay both the rent where we're currently living and the house payments indefinitely.

It's been a while. Progress has been decent, but still a few things we're not overly happy with.

[ img ]
[ img ]
[ img ]
[ img ]
[ img ]
[ img ]
[ img ]

I googled all the green on the bricks, and it's called Vanadium staining. Something about the salts inside clay bricks coming to the surface and then turning green on contact with the air. Not real happy with how it looks, and even though I realise it's not really a defect, it's still something we're going to want cleaned before handover, because it looks terrible.

Not real happy with the dozen beer bottles a couple of workers felt they could just leave behind, either. Not something we'll bring up with the rep or anything, but it makes me wonder if the quality of their work is also going to leave much to be desired when they can't even be bothered cleaning up after having had a few beers.

That all said, while we still wouldn't build with the Homebuyers Centre again, that's certainly not because of the build quality.

hi - they will clean the bricks before handover.
any chance of you getting handover before christmas?
is the small brick wall on the side and front of the house is retaining wall?

That small brick wall is a retaining wall, yeah. We have a corner block, which is the sort of thing we were after.

I'm glad they'll clean the bricks, they're really not very nice looking. I do hope the staining doesn't come back, as I've read has happened to others who've had it.

I don't think there's any chance of handover being before Christmas. Not unless they really kick it into high gear (which would be nice, mind you). We hit lockup two weeks ago, and apparently the approximate estimate is 9 weeks after lock up. That and, we were told to expect a 2 to 3 week delay thanks to Christmas. Bah humbug!

My best guess at the moment would be our PCI being scheduled for early January, with handover set for mid January. We have every intention of having an independant build inspector show up during the PCI also - it might cost us a few hundred, but that's a small price to pay considering how much these things cost

our builder has talked about that happening on the cream bricks, and they bleach it. it is likely to come back, but at the 6 month check they will clean it again and generally that is all they need.
Ask what product(s) they use so if it does return, you can do it after their attempts fail!

Hehe... good advice!

If they clean it, and it's showing up again at the 6 month mark, you can bet I'll be onto them to get it sorted. The amount of money that we're all paying, we'd be fools not to!

Hi Venturai,

We're building with HBC as well and like you, we would not be building with them again.
We have the same concern over the bricks and I'm still in the process of sending them an email as we went to the site yesterday arvo.
Glad to came across your thread, at least we can compare.

Hope to see more pics soon.

Srichz