Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Feb 11, 2011 9:15 am I thought It is time to start my own thread We are building Galley 28 with Places Homes in Vic. So far we do not have a good experience with builder. Deposit paid for November site start. Then it was dragged to 1st week of December since I refuse to sign the contract without knowing the breakdown cost of all the extras added during colour selection. Places Homes gave me the final amount before the contract appointment. I went alone and had a look at all the extra cost and decided not to sign. It was 33k more than sales quote. It was over budget and decided to remove few items to cut cost. I decided to go with Places Homes due to no site cost promotion. However they added 12K site cost. They added 10 bored piers along garage wall side and cost me 4K plus. Rest for excavation, fill, pipe upgrade, Agi drain, sum etc… This 12K was without slab to Alfresco and Porch. Later manage to get a slab for Alfresco and Porch without extra cost. They gave me stone bench top to Bath & ensuite for free. We decided to sign the contract 2 weeks later. Because of this site start moved to December. After signing contract Builder told us garage wall height exceeded the Rescode requirement and need get the neighbors consent. Unfortunately neighbor didn’t sign and returned the documents 2 weeks later. Then submitted for council approval and they took another 2 weeks. By the time we receive the approval everyone ready for yearend holiday. Builder took another 4 weeks to get ready rest of the paper work to commence work. I was not happy with this. Site scrap was on 24th Jan and underground piping completed on 1st Feb. Still no slab. CSC always blame the weather. Today she told me end of next week slab will pore if the weather permits….. I think concreter not ready to commence his work. What do you think? Is this bad weather? Do you have similar excuses from your builder? This is what all I have to say at the moment Will update the progress… Cheers 77Lk1 Moved in 25/6/11 Re: Galley 28 with PLACES HOMES 2Feb 11, 2011 6:13 pm It is a frustrating start, IMO the weather hasn’t been that great for the past 4 weeks so they could be right, who knows... Generally speaking I don’t like how a builder gives the total figure without the breakdown of items, they make you feel they are hiding something from you, even if it is not the case... also with some items (such as site cost) they will reject to give you the final amount until the day of contract signing!!! How was your experience in the Gallery, I went to the Gallery to check it out and I feel that with the current standard options, we pretty much will have to upgrade many items =S Are they priced well? Good luck with you build Re: Galley 28 with PLACES HOMES 3Feb 14, 2011 10:05 am Yes frustrating start. looks like slab will pore this week. Hope they will catch up the delay Galley display at Tarnett is not up to the current standard. i think they have already close it. you can get their prmo package. it has covered many items. Cat 1 carpet nothing much to select. since i have 2 free sq bonus i do not have floor finishes. so I decided to upgrade to PD cat 1 carpet and cost me around 3k for 4 bedrooms, study & rumpus. Rest of the area we will get outside contractor to lay timber after hand over. Cat 1 tiles are cheap look. Almost nothing. I told the sales man and he said most people are complaining about that. We paid $1400 for 2 bathroom tiles. Let me know what are the items you want to upgrade. See I can find the prices for you Moved in 25/6/11 Re: Galley 28 with PLACES HOMES 4Feb 14, 2011 7:03 pm Hi 77lk1, Well they currently have a promotion where you get 90% off specific upgrades. However I noticed that for example tiles & carpet... you get Cat 1 as part of the promotion, and yes nothing much to select from. Major things that we may upgrade are (Cat2 bricks, mortar, Timber look garage door, front door, PD cat1 carpet and upgrade underlay, porcelain tiles or timber floor). Thanks Re: Galley 28 with PLACES HOMES 5Feb 15, 2011 9:44 am PD Cat 1 tiles & carpet are much better than Places. Go to Chadstone Carpet Court and ask the sales person. he will show you carpet samples for PD and Places. cat 2 Homestead Tan brick $740 & off white mortar $548, PAD104 Front door with PMAD104 side lite $1034, 600mm door handle with lock $620, PD cat 1 carpet for bedrooms, study & rumpus $2823, Cat 1 three strip timber floor $90/m2, Tiles are cheaper than National tiles. if you think too expensive ask them to take it out as a post contract variations. Hope this will help... Good luck Moved in 25/6/11 Re: Galley 28 with PLACES HOMES 7Feb 16, 2011 6:38 pm 77lk1 Site scrap was on 24th Jan and underground piping completed on 1st Feb. Still no slab. CSC always blame the weather. Today she told me end of next week slab will pore if the weather permits….. I think concreter not ready to commence his work. What do you think? Is this bad weather? Do you have similar excuses from your builder? You're spot on, but not in the way that you think. The weather would have delayed the slab pours for jobs scheduled to start before yours, so you're just experiencing the knock-on effect (ie. delays to other builds before yours = delays to your build). Depending on where you are anything up to 90 working days may have been lost due to the heavy rains we've had over spring and summer, so everyone looking to build (or even have their blocks titled) is experiencing frustrating delays at the moment. One thing I do wish is that the developers/builders would just be up-front and say something along the lines of "the XXXX contractor has a back log of work to be completed due to bad weather etc and we're anticipating a delay of at least X number of days before they can move onto your job" so that you at least know why the delay is occuring. It's something they would never do because some people may try to take it as a guarantee and/or use the information against the builder, but from a customer service perspective it would be nice to be a little more informed instead of them trying to use smoke and mirrors to be all secretive about why things aren't progressing as planned. Some people apparently have nothing better to do than comment on other people's sigs. Re: Galley 28 with PLACES HOMES 8Feb 17, 2011 1:23 pm cmhamilton 77lk1 Site scrap was on 24th Jan and underground piping completed on 1st Feb. Still no slab. CSC always blame the weather. Today she told me end of next week slab will pore if the weather permits….. I think concreter not ready to commence his work. What do you think? Is this bad weather? Do you have similar excuses from your builder? You're spot on, but not in the way that you think. The weather would have delayed the slab pours for jobs scheduled to start before yours, so you're just experiencing the knock-on effect (ie. delays to other builds before yours = delays to your build). Depending on where you are anything up to 90 working days may have been lost due to the heavy rains we've had over spring and summer, so everyone looking to build (or even have their blocks titled) is experiencing frustrating delays at the moment. One thing I do wish is that the developers/builders would just be up-front and say something along the lines of "the XXXX contractor has a back log of work to be completed due to bad weather etc and we're anticipating a delay of at least X number of days before they can move onto your job" so that you at least know why the delay is occuring. It's something they would never do because some people may try to take it as a guarantee and/or use the information against the builder, but from a customer service perspective it would be nice to be a little more informed instead of them trying to use smoke and mirrors to be all secretive about why things aren't progressing as planned. That is exactly happening now. Supervisor said slab pore on Yesterday, CSC said Friday (tomorrow). This morning I went to take a look. Nothing has been done except aggregate base. Already 4 weeks gone. Out of 4 weeks 1 day for excavation, 2 days for underground pipe, 1 day for aggregate base and rest of the time no work. They blame weather. I have weather records. Most of the time rain on weekend or at night. Now supervisor is saying that contractor is busy on somewhere else. I don’t know what to do and don’t want to talk to them anymore. Why can’t they check the weather forecast and plan accordingly. I am thinking to complain to management. What do you think? Moved in 25/6/11 Re: Galley 28 with PLACES HOMES 9Feb 17, 2011 7:59 pm We are building with PD, our site start was first week of august after four days the work stopped due to rain for more than one month. piering was done at rainy period. They poured the slab end of Sep. After that it took them 3 months to reach fixing stage. Very fast. As slab is a crutial stage you might not want to push them to get it done in rain. We didn't. Now we can spot few crack in our lounge, main bedroom and study the rest are covered with tiles so we don't know. I think the reason being they started the framing the day after slab. They never let the slab to rest. Re: Galley 28 with PLACES HOMES 10Feb 18, 2011 4:00 pm Yellow We are building with PD, our site start was first week of august after four days the work stopped due to rain for more than one month. piering was done at rainy period. They poured the slab end of Sep. After that it took them 3 months to reach fixing stage. Very fast. As slab is a crutial stage you might not want to push them to get it done in rain. We didn't. Now we can spot few crack in our lounge, main bedroom and study the rest are covered with tiles so we don't know. I think the reason being they started the framing the day after slab. They never let the slab to rest. Thanks Yellow I don’t want to push them hard but I am in a difficult situation. Existing property has been sold and need to vacate end May. We paid the deposit for Nov site start and planned rest of the things accordingly. Unfortunately site start was dragged until Jan Supervisor phoned this morning and said next Wednesday slab pore. Hope no more delay… If your slab sitting on piers no need to worry. Stud Frames are not heavy and it will take weeks to erect. During that time concrete has gained enough strength. 80% of strength will achieve within 7 days. It may be hairline cracks on slab due to less curing. Monitor crack width and see whether it is going to increase. 77lk1 Moved in 25/6/11 Re: Galley 28 with PLACES HOMES 11Feb 21, 2011 3:35 pm 77lk1 That is exactly happening now. Supervisor said slab pore on Yesterday, CSC said Friday (tomorrow). This morning I went to take a look. Nothing has been done except aggregate base. Already 4 weeks gone. Out of 4 weeks 1 day for excavation, 2 days for underground pipe, 1 day for aggregate base and rest of the time no work. They blame weather. I have weather records. Most of the time rain on weekend or at night. Now supervisor is saying that contractor is busy on somewhere else. I don’t know what to do and don’t want to talk to them anymore. Why can’t they check the weather forecast and plan accordingly. I am thinking to complain to management. What do you think? That's just it - the rain isn't stopping your pour from happening today (which I think is the way you're looking at it), rather the rain has delayed pours that were due to happen on those rainy days and those jobs still need to be done before the contractors can move onto yours. It's also not like they can pour in the morning if it's going to rain later on that day, so the contractors would have a decent backlog of jobs that need to be done given the number of days lost to rain - the can't take the approach of trying to squeeze more jobs into a day to try to clear the backlog for obvious reasons. You can try taking it further but I suspect CSMs for most builders are copping a bit of an ear bashing from frustrated customers and - while I still think they could be a bit more upfront about delays - I don't envy their position. I empathise with you regarding the delay - I think there are probably a lot of customers who are experiencing delays in oneway or another at the moment and with the rebuilding effort in QLD likely to suck up building supplies and tradies from other states it's probably going to get worse before it gets better. I hope they pour your slab soon - keep us posted. Some people apparently have nothing better to do than comment on other people's sigs. Re: Galley 28 with PLACES HOMES 13Mar 15, 2011 8:27 am Hey 77lk1, I'm building Galley 28 too in Truganina. Haven't signed contract yet, STILL waiting for them to be ready So I feel your pain, re: delays!! How's it all going now? Much progress? Keen to know if dealings have improved. Oh also, if you don't mind me asking, how much is it for timber look garage. Partner and I are thinking of having that added. Thanks Re: Galley 28 with PLACES HOMES 14Mar 15, 2011 12:54 pm bgirl Hey 77lk1, I'm building Galley 28 too in Truganina. Haven't signed contract yet, STILL waiting for them to be ready So I feel your pain, re: delays!! How's it all going now? Much progress? Keen to know if dealings have improved. Oh also, if you don't mind me asking, how much is it for timber look garage. Partner and I are thinking of having that added. Thanks Hey bgirl. good to see another Galley builder. I am happy with progress. had two invoices (slab & frame) within a week. today started roof tiles. Oh sorry.. We did not upgrade garage door. ring your CSA or sales and ask the price. they will give before the appointment. i think around 1.5K will upload some photos soon Moved in 25/6/11 Re: Galley 28 with PLACES HOMES 15Mar 15, 2011 9:10 pm Woohoo slab and frame in a week!!! Thats awesome, I hope things are speedy for us too. Yeah good to know someone else building the Galley. It sucks the display home is closed, so photos of your progress would be wonderful. I hope to do the same, once the build starts. What external colours have you chosen? I've chosen Austral Tan bricks with Woodland gray and maybe some Dune, but i'm forever changing my mind Thanks re: garage. Ill probably give my admin lady a call. She loves to hear from me (NOT!) haha Re: Galley 28 with PLACES HOMES 16Mar 16, 2011 9:05 am We added render to entire façade including garage wall. We are going with seaside façade. Our colour selections are: Homestead Tan brick with off white mortar Overhead Cabinet Doors – Laminex Pearl Grey Lower Cabinets – Laminex Licorice Linea Island Cabinets – Laminex Pear Grey Glass splash back – off white on normal glass Bench top – Caesar Stone Osprey Render to front façade – Dulux “Bed Box” Roof tile colour – Gun metal Gutter/ downpipe - Moment Alum Window – Shale grey Paint Colour for the internal walls, doors, architraves, skirting – Solver “Parchment 2651” Garage door – Surfmist We wanted to use Charcoal Grey for roof tile. Unfortunately it was under Cat 5. We changed the kitchen layout. old pantry space changed to top/ bottom kitchen cabinet with extended bench top/ splashback, bed 4 wardrobe changed to pantry. Kitchen is 4.2m long. Moved in 25/6/11 Re: Galley 28 with PLACES HOMES 17Mar 16, 2011 8:57 pm Hey, render to the entire facade should look nice! That must mean you added bricks to above garage? As for kitchen colours, that is very scary. Almost identical to us. I used the Drysdale in Somerfield as my guide. It uses Pearl grey overheads (but might change to something a little lighter), licorice linea bottom cabinets, Stone is Osprey in display but I changed it to Ice Snow. We also chose to have both benchtops in stone. Splashback is Dreyfus on normal glass. We also modified kitchen a bit, corner pantry..but your changes sound interesting. Its amazing how different, yet similar our houses may look. Im envious of 4.2 m long kitchen!!!!!! *drool* Re: Galley 28 with PLACES HOMES 18Mar 17, 2011 9:46 am Hi We didn’t add brick over garage wall. Later will add weather board cladding to timber lintel to flush with render and paint with one colour. We do not want to pay 1K plus for lintel and brick over garage. Too expensive Wow.. For kitchen colours we also used Drysdale in Summerfield except white splashback on normal glass. We used architraves and skirting profile in Drysdale. Ice Snow stone top on both bathrooms. Yes, our kitchen is long…. Can’t wait to see. Last night went to take a look. Roof tiles, plumbing, gas pipe, ducted vacuum pipe and solar panels done in last two days. Today electrical wiring. Next week brick and plasterboard. Moved in 25/6/11 Re: Galley 28 with PLACES HOMES 19Mar 17, 2011 12:35 pm Hi again, I can't wait till we get to your stage - excited about bricks going up! Seems your house is moving along really fast. You must be happy! You reminded me, ducted vacuum!! thats something we forgot to add at our last meeting. Is it pricey?? And since, you've rendered your entire facade..could you enlighten me how much that cost?? Feel free to PM if you like. Were just thinking to add render to Study room projection..so rough idea would help. I would never build with Fowler homes. I built with them in 2021 and till date maintenance issues are pending. All their existing trades and businesses don't work with… 14 109778 Hi there! Putting the feelers out there for those who have (or almost) built with Arli homes! Interested in your experiences who've built from their stock home designs… 0 26699 |