Site Costs with Allworth

Yeah I agree Noddy we paid for an upgrade on the Carpet & Tiles. In particular The basic carpet was shocking. Great to see that the trades are back on deck for you. We expected our frames to be delivered on Monday as per SS promise last year, however nothing at this stage, will call tomorrow to see what is happening.

http://harmony-cooranbong.blogspot.com/

We were told to do flooring after handover, only the wet areas would be tiled. Seems funny they would do carpet with the specials but not the other houses.

Yeah I don't understand that either Newey, we have tile's through the porch, entry hall, family, dining, kitchen and hallway outside the laundry & bathroom that leads to the rear three bedrooms. The hallway tiling was extra and included in our tender.

Very Basic Carpet was included in our package for the rest of the house ie all 4 Bedrooms, Media & Lounge room.

Our Frames & Trusses were delivered on 12/01.

Wall Frames were erected on 13/01.

Potentially Roof Trusses will go up tomorrow. 7 Months since we paid our deposit and finally some real progress, Yippee !

http://harmony-cooranbong.blogspot.com/

Thanks guys, that information on flooring was very helpful. I wonder if other construction companies are like that also. ie. don't include flooring in their project homes. Does anyone have any thoughts on why they don't want to do it? I would have thought that it was just another revenue source for them.

Did anybody here pay for sarking as an optional inclusion ? We didn't but starting to wish that we did. What does it cost roughly ? Our roof tiles go on tomorrow so it's a tad late but I was curious. Cheers.

http://harmony-cooranbong.blogspot.com/

I haven't been around for a while. I have a quote from Allworth for sarking with ant-flap pads for about 240 square metres. Cost is $2600.

Thanks for the info Gearbox. I was guessing that it would be a few grand and your place is bigger than ours. Did you accept the quote ?

I did accept the quote. We are in a marginal bushfire area, so I think it is worth it. One of the good things about Allworth, is their value. You can afford to add extras like this.

Hi guys just an additional cost worth mentioning. When the plumber was putting our plumbing in before the slab was laid he mentioned a charge for blue metal around the PVC. He said it's different from council to council however our council require it and Allworth don't include it in your costs. I wasn't that surprised of hidden costs early on and thought nothing of it.

Subsequently a recent update letter from Allworth arrived including a bill of $500 (I don't have the letter handy from memory the charge was slightly higher), which includes the builders margin of 20%. You might want to factor this one in with the pump for piers charge in your budget.

On a good note our external drainage quote of $3550 that was variable/provisional, came back in our favour with a rebate of a few hundred dollars. These plus and minuses will be included in our final progress payment so we didn't need to sort this out now.

Our Completion date according to Allworth is 20/03. Which is virtually 9 months from deposit to key , factoring in our 12 weeks in council, I'll be very happy if they meet this date.

http://harmony-cooranbong.blogspot.com/

FYI. Regards.

We've just been hit with that same cost for the plumbing Shadows! Havent seen any adjustments come through for the external drainage though so I wont hold my breath. Are you at lockup stage yet? We've been given a completion date of 30th April. Works out about 19 weeks from slab to handover for us. Hoping it may be finished a little sooner!

Okay just looked at your blog shadowscollide and seems you are at exactly the same stage as us! They are finishing our bricks this week. Wonder why you got a handover date 5 weeks before us!

Yeah I don't know why Keelstin, I was told I could ring and get the date, when I did the Construction Manager said, yep your right here on the board for a 20 March completion. And I said that includes the driveway, turf and concrete to Alfresco ? and he said "Yep that's everything". Unless he meant April? But by my calculations we signed our contract on 12/11/10, so 15 weeks building contract would take us to early March, happy enough with late March though , in considering the two weeks close down over Christmas. Might also have something to do with the supply of local contractors up this way ? I'm not sure why but everything has been going really quickly, even the brickies worked flat out in 40 Degree heat for a week. And because of a week or more delay initially with the windows the brickies had to be delayed. The local Allworth person at the sales office said under good conditions they could build the harmony in about 10 weeks ? What house are you building and where ? I would query your completion date versus your contract signature date with Allworth Construction. Cheers.

I've updated our photo's as of 08/02 - http://harmony-cooranbong.blogspot.com/

That's great guys to see your houses coming along. I was hoping to start next week as we sent our commencement letter on 31/01 but allworth called me yesterday saying our package of Kitchen/construction drawings should come next week and when I return the signed copy, then I could call up construction to find start date. Looks like they are almost using their 20 working days.

Also, someone dumped a bit of soil on our land . See my blog (link in my signature below). I was planning to spread it before construction starts, but does anyone know if I need to remove it instead?

Looking fantastic shadows. Yeah I'm not sure why as by my calculations our 15week build period should be up on the 1st of April. We did get 1 letter to state that due to wet weather back in December there would be a delay of 10days. Next time I call for an update I'll query it with them. Ours should include flooring, landscaping alfresco, driveway etc as well. We are building the Concerto at Claremont meadows.

I dont have a blog but here is a link to my photobucket album if anyone is interested: http://s1187.photobucket.com/albums/z400/keelstin/

pman, Allworth started at about 14days into our 20days. They didnt give us an indication, we just drove past one day and we had been scrapped! So keep an eye on the land, I reakon it will hapen soon. Does look like someone has dumped that soil. If you want to keep it maybe move it to the back or something.

Wow I am very sorry to hear all of that. What a terribly stressful time for you and your family. Thank you to everyone for your replies. Noddy09 your place is looking great, it must be very exciting to see it all happen. Pman I really wish we had of gone directly but hindsight is a great thing!

Package Central/White home Group/JBC Apex whatever they call themselves now are blaming the bank...saying that they are holding up the process but this has been since early december. So it has been 6 months now and they have just cut down the trees but can't move any further until the bank gives them finance:( Whenever that is!

Wow Mie. That is truly tragic. I have never heard of this JBC Apex but know that PC and White home are the same people. I think White home is their financial part of the busines incl. doing broking services etc. They offered me as well to do their finance but I had a really good broker so I politely declines right at the onset for it. I hope you get your contract sorted out and money back soon.

On a positive side, we have started and are underway, with our land being scraped yesterday. Our contract is 17 weeks so we should be looking around mid-June or so to move in.

Just got call from the plumbing company and was told he will need blue metal too as the plumber found sill and needs blue metal to connect the stormwater drain. I asked the lady abt the costs but she wasn't aware. But hoping it is less than shadowcollide's $500.
Isn't this included in fixed costs?

Our slab is done and frames are due on Friday.

Hi Pman, the invoice we got included builders margin of 20 % but the cost related to blue metal used around the pvc plumbing put in place before the slab goes down. That being said maybe the external drainer used some of this too when he hooked us up to storm cause we had a heap on-site.

If the blue metal relates to the external drainage connection maybe it will be covered by your fixed costs ? Our external drainage was variable and we actually got some cash back for this (invoice was less then variable charge).

If the blue metal isn't covered they will hit you with 20 % so hard to guess the cost here. Plumber should invoice Allworth then they will send you a letter outlining the charge.

Cheers.

Hi All,

Thanks for all of your information and tips throughout this thread, it has been mostly useful in my process with Allworth. Our construction has just started. We have had a good pre-building experience with the team at the central coast and head office.

We are building the Grove Majestic at Cooranbong, since it is a large house some upgrades were expensive like the 'H' slab upgrade, more than expected. Also surprised the turn around time is only 15 weeks to build.

Question I have is did you receive many invoices to pay that may of been unexpected ? and did you have to pay within a certain time frame?

shadowscollide your house is looking good, you are just about to finish as we are just about to start.

Thanks,
Bevan.
Houseblog: http://www.bevonet.com/house/index.asp

Hi Bevo the only invoice we had to pay for out of pocket was the pump for piers which was $792.00. That included the builders 20 % margin.

Soil removal we handled ourselves and got away with it dirt cheap. (we have a neighbour that is constantly trying to build up their block).

The Blue metal charge was $572 and it was added to our final payment invoice. So nothing out of pocket until final invoice.

Our 15 weeks was up on the 27th of March. Technically everything was finished including carpet and tile by this date however the driveway has held us up. It went in today and the turf goes down tomorrow, cleaner Wednesday , Practical Completion Inspection will take place @ 2pm on Wednesday 6/4. Not too bad in considering the two week Christmas close down. We are taking a bank cheque to the PCI and if we make the final payment on the spot the Supervisor will issue us with the keys. Obviously we will complete a defects list first and only part with the cheque when we are sure everything has been identified.

Your home is a big build but I'm sure Allworth will finish it within the 15 weeks. They are very organised on the Central Coast and all the trades work as a team. Fingers crossed for the weather though as this time of year can prove difficult (hence our delay with the driveway). But once your roof goes on the pressure is off a bit in terms of rain.

Goodluck and I'll keep my eye on your post.

I'll post some photo's up after the inspection on Wednesday (minus kitchen appliances obviously which should arrive within a week).

http://harmony-cooranbong.blogspot.com/