Porter Davis homes

Hi dojrude
I just wanted to know did you get any surprises with PD when they told you your fixed site costs? they have given us an estimate. was their final price much different to their estimate?

I think the estimate may have been slightly higher (a few hundred to a thousand) than the fixed costs they gave us at tender.
They told us that it could have gone either way though and really depended on the soil report.

Oh okay, thankyou

Site Costs - our Sales Consultant estimated about 35K for site costs (Knockdown Rebuild) and after soil testing etc, it came back as 28K. I was happy for it to come down, better than under estimating. This cost was then fixed through the Contract.

Thanks hash_nanay
found red dots at office works

we are also building with PD and we are few weeks away from hand over (hopefully ) and tomorrow is our walk through.
so I would like to know how was your walk through?
what really happens in walk through?
at the end of walk through what happens?
how long it took ?
were you able to put red dots on defects on that day?
if you couldn't when did you do that

Just got final kitchen culture design drawings and they are different to contract drawings with range hood in new position and drawers all unequal in size and cupboards too. Weird. What does EQ mean on measurements of draws/cupboard sizes? Only a few have it others have 610, 600, 900, 700.
Is bench height 940 for island standard in PD? I'm short and nervous it's too high.
If these drawings the range hood in new position does that effect anything else, I should know about before I sign off?

This happened with us as well, the final kitchen drawings changed from the drawings at contract, but all was fixed.

Our island is 920mm, we're having a 40mm benchtop, so the thickness could affect the height, I noticed that our other kitchen benchtops (not island) are 900mm, but the benchtop will be 20mm so I assume that's the reason.

thanks. Yes i just spoke with them and they are making overhead cupboards even now and clarified other areas too. amazing how easy it is to miss this if not looking clearly.

Hi @wateman - I am interested in this too. We have the same gap between the rangehood but at least yours is straight - ours is very rough and will be getting to fixed up at the 3 month inspection - looks unfinished and like they didn't care. Good luck!

Does anyone else get constantly ignored by their BC?
I send emails and don't get a response for a week or more sometimes.
The BC will promise an update on a certain day and that day will come and go without a word (or apology) from them. Considering the stress and cost involved in building a house, I really don't think this is acceptable. Communication with customers should always be top priority. Prior to tender, communication was always instant and nothing was too much to ask. Now they've got my signature and deposit they're never available or not willing to respond until they've been to next weeks meeting.

I hope this isn't a sign of things to come.
How long do I have to deal with the BC? Until handover or does SS take over once the build starts?

Thanks.

I understand your frustrations we had a bit of that too. I always aimed to follow up an email with a call the day after or same day if I had time. I knew my BC had meetings almost everyday from 12 so always called between 9-11am or from 4-5pm. Prior to contract we did get a feeling of been ignored but at contract ALL our concerns were removed.
Our BC just resigned and now have a new dynamic efficient organised & friendly BC despite being only part-time. Hope we keep this BC.

Photo update for the Dunedin that PD is building in Bendigo...

http://bendigowaldorf.blogspot.com/2014 ... ndigo.html

Hi dojrude, I am disappointed to hear that you are not receiving the level of communication we expect from your BC. Please PM me your build address so I can assist in improving the customer service you receive moving forward. Regards, Joanne.

Hi
We are building the Forsyth 38 in March and have our Tender in 2 weeks time. We are struggling to get all our structural and upgrades within our budget. We are considering dropping the flooring package and do it after handover. Has anyone done this? Included in the build is tiling to the laundry and powder room. Will it be easy to match the tiles up later on? also what happens with the stand alone oven?
Very stressful, yet exiting at the same time.
Johnny

On another topic. Our land is in the Bushfire zone. Yet the issue is it just falls just over our boundary by less than 1/2 meter. We spoke with the Victorian Building Authority, and mentioned that our build envelope will not be on the BFZ. He informed us that we should not have to pay the levy that PD want to charge ($8500) as its not directly on the BFZ. Has anyone had their levy taken off?
Johnny

Lookie look look!



Site start was today!

How very exciting for you. We are reviewing final construction drawings and found lots of little errors and one big one with rangehood in wrong position which would have caused big errors come the day to install all the cabinetry.
Good luck with build.

Oh yeah. I would have had a site start two weeks ago if I hadn't been nitpicking all the details in the 'final' construction drawings. Got it right in the end.
Good luck with you build also.

Hi all
I wanted to know if anyone has selected either the country oak or rustic nougat laminate flooring in their home? I like the samples but PD don't have it any in their displays... can anyone help me with some pictures if they have chosen one of these??