Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jul 01, 2015 10:35 am How many of you were not advised that the concrete pricing didn't include the crossover? So angry! Building with DFH has been the biggest mistake ever!... So disappointed in even their communication or lack there of. We had a look at our tiles that have been laid and it's like a rollercoaster in the house with some sections out by 12mm. They've also ruined our tiled shower base also and my partner who is a glazier has never seen it done that way to put a frameless showerscreen in. Nor did they leave any tile for him to put the screen on. Tell me, does anyone know this answer? say you wanted a shower that was 900x1400. Does that space start from when it's been tiled or from the frame before plaster etc? So all tiling in the whole house is out. They put in the wrong caesarstone bench top which has been rectified as the site manager was never given our variations, lucky we had a copy!! They put in the wrong sliding door which has been rectified. And I never knew what a ceiling batten light was, we asked for the house as per display, so I wanted the bigger bench the entertainment door the lights and spaces left for pendant lights... Instead I now have 12 ceiling batten lights with shades over them throughout the kitchen and living area lol. It looks ridiculous, surely our il-competent electrician would have known that wasn't right... So now there's $1000 to have them changed privately. I'm just sooooo disappointed and needed to vent as its like one bad thing after the other and now I cannot get the fridge I want and are using money for the curtains etc. so frustrated. My partner must be feeling stressed as I am a Stay at home mummy and pregnant again lol definitely money we could have used... Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Need a vent and DFH I'm not enjoying building with... 2Jul 01, 2015 1:53 pm ,Sorry to hear about your problems. I cant offer an opinion on the shower, as far as batten lights go if you have it in writing and your house was costed as per display id argue this. Howevrr given displays are always glammed up and with money an issue it seems i doubt you would have been costed a display model. You'll haveto check every detail and if you dont know what something is like a batten light you should ask and find out for your own sake. A good rep should be able to point out the crossover but you should also have done your research and sufficient enquiries as soakwells. Crossovers are usually almost always seperate items. The concrete slab works/site works is a completely seperate thing to a crossover in nature. A goood rep should point this out if your fresh, but i am also building first time and this is something after doing sufficient rounds and talking to consultants you haveto educate yourself about. I would consider speaking to a few.more displays to learn as much as you can? Mistakes like wrong stone top isn't a great reflection, doesnt show that they can follow plans/selections well does it.. :/ Re: Need a vent and DFH I'm not enjoying building with... 3Jul 01, 2015 3:39 pm SaberX ,Sorry to hear about your problems. I cant offer an opinion on the shower, as far as batten lights go if you have it in writing and your house was costed as per display id argue this. Howevrr given displays are always glammed up and with money an issue it seems i doubt you would have been costed a display model. You'll haveto check every detail and if you dont know what something is like a batten light you should ask and find out for your own sake. A good rep should be able to point out the crossover but you should also have done your research and sufficient enquiries as soakwells. Crossovers are usually almost always seperate items. The concrete slab works/site works is a completely seperate thing to a crossover in nature. A goood rep should point this out if your fresh, but i am also building first time and this is something after doing sufficient rounds and talking to consultants you haveto educate yourself about. I would consider speaking to a few.more displays to learn as much as you can? Mistakes like wrong stone top isn't a great reflection, doesnt show that they can follow plans/selections well does it.. :/ Thanks for your reply, Seeing he was the only salesman at the display home we asked him 5-10 times if it was for the whole driveway, he said yes. The only reason wrong caesarstone benchtop was put in was because the head office never gave the site supervisor the correct information. As for the batten lights, we sat in the display home with the salesman (as this display doesn't have many extras tbh) and told him we wanted everything AS IS, i have plenty of emails to the salesman stating this and also to the manager of the salesman as we have had troubles from the start with this new old man so we have been expecting more errors, but you would think they electrician or someone would have stopped and informed us that that was alot of batten lights to have lol... Im still curious as to what they will do with our floor tiles, still yet to hear anything regarding this... Re: Need a vent and DFH I'm not enjoying building with... 4Jul 01, 2015 3:51 pm Very frustrating when things aren't working out more so when you are pregnant. Am interested what lights did they have in the display home and how many in the same living/kitchen area? Hope your tiles get sorted. Re: Need a vent and DFH I'm not enjoying building with... 5Jul 01, 2015 4:14 pm I havent started my build but it sounds like you chose all this e.g. lighting at the display home? I would have thought lighting placement, upgrades and quantity were prestart selection based. Given if you made it very clear i would use written evidence to support your complaints. Its one reason i specifically get itemised details so i know it exactly states it includes earthworks, soakwells, crossover etc. i guess it also helps to know what items are usually seperately costed e.g. driveway, crossover, soakwells to alert you to potential areas that seem too good to be true. In this case you confirmed in writing many times so i guess there is only so much you can do... Apart from have the detail written in to the PWC/price quote. Just another more final written form to back you up in times of dispute such as this. Best of luck Re: Need a vent and DFH I'm not enjoying building with... 6Jul 01, 2015 4:16 pm And do like im intending given these project builders all make mistakes at times and horror stories, get a building inspector. Id have said before hand so you can properly plan the stages you'd pay for, but id argue one for bricks /plate height, and another with rood,ceiling, basically near handover. I was told when enquiring with one inspector they usually dont do slab but by definition id want my slab/siteworks examined given it forms the everlasting foundations of your house.... Re: Need a vent and DFH I'm not enjoying building with... 7Jul 02, 2015 5:16 pm dmj1983 We had a look at our tiles that have been laid and it's like a rollercoaster in the house with some sections out by 12mm. Not sure where you're located, but in Victoria, there's this document on standards and tolerances which is worth using when it comes to those sorts of mistakes: http://www.vba.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/18127/Guide-to-Standards-and-Tolerances-2007.pdf I've had a nightmare of a time with Boutique Homes - so I feel your pain. Hope it all gets resolved quickly for you Re: Need a vent and DFH I'm not enjoying building with... 8Jul 02, 2015 5:56 pm Did the display home have down lights? Is that what you mean. It looks like the batten lights are placed in downlight positions. What did it show on your drawings? All the light positions should have been on them. Re: Need a vent and DFH I'm not enjoying building with... 9Jul 03, 2015 7:45 am jessicana10 Did the display home have down lights? Is that what you mean. It looks like the batten lights are placed in downlight positions. What did it show on your drawings? All the light positions should have been on them. Agreed - it looks exactly like where you'd have downlights, except they've installed batten lights. Could be that they took the original light positions (with downlights) then you changed them to batten lights to cut down on the cost? (and didn't change the lighting plan to suit?) Re: Need a vent and DFH I'm not enjoying building with... 10Jul 03, 2015 10:39 am Do your plans/documentation specify downlights, i.e. type, wattage, colour etc or do your plans just show a lighting plan - showing locations of some generic light? If just a lighting plan you've got what's on your plans. Asking the salesman for something and having him nod and say yes does not mean that it's costed and part of the contract. Re: Need a vent and DFH I'm not enjoying building with... 11Jul 03, 2015 2:59 pm thefarmers dmj1983 We had a look at our tiles that have been laid and it's like a rollercoaster in the house with some sections out by 12mm. Not sure where you're located, but in Victoria, there's this document on standards and tolerances which is worth using when it comes to those sorts of mistakes: http://www.vba.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/18127/Guide-to-Standards-and-Tolerances-2007.pdf I've had a nightmare of a time with Boutique Homes - so I feel your pain. Hope it all gets resolved quickly for you That's a shame! We really wanted to build with boutique but they wouldn't go as far as where we were at the time! What has been happening your end? Re: Need a vent and DFH I'm not enjoying building with... 12Jul 03, 2015 3:06 pm thefarmers jessicana10 Did the display home have down lights? Is that what you mean. It looks like the batten lights are placed in downlight positions. What did it show on your drawings? All the light positions should have been on them. Agreed - it looks exactly like where you'd have downlights, except they've installed batten lights. Could be that they took the original light positions (with downlights) then you changed them to batten lights to cut down on the cost? (and didn't change the lighting plan to suit?) On the plans it states ceiling batten lights but we didn't know what that was we just assumed it meant what we asked for, there have been heaps of issues like this! Now I'm not as mad as I am amused that anyone would think you'd have that many normal lights in the one area - it's blatantly obvious they are meant to be the downlights like in the display house. Nevermind it's an issue we can fix after handover at $70 per light cash My partner is down there now with site supervisor discussing what to do with the tiling I'm curious as to what he is going to mention. Re: Need a vent and DFH I'm not enjoying building with... 13Jul 03, 2015 3:09 pm jessicana10 Did the display home have down lights? Is that what you mean. It looks like the batten lights are placed in downlight positions. What did it show on your drawings? All the light positions should have been on them. Yes jessicana the display had downlights and they are all positioned in what should be downlights but are written to be ceiling batten lights Re: Need a vent and DFH I'm not enjoying building with... 14Jul 03, 2015 4:41 pm Hi dmj1983, Speaking of wall tiling where it comes down onto floor tiling or bath or vanity or trough etc... did you know that the joint formed at such intersections including at wall tile corners as well must be 3mm and silicone filled - NOT just smeared across the joints. Suggest have a look at the Guide to Standards and Tolerances someone recently sent to you if you are in Vic - still not known. This requirement is also in the AS Code 3740 for Wet Areas as a requirement anyway. The new Vic Building Authority has at long last put this in the document. I've been arguing about it for 15 years, Cheers Leonardo_23 Re: Need a vent and DFH I'm not enjoying building with... 15Jul 03, 2015 7:59 pm Leonardo_23 Hi dmj1983, Speaking of wall tiling where it comes down onto floor tiling or bath or vanity or trough etc... did you know that the joint formed at such intersections including at wall tile corners as well must be 3mm and silicone filled - NOT just smeared across the joints. Suggest have a look at the Guide to Standards and Tolerances someone recently sent to you if you are in Vic - still not known. This requirement is also in the AS Code 3740 for Wet Areas as a requirement anyway. The new Vic Building Authority has at long last put this in the document. I've been arguing about it for 15 years, Cheers Leonardo_23 Thanks for your response, I will definitely have a look at that. Yes we are in Vic I think I have a picture of the tiles shower base they will not fix it. The brought in the tiler who was meant to tile our house and he was disgraced at the flooring so they will fix the parts where it's seriously bad but leave the rest but because my partner is a glazier and doing his own showerscreens he wanted to do something cool for his own house and we asked for a tiled shower base for a frameless showerscreen. Well he cannot do that with what they have done and no idea why there is this big gap, now he has to do semi frameless but the wall of tiles are wonky and also wavy... Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ this picture is the finished result of our tiled shower base... Re: Need a vent and DFH I'm not enjoying building with... 17Jul 21, 2015 8:50 am Hey DJM. Regarding the crossover - Unfortunately in estates closer to the suburbs that is normally a cost handled by the estate, the problem with that is you're forced to "have your house a certain way" Our estate wanted to have a "open plan" block where you could do as you please, unfortunately that means the price of the crossover gets added also. My partner and I weren't happy when we were told we would have to work the cost of the crossover as well but luckily we had a really simple short one. If you're the house that I think you are, the crossover is basically the length of a car/longer than you're driveway, and I wouldn't be happy about having to front that either!! regarding the lights - it should be a really easy fix, although its a common sense thing. Someone should have called and said "are you sure.. you wan't to do this.." Proud First Home Owner. - 27/11/2013 Settled. Re: Need a vent and DFH I'm not enjoying building with... 18Jul 21, 2015 7:45 pm rixsta Hey DJM. Regarding the crossover - Unfortunately in estates closer to the suburbs that is normally a cost handled by the estate, the problem with that is you're forced to "have your house a certain way" Our estate wanted to have a "open plan" block where you could do as you please, unfortunately that means the price of the crossover gets added also. My partner and I weren't happy when we were told we would have to work the cost of the crossover as well but luckily we had a really simple short one. If you're the house that I think you are, the crossover is basically the length of a car/longer than you're driveway, and I wouldn't be happy about having to front that either!! regarding the lights - it should be a really easy fix, although its a common sense thing. Someone should have called and said "are you sure.. you wan't to do this.." Thank you Rixsta!!! Yes I agree someone could have asked lol oh well, over all that now! Our driveway apparently has been done now ??? I haven't been there for abit but we have a final inspection next week sometime! I'll be 38 plus weeks pregnant! Re: Need a vent and DFH I'm not enjoying building with... 19Jul 21, 2015 7:59 pm I still can't believe that photo showing the batten fittings with a shade above them. I sure hope you didn't have to pay extra for the shade attached to the batten. Owner Building at Jimboomba Woods in Logan City Qld. Blog : http://bandlnewhomebuild.blogspot.com H1 thread : viewtopic.php?f=38&t=68283 . How do you remove one of these ceiling air con vents? And is it possible to disconnect the duct joined to the vent from inside the house, without going into the roof cavity? 0 6287 Thanks. I called VBA today and they said it was a Consumer Affairs issue, the old handball. Seems like the government organisations don't want to do their job at the moment. 2 7756 I work with owner, he/she is my man on the ground and I instruct them when to visit the site and take photos and I have other tools in the bag. 4 15852 |