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Hi all, read a lot but first time posting here but hoping to get some advice. We're building a Vancouver 33 with PD and so far it's been a bit of a nightmare. Land scrape happened August 15 so going by contract they had 196 days from then to complete it after counting 28 days down for Xmas and 10 days for rain, meaning it should be finished February 26. That is approximately 4 weeks away and as the house seems like it's barely past lockup stage.
They have already claimed for fixing stage just before xmas but there are still things outstanding that we let slide and paid but in hindsight shouldn't have, still a few internal doors to go on, architraves and skirting bords missing and even plaster missing in our skylight tunnel and on a couple of sliding door frames.
We literally never see any tradies at the house and we're lucky to see even the tiniest bit of progress every couple of weeks, yet houses that started well after ours in the same street are already finished, they seem to have trades there every day and even working well after 6pm and even on weekends. I'm not suggesting PD tradies should be doing those hours as standard but when it's a month away from contract end date i'd think they should be getting their hurry on but nothing's changed.
The thing that i'm worried about when it comes to contract end date is we were vandalised twice, our power cables were cut throught the whole house, it took them 2 weeks to get the electricians back out to re-wire it (they just junction boxed most of it) then a week or so later after it was fixed it was vandalised again! Then another 2 or so weeks again to get the sparky's back in to fix it again with more junction boxes! Not really happy about that either, doesn't feel like i'm getting what we paid for.
I think they'll use that to extend the contract end date out 4-6 weeks even though technically it was their fault, the house was meant to be at lockup stage, we'd paid for the lockup payment over a week before but they still had the front doors off the house so anyone could just walk on in. If it was "locked up" as it was meant to be then they wouldn't have been able to get access to cut the cables.
Communication has been a major issue too, we almost never hear from them, very very rare updates or news and it's usually only after we hassle them. It was only when we were chasing them all for updates that we were told out Site Supervisor no longer worked for the company, no warnings or anything so i'm guessing he quit or was sacked on the spot. Took a couple of weeks til they assigned a new SS then a couple of weeks for him to get out to site and get up to speed with the job so not a lot happend for those few weeks at all.
They've installed galvanised steel downpipes to be painted later despite the contract quite clearly stating colourbond downpipes. My BC is now claiming that only double storeys get colourbound and all single storeys get galvanised steel showing me a flyer highlighting the fact that they use wattly paint for downipipes depite what the contract clearly states and even after our SS said he would get them replaced with colourbond.
They've also installed the wrong window to our kitchen servery, we bought it to their attention at the start of December, they've just told us that the right window will be installed next week, 2 months later. As this window sits over the stone benchtop that still hasn't gone in and i'm thinking they'll try to use the supplier delay on the window as another excuse to avoid paying penalties and drag out the completion date despite them being the ones ordering and installing the wrong window.
We've very much regretting not going with Carlisle homes, we were very close to pulling out of our PD contract due to the horrible tender process and going with Carlisle. Three of our new neighbours are Carlisle homes and i've spoken with all 3, they all started the building proccess with PD and all pulled out at the last minute due to the terrible process and all 3 have said they had an amazing experience, I wish we weren't more persitant than them! One said they even let him run his own data cabling as he's a licensed cabler, my best mate's licensed and PD said there was no way in hell any work was getting done by anyone else during the build, argued it for weeks but they wouldn't give in. Wouldn't even install conduits for cables that I offered to pay them for claiming it ruined the structual integrity of the house, rubbish!
At this rate i'd be amazed if we're in by the end of the financial year, seems like they're barely half way done with the build and we're almost 6 months since the build started with no sign of it picking up any speed. The last thing that has happened was the front facade was rendered on Monday 15'th, was due to be painted on the 18'th but never happened and still hasn't with no progress inside since the end of December. I think it all stems for poor organisation and not being able to manage the trades effectively. Any pointers on how to manage this? Especially the contract end date that i'm expecting to blow right out with excuses? Thanks very much for reading my novel, Let me know if i'm better of starting a new thread.
Gavrook I'd be raising it all with your BC and SS via email so you have a written record and telling them you want a response in the next couple of days, again via email. If they don't respond to your satisfaction then ask to speak to their manager and get everything in writing there as well.
I'm pretty surprised by them only having 196 days to build your Vancouver 33, we are building at Kew 28 which is slightly smaller and they have about 260 days in the contract for ours. Nikil is building a Vancouver 33 as well, not sure how many days they have in there for that but 196 including Christmas seems pretty low.
Thanks i'll definitely be drafting them up a big email, not expecting much of a reply though.
That's strange, I thought they'd all be pretty standard build time? This is straight out of our contract
https://imgur.com/2hBU5u7
Hi all, read a lot but first time posting here but hoping to get some advice. We're building a Vancouver 33 with PD and so far it's been a bit of a nightmare. Land scrape happened August 15 so going by contract they had 196 days from then to complete it after counting 28 days down for Xmas and 10 days for rain, meaning it should be finished February 26. That is approximately 4 weeks away and as the house seems like it's barely past lockup stage.
They have already claimed for fixing stage just before xmas but there are still things outstanding that we let slide and paid but in hindsight shouldn't have, still a few internal doors to go on, architraves and skirting bords missing and even plaster missing in our skylight tunnel and on a couple of sliding door frames.
We literally never see any tradies at the house and we're lucky to see even the tiniest bit of progress every couple of weeks, yet houses that started well after ours in the same street are already finished, they seem to have trades there every day and even working well after 6pm and even on weekends. I'm not suggesting PD tradies should be doing those hours as standard but when it's a month away from contract end date i'd think they should be getting their hurry on but nothing's changed.
The thing that i'm worried about when it comes to contract end date is we were vandalised twice, our power cables were cut throught the whole house, it took them 2 weeks to get the electricians back out to re-wire it (they just junction boxed most of it) then a week or so later after it was fixed it was vandalised again! Then another 2 or so weeks again to get the sparky's back in to fix it again with more junction boxes! Not really happy about that either, doesn't feel like i'm getting what we paid for.
I think they'll use that to extend the contract end date out 4-6 weeks even though technically it was their fault, the house was meant to be at lockup stage, we'd paid for the lockup payment over a week before but they still had the front doors off the house so anyone could just walk on in. If it was "locked up" as it was meant to be then they wouldn't have been able to get access to cut the cables.
Communication has been a major issue too, we almost never hear from them, very very rare updates or news and it's usually only after we hassle them. It was only when we were chasing them all for updates that we were told out Site Supervisor no longer worked for the company, no warnings or anything so i'm guessing he quit or was sacked on the spot. Took a couple of weeks til they assigned a new SS then a couple of weeks for him to get out to site and get up to speed with the job so not a lot happend for those few weeks at all.
They've installed galvanised steel downpipes to be painted later despite the contract quite clearly stating colourbond downpipes. My BC is now claiming that only double storeys get colourbound and all single storeys get galvanised steel showing me a flyer highlighting the fact that they use wattly paint for downipipes depite what the contract clearly states and even after our SS said he would get them replaced with colourbond.
They've also installed the wrong window to our kitchen servery, we bought it to their attention at the start of December, they've just told us that the right window will be installed next week, 2 months later. As this window sits over the stone benchtop that still hasn't gone in and i'm thinking they'll try to use the supplier delay on the window as another excuse to avoid paying penalties and drag out the completion date despite them being the ones ordering and installing the wrong window.
We've very much regretting not going with Carlisle homes, we were very close to pulling out of our PD contract due to the horrible tender process and going with Carlisle. Three of our new neighbours are Carlisle homes and i've spoken with all 3, they all started the building proccess with PD and all pulled out at the last minute due to the terrible process and all 3 have said they had an amazing experience, I wish we weren't more persitant than them! One said they even let him run his own data cabling as he's a licensed cabler, my best mate's licensed and PD said there was no way in hell any work was getting done by anyone else during the build, argued it for weeks but they wouldn't give in. Wouldn't even install conduits for cables that I offered to pay them for claiming it ruined the structual integrity of the house, rubbish!
At this rate i'd be amazed if we're in by the end of the financial year, seems like they're barely half way done with the build and we're almost 6 months since the build started with no sign of it picking up any speed. The last thing that has happened was the front facade was rendered on Monday 15'th, was due to be painted on the 18'th but never happened and still hasn't with no progress inside since the end of December. I think it all stems for poor organisation and not being able to manage the trades effectively. Any pointers on how to manage this? Especially the contract end date that i'm expecting to blow right out with excuses? Thanks very much for reading my novel, Let me know if i'm better of starting a new thread.
Gavrook I'd be raising it all with your BC and SS via email so you have a written record and telling them you want a response in the next couple of days, again via email. If they don't respond to your satisfaction then ask to speak to their manager and get everything in writing there as well.
I'm pretty surprised by them only having 196 days to build your Vancouver 33, we are building at Kew 28 which is slightly smaller and they have about 260 days in the contract for ours. Nikil is building a Vancouver 33 as well, not sure how many days they have in there for that but 196 including Christmas seems pretty low.
Thanks i'll definitely be drafting them up a big email, not expecting much of a reply though.
That's strange, I thought they'd all be pretty standard build time? This is straight out of our contract
https://imgur.com/2hBU5u7I think if it gets raised high enough it tends to get a decent response, but different people get different outcomes. Which is part of what's so frustrating about this whole process, some people seem to get their dream house with a pretty smooth process and others just get months of frustration.
I just had a look at my contract and it actually has 234 days, with actual build period of 140 days vs 98 in yours. Which is basically 2 months difference of actual weekdays. It'd be interesting to see what others have, but given your house is bigger than mine it seems strange that it would be 40 days less.
Now im of too vcat to try and get PD to take responsibility for my items stolen from thier site. DBDRV a total waste of time.
see more at
hoffmangoldwithporterdavis.wordpress.com
Hi all, read a lot but first time posting here but hoping to get some advice. We're building a Vancouver 33 with PD and so far it's been a bit of a nightmare. Land scrape happened August 15 so going by contract they had 196 days from then to complete it after counting 28 days down for Xmas and 10 days for rain, meaning it should be finished February 26. That is approximately 4 weeks away and as the house seems like it's barely past lockup stage.
They have already claimed for fixing stage just before xmas but there are still things outstanding that we let slide and paid but in hindsight shouldn't have, still a few internal doors to go on, architraves and skirting bords missing and even plaster missing in our skylight tunnel and on a couple of sliding door frames.
We literally never see any tradies at the house and we're lucky to see even the tiniest bit of progress every couple of weeks, yet houses that started well after ours in the same street are already finished, they seem to have trades there every day and even working well after 6pm and even on weekends. I'm not suggesting PD tradies should be doing those hours as standard but when it's a month away from contract end date i'd think they should be getting their hurry on but nothing's changed.
The thing that i'm worried about when it comes to contract end date is we were vandalised twice, our power cables were cut throught the whole house, it took them 2 weeks to get the electricians back out to re-wire it (they just junction boxed most of it) then a week or so later after it was fixed it was vandalised again! Then another 2 or so weeks again to get the sparky's back in to fix it again with more junction boxes! Not really happy about that either, doesn't feel like i'm getting what we paid for.
I think they'll use that to extend the contract end date out 4-6 weeks even though technically it was their fault, the house was meant to be at lockup stage, we'd paid for the lockup payment over a week before but they still had the front doors off the house so anyone could just walk on in. If it was "locked up" as it was meant to be then they wouldn't have been able to get access to cut the cables.
Communication has been a major issue too, we almost never hear from them, very very rare updates or news and it's usually only after we hassle them. It was only when we were chasing them all for updates that we were told out Site Supervisor no longer worked for the company, no warnings or anything so i'm guessing he quit or was sacked on the spot. Took a couple of weeks til they assigned a new SS then a couple of weeks for him to get out to site and get up to speed with the job so not a lot happend for those few weeks at all.
They've installed galvanised steel downpipes to be painted later despite the contract quite clearly stating colourbond downpipes. My BC is now claiming that only double storeys get colourbound and all single storeys get galvanised steel showing me a flyer highlighting the fact that they use wattly paint for downipipes depite what the contract clearly states and even after our SS said he would get them replaced with colourbond.
They've also installed the wrong window to our kitchen servery, we bought it to their attention at the start of December, they've just told us that the right window will be installed next week, 2 months later. As this window sits over the stone benchtop that still hasn't gone in and i'm thinking they'll try to use the supplier delay on the window as another excuse to avoid paying penalties and drag out the completion date despite them being the ones ordering and installing the wrong window.
We've very much regretting not going with Carlisle homes, we were very close to pulling out of our PD contract due to the horrible tender process and going with Carlisle. Three of our new neighbours are Carlisle homes and i've spoken with all 3, they all started the building proccess with PD and all pulled out at the last minute due to the terrible process and all 3 have said they had an amazing experience, I wish we weren't more persitant than them! One said they even let him run his own data cabling as he's a licensed cabler, my best mate's licensed and PD said there was no way in hell any work was getting done by anyone else during the build, argued it for weeks but they wouldn't give in. Wouldn't even install conduits for cables that I offered to pay them for claiming it ruined the structual integrity of the house, rubbish!
At this rate i'd be amazed if we're in by the end of the financial year, seems like they're barely half way done with the build and we're almost 6 months since the build started with no sign of it picking up any speed. The last thing that has happened was the front facade was rendered on Monday 15'th, was due to be painted on the 18'th but never happened and still hasn't with no progress inside since the end of December. I think it all stems for poor organisation and not being able to manage the trades effectively. Any pointers on how to manage this? Especially the contract end date that i'm expecting to blow right out with excuses? Thanks very much for reading my novel, Let me know if i'm better of starting a new thread.
Gavrook I'd be raising it all with your BC and SS via email so you have a written record and telling them you want a response in the next couple of days, again via email. If they don't respond to your satisfaction then ask to speak to their manager and get everything in writing there as well.
I'm pretty surprised by them only having 196 days to build your Vancouver 33, we are building at Kew 28 which is slightly smaller and they have about 260 days in the contract for ours. Nikil is building a Vancouver 33 as well, not sure how many days they have in there for that but 196 including Christmas seems pretty low.
Ours is also 196 days for the Vancouver 33. Sorry to hear you are having such a tough time with the build, ours has gone really well so far and there has been trades back working since early January. I’m guessing the lack of SS has seriously affected your build.
I would definitely be sending them a strongly worded email and demanded a response with a schedule of work to be completed.
Thanks i'll definitely be doing that, I've tried to keep the majority of our communication through email so there's written proof but there's been a few times i've gone a week or more without a reply so there's been a few calls.
We've had 2 things happen since christmas, the waterproofing in the bathrooms got done on the 10'th and the render on the facade on the 15'th, nothing since.
Funny thing is just over a week ago we got our second ever email from our site supervisor (after he promised us fornightly updates) outlying a big schedule of works for the rest of the month including a few things that were meant to happen last week and this week such as the painters last week, literally none of them have happened.
Good to hear yours is going smoother!
[quote="KushD"]Somewhat productive day.
Bricks washed, upper floor toilets and bathrooms waterproofing done and finally they have delivered the correct facade corner windows.
What was wrong with your corner windows Kush?
Just before the build started, I received a call from BC that there is a problem with long middle window, and therefore they have to shorten it by closer to 240mm. But I was told the corner windows will be changed to take up the remaining length. While waiting for variation to arrive, PD decided not to increase the length of the corner windows and fill the gaps using blueboard and render without consulting me of this.
Variation did not come for a month, BC went on leave and windows arrived onsite. When the variation came I picked it up and did not sign the variation until second BV is released to extend corner windows.
Finally we have the correct windows delivered after 3 months, hopefully will replace the shorter ones this week.
Hi KushD
This is very valuable information, thanks. We have asked for the Ludstone facade on our Forsyth 35.
I was aware that there was an issue with the special 1200 x 3780 window. Although it is shown on the plans as a 3780 wide window I have become aware through this forum that their window supplier does not have a window that wide and they will only supply one 3600mm wide.
This has yet to be bought to our attention and we are in the process of signing off final construction drawings at the moment.
I was wondering what to do about the gap and was not happy with the obvious solution, which would be to increase the size of the framing between the corner windows and the centre one. This would obviously be rendered and I think that would detract from the overall aesthetics that first drew us to this facade in the first place.
Knowing that you asked for the corner windows to be extended to fill in the gap has given me hope that we can find a solution to this problem that will give us the look we have intended for the facade on our house.
Thanks again for sharing this information, I will fight for this as our solution, knowing that someone else was able to achieve a satisfactory result.
Cheers
Dave[/quote]Here is the final drawing with new dimensions. HTH
Thanks KushD
The drawings will help, I'm sure. At least I know to ask them for 1080mm wide corner windows instead of the 990mm ones on the current drawing.
Cheers
Who thinks I should go to this company and do a big crap and leave it in thier toilet, as they have done to mine when it clearly states dont use until the 25th and theres a portaloo out the front for the workers.
Tradies have got no class or shame.
see more at
hoffmangoldwithporterdavis.wordpress.com
Just before the build started, I received a call from BC that there is a problem with long middle window, and therefore they have to shorten it by closer to 240mm. But I was told the corner windows will be changed to take up the remaining length. While waiting for variation to arrive, PD decided not to increase the length of the corner windows and fill the gaps using blueboard and render without consulting me of this.
Variation did not come for a month, BC went on leave and windows arrived onsite. When the variation came I picked it up and did not sign the variation until second BV is released to extend corner windows.
Finally we have the correct windows delivered after 3 months, hopefully will replace the shorter ones this week.
Hi KushD
This is very valuable information, thanks. We have asked for the Ludstone facade on our Forsyth 35.
I was aware that there was an issue with the special 1200 x 3780 window. Although it is shown on the plans as a 3780 wide window I have become aware through this forum that their window supplier does not have a window that wide and they will only supply one 3600mm wide.
This has yet to be bought to our attention and we are in the process of signing off final construction drawings at the moment.
I was wondering what to do about the gap and was not happy with the obvious solution, which would be to increase the size of the framing between the corner windows and the centre one. This would obviously be rendered and I think that would detract from the overall aesthetics that first drew us to this facade in the first place.
Knowing that you asked for the corner windows to be extended to fill in the gap has given me hope that we can find a solution to this problem that will give us the look we have intended for the facade on our house.
Thanks again for sharing this information, I will fight for this as our solution, knowing that someone else was able to achieve a satisfactory result.
Cheers
Dave
Here is the final drawing with new dimensions. HTH
Hi KushD
Thanks heaps for this info, I have emailed my BC and asked her to update our plans now rather then waiting till the build starts.
Cheers
C
Hi everyone,
Did anyone have their cabinets installed before waterproofing?
Darbecca reckons floor-wall junction needs to be waterproofed before cabinet installation. When we raised it with our SS, he said PD has its own set of standards which maybe different from Australian standards on waterproofing. I’m not entirely sure what he meant. He said there’s no point in paying for a waterproofing inspection if the defects are out of PD standards as they won’t fix it anyway.
So confused.
Hi everyone,
Did anyone have their cabinets installed before waterproofing?
Darbecca reckons floor-wall junction needs to be waterproofed before cabinet installation. When we raised it with our SS, he said PD has its own set of standards which maybe different from Australian standards on waterproofing. I’m not entirely sure what he meant. He said there’s no point in paying for a waterproofing inspection if the defects are out of PD standards as they won’t fix it anyway.
So confused.
PD use an 'alternative solution' that is not the latest Australian Standards. There was a one-liner in our contract and after looking at the alternative solution we have paid extra to have our waterproofing to current Australian Standards.
I suggest you check your contract and request a copy of the Alternative Solution.
Hi all, read a lot but first time posting here but hoping to get some advice. We're building a Vancouver 33 with PD and so far it's been a bit of a nightmare. Land scrape happened August 15 so going by contract they had 196 days from then to complete it after counting 28 days down for Xmas and 10 days for rain, meaning it should be finished February 26. That is approximately 4 weeks away and as the house seems like it's barely past lockup stage.
They have already claimed for fixing stage just before xmas but there are still things outstanding that we let slide and paid but in hindsight shouldn't have, still a few internal doors to go on, architraves and skirting bords missing and even plaster missing in our skylight tunnel and on a couple of sliding door frames.
We literally never see any tradies at the house and we're lucky to see even the tiniest bit of progress every couple of weeks, yet houses that started well after ours in the same street are already finished, they seem to have trades there every day and even working well after 6pm and even on weekends. I'm not suggesting PD tradies should be doing those hours as standard but when it's a month away from contract end date i'd think they should be getting their hurry on but nothing's changed.
The thing that i'm worried about when it comes to contract end date is we were vandalised twice, our power cables were cut throught the whole house, it took them 2 weeks to get the electricians back out to re-wire it (they just junction boxed most of it) then a week or so later after it was fixed it was vandalised again! Then another 2 or so weeks again to get the sparky's back in to fix it again with more junction boxes! Not really happy about that either, doesn't feel like i'm getting what we paid for.
I think they'll use that to extend the contract end date out 4-6 weeks even though technically it was their fault, the house was meant to be at lockup stage, we'd paid for the lockup payment over a week before but they still had the front doors off the house so anyone could just walk on in. If it was "locked up" as it was meant to be then they wouldn't have been able to get access to cut the cables.
Communication has been a major issue too, we almost never hear from them, very very rare updates or news and it's usually only after we hassle them. It was only when we were chasing them all for updates that we were told out Site Supervisor no longer worked for the company, no warnings or anything so i'm guessing he quit or was sacked on the spot. Took a couple of weeks til they assigned a new SS then a couple of weeks for him to get out to site and get up to speed with the job so not a lot happend for those few weeks at all.
They've installed galvanised steel downpipes to be painted later despite the contract quite clearly stating colourbond downpipes. My BC is now claiming that only double storeys get colourbound and all single storeys get galvanised steel showing me a flyer highlighting the fact that they use wattly paint for downipipes depite what the contract clearly states and even after our SS said he would get them replaced with colourbond.
They've also installed the wrong window to our kitchen servery, we bought it to their attention at the start of December, they've just told us that the right window will be installed next week, 2 months later. As this window sits over the stone benchtop that still hasn't gone in and i'm thinking they'll try to use the supplier delay on the window as another excuse to avoid paying penalties and drag out the completion date despite them being the ones ordering and installing the wrong window.
We've very much regretting not going with Carlisle homes, we were very close to pulling out of our PD contract due to the horrible tender process and going with Carlisle. Three of our new neighbours are Carlisle homes and i've spoken with all 3, they all started the building proccess with PD and all pulled out at the last minute due to the terrible process and all 3 have said they had an amazing experience, I wish we weren't more persitant than them! One said they even let him run his own data cabling as he's a licensed cabler, my best mate's licensed and PD said there was no way in hell any work was getting done by anyone else during the build, argued it for weeks but they wouldn't give in. Wouldn't even install conduits for cables that I offered to pay them for claiming it ruined the structual integrity of the house, rubbish!
At this rate i'd be amazed if we're in by the end of the financial year, seems like they're barely half way done with the build and we're almost 6 months since the build started with no sign of it picking up any speed. The last thing that has happened was the front facade was rendered on Monday 15'th, was due to be painted on the 18'th but never happened and still hasn't with no progress inside since the end of December. I think it all stems for poor organisation and not being able to manage the trades effectively. Any pointers on how to manage this? Especially the contract end date that i'm expecting to blow right out with excuses? Thanks very much for reading my novel, Let me know if i'm better of starting a new thread.
Gavrook I'd be raising it all with your BC and SS via email so you have a written record and telling them you want a response in the next couple of days, again via email. If they don't respond to your satisfaction then ask to speak to their manager and get everything in writing there as well.
I'm pretty surprised by them only having 196 days to build your Vancouver 33, we are building at Kew 28 which is slightly smaller and they have about 260 days in the contract for ours. Nikil is building a Vancouver 33 as well, not sure how many days they have in there for that but 196 including Christmas seems pretty low.
Ours is also 196 days for the Vancouver 33. Sorry to hear you are having such a tough time with the build, ours has gone really well so far and there has been trades back working since early January. I’m guessing the lack of SS has seriously affected your build.
I would definitely be sending them a strongly worded email and demanded a response with a schedule of work to be completed.
Hi Gavrook
Welcome to the first post, I'm sorry that its filled with so many awful things. I agree with Hurrow, you need to email and start getting Senior Management involved. Kick up a stink and make yourself heard to the BC's and SS's Manager.
I understand they got a new CEO in the last few months and there have been some big changes inside PD, if you need to, then start writing formal letters and have them addressed to the higher levels. Don't settle for anything less then what's in the contract if it says colourbond then hold them to it.
When Dave and I started this process we read a lot of bad things about PD, most of it was about communication and delays but at the end of the day, people got a house they loved and that's what matters. I know its hard now when you're in the middle of the build and it's all going to hell in a hand basket but keep in mind that after the build is finished the house is what you are left with, there must be something about it that made you want it more than the Carlie floor plan or facade. So when your fighting the good fight, just imagine yourself in a years time, relaxing in your home, the rest will all be memories.
PS. if the cable cutting happened in my house, I think I would pull them out of the wall so they had to re-run new ones. patch-up jobs are never as good.... (Maybe you could give them a tug to make sure they are fitted off correctly and if they accidentally come out of the wall...oops)
Looking forward to hearing updates about the process
C.
Hi all, read a lot but first time posting here but hoping to get some advice. We're building a Vancouver 33 with PD and so far it's been a bit of a nightmare. Land scrape happened August 15 so going by contract they had 196 days from then to complete it after counting 28 days down for Xmas and 10 days for rain, meaning it should be finished February 26. That is approximately 4 weeks away and as the house seems like it's barely past lockup stage.
They have already claimed for fixing stage just before xmas but there are still things outstanding that we let slide and paid but in hindsight shouldn't have, still a few internal doors to go on, architraves and skirting bords missing and even plaster missing in our skylight tunnel and on a couple of sliding door frames.
We literally never see any tradies at the house and we're lucky to see even the tiniest bit of progress every couple of weeks, yet houses that started well after ours in the same street are already finished, they seem to have trades there every day and even working well after 6pm and even on weekends. I'm not suggesting PD tradies should be doing those hours as standard but when it's a month away from contract end date i'd think they should be getting their hurry on but nothing's changed.
The thing that i'm worried about when it comes to contract end date is we were vandalised twice, our power cables were cut throught the whole house, it took them 2 weeks to get the electricians back out to re-wire it (they just junction boxed most of it) then a week or so later after it was fixed it was vandalised again! Then another 2 or so weeks again to get the sparky's back in to fix it again with more junction boxes! Not really happy about that either, doesn't feel like i'm getting what we paid for.
I think they'll use that to extend the contract end date out 4-6 weeks even though technically it was their fault, the house was meant to be at lockup stage, we'd paid for the lockup payment over a week before but they still had the front doors off the house so anyone could just walk on in. If it was "locked up" as it was meant to be then they wouldn't have been able to get access to cut the cables.
Communication has been a major issue too, we almost never hear from them, very very rare updates or news and it's usually only after we hassle them. It was only when we were chasing them all for updates that we were told out Site Supervisor no longer worked for the company, no warnings or anything so i'm guessing he quit or was sacked on the spot. Took a couple of weeks til they assigned a new SS then a couple of weeks for him to get out to site and get up to speed with the job so not a lot happend for those few weeks at all.
They've installed galvanised steel downpipes to be painted later despite the contract quite clearly stating colourbond downpipes. My BC is now claiming that only double storeys get colourbound and all single storeys get galvanised steel showing me a flyer highlighting the fact that they use wattly paint for downipipes depite what the contract clearly states and even after our SS said he would get them replaced with colourbond.
They've also installed the wrong window to our kitchen servery, we bought it to their attention at the start of December, they've just told us that the right window will be installed next week, 2 months later. As this window sits over the stone benchtop that still hasn't gone in and i'm thinking they'll try to use the supplier delay on the window as another excuse to avoid paying penalties and drag out the completion date despite them being the ones ordering and installing the wrong window.
We've very much regretting not going with Carlisle homes, we were very close to pulling out of our PD contract due to the horrible tender process and going with Carlisle. Three of our new neighbours are Carlisle homes and i've spoken with all 3, they all started the building proccess with PD and all pulled out at the last minute due to the terrible process and all 3 have said they had an amazing experience, I wish we weren't more persitant than them! One said they even let him run his own data cabling as he's a licensed cabler, my best mate's licensed and PD said there was no way in hell any work was getting done by anyone else during the build, argued it for weeks but they wouldn't give in. Wouldn't even install conduits for cables that I offered to pay them for claiming it ruined the structual integrity of the house, rubbish!
At this rate i'd be amazed if we're in by the end of the financial year, seems like they're barely half way done with the build and we're almost 6 months since the build started with no sign of it picking up any speed. The last thing that has happened was the front facade was rendered on Monday 15'th, was due to be painted on the 18'th but never happened and still hasn't with no progress inside since the end of December. I think it all stems for poor organisation and not being able to manage the trades effectively. Any pointers on how to manage this? Especially the contract end date that i'm expecting to blow right out with excuses? Thanks very much for reading my novel, Let me know if i'm better of starting a new thread.
We’ve had a lot of delays too. But despite various reasons for the delays PD have not tried to wangle out of any compensation. Our contract end date was meant to be Dec 12 and so they owe us $250 per week from then. Our building coordinator confirmed that is the date that compensation starts. My opinion is they have accepted too many customers and don’t have enough tradies to keep the work ticking along.
I wouldn’t be so glowing about Carlisle. Our neighbour had a bad experience. And we heard from a independent inspection company that Carlisle have different approach to building in Victoria that is outside of the Australian Standards. I just had a friend pull out of a Carlisle build for this very reason.
Every builder has their faults if you look at this forum.
Keep asking questions of your SS and BC. Keep email trails. Ask for dates as to when tasks will occur. If you are polite but persistent it can push the work along.
Who thinks I should go to this company and do a big crap and leave it in thier toilet, as they have done to mine when it clearly states dont use until the 25th and theres a portaloo out the front for the workers.
Tradies have got no class or shame.
see more at
hoffmangoldwithporterdavis.wordpress.com
At least they had the sense to use the toilets! My builder was telling me just yesterday the ridiculous places tradies have decided to do their business. Apparently he was doing a PCI with some clients when the wife opened the top draw in the kitchen and guess what was in there
On another occasion a place had been broken into and the thief decided to do his business in the corner of a room and then pick up said turd and smear it in a lovely streak along all the walls....
Hi Gavrook
Welcome to the first post, I'm sorry that its filled with so many awful things. I agree with Hurrow, you need to email and start getting Senior Management involved. Kick up a stink and make yourself heard to the BC's and SS's Manager.
I understand they got a new CEO in the last few months and there have been some big changes inside PD, if you need to, then start writing formal letters and have them addressed to the higher levels. Don't settle for anything less then what's in the contract if it says colourbond then hold them to it.
When Dave and I started this process we read a lot of bad things about PD, most of it was about communication and delays but at the end of the day, people got a house they loved and that's what matters. I know its hard now when you're in the middle of the build and it's all going to hell in a hand basket but keep in mind that after the build is finished the house is what you are left with, there must be something about it that made you want it more than the Carlie floor plan or facade. So when your fighting the good fight, just imagine yourself in a years time, relaxing in your home, the rest will all be memories.
PS. if the cable cutting happened in my house, I think I would pull them out of the wall so they had to re-run new ones. patch-up jobs are never as good.... (Maybe you could give them a tug to make sure they are fitted off correctly and if they accidentally come out of the wall...oops)
Looking forward to hearing updates about the process
C.
Hi Charly,
Thanks my fiancee called our SS this morning and had a go at him about all the things he said would happen this fortnight not happening after we went and had a look last night and as usual nothing at all has happened.
He has promised to email us later today with an explaination (apparently painters were booked for last thursday and friday but they just didn't show up) and an estimated completion date and if that doesn't come through i'll be trying to get management involved. I'll definitely be holding them to the colourbond but i think it'll be a bit of a fight, it's a small thing i'd let it go if it had been a good process, but it hasn't been.
I'm sure building with Carlsile isn't sunshine and rainbows either but i'm just going on what i've heard from the people around me who have dealt with them comparing them to both theirs and my experiences with PD. And yes it was the floorplan that kept us with this one, the Carlisle was 99% right but this one was perfect.
As for the cables I would have loved to do that but they'd only cut them near the power point or switch ends so i'd have had to cut them at the switch box end and pull them all the way out so they couldn't join them up, I don't think they'd appreciate that haha
We’ve had a lot of delays too. But despite various reasons for the delays PD have not tried to wangle out of any compensation. Our contract end date was meant to be Dec 12 and so they owe us $250 per week from then. Our building coordinator confirmed that is the date that compensation starts. My opinion is they have accepted too many customers and don’t have enough tradies to keep the work ticking along.
I wouldn’t be so glowing about Carlisle. Our neighbour had a bad experience. And we heard from a independent inspection company that Carlisle have different approach to building in Victoria that is outside of the Australian Standards. I just had a friend pull out of a Carlisle build for this very reason.
Every builder has their faults if you look at this forum.
Keep asking questions of your SS and BC. Keep email trails. Ask for dates as to when tasks will occur. If you are polite but persistent it can push the work along.
Hi, that's good to hear as that's my main worry at the moment. Not that I even want compensation as it's not really that much $ and i'd much rather our house finished by the contract date but i'm hoping if they have to pay it'll hurry them up as a month out we're still seeing bugger all progress.
I'm sure Carlisle have their faults too i'm just going on what people have told me about their experience with them and mine and theirs with PD. Our sales guy with PD (not sure if i'm allowed to name him so let me know if i need to delete it), Trent at Woodlea was amazing, couldn't recommend him enough!! The sales guy i spoke to at Carlisle was far from it, didn't seem interested and was pretty rude, so straight away we didn't have a great impression of them.
I think that's something we can do more of, we probably need to push them more, think we're a little worried about annoying them and getting them off side. The peoblem then becomes getting a timely response.
We have been advised that we need to move our return air because it is behind an opening door. They have suggested we remove the door or move the return air to the laundry. The door separates our living areas from the kids activity area and bedrooms. Moving it to the vent to the hall outside the laundry means I am loosing 600x600mm of my laundry.
Does anyone know if we can put the return air in the ceiling? How big does the return air space need to be? 600x600mm seems excessive. Any other suggestions?
We have been advised that we need to move our return air because it is behind an opening door. They have suggested we remove the door or move the return air to the laundry. The door separates our living areas from the kids activity area and bedrooms. Moving it to the vent to the hall outside the laundry means I am loosing 600x600mm of my laundry.
Does anyone know if we can put the return air in the ceiling? How big does the return air space need to be? 600x600mm seems excessive. Any other suggestions?
PD don’t have a ceiling option, is it an option to hinge the door on the other side so it swings the other side?
We have been advised that we need to move our return air because it is behind an opening door. They have suggested we remove the door or move the return air to the laundry. The door separates our living areas from the kids activity area and bedrooms. Moving it to the vent to the hall outside the laundry means I am loosing 600x600mm of my laundry.
Does anyone know if we can put the return air in the ceiling? How big does the return air space need to be? 600x600mm seems excessive. Any other suggestions?
PD don’t have a ceiling option, is it an option to hinge the door on the other side so it swings the other side?
No option to hinge it on the other side because there is a bedroom door there. We are already at site, slab pour on Tuesday and I received a phone call today. They have only just realised they can't do it. I wonder if they will put it in the ceiling if I say I don't want it in my laundry. Does it really matter if the door is there. It is a wide entry way so there is some space either side of the door.
We have been advised that we need to move our return air because it is behind an opening door. They have suggested we remove the door or move the return air to the laundry. The door separates our living areas from the kids activity area and bedrooms. Moving it to the vent to the hall outside the laundry means I am loosing 600x600mm of my laundry.
Does anyone know if we can put the return air in the ceiling? How big does the return air space need to be? 600x600mm seems excessive. Any other suggestions?
PD don’t have a ceiling option, is it an option to hinge the door on the other side so it swings the other side?
No option to hinge it on the other side because there is a bedroom door there. We are already at site, slab pour on Tuesday and I received a phone call today. They have only just realised they can't do it. I wonder if they will put it in the ceiling if I say I don't want it in my laundry. Does it really matter if the door is there. It is a wide entry way so there is some space either side of the door.
I would remove the door near the kids activity area and keep the return air there instead of relocating to laundry.
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