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Hurrow
Charly6s
brucefil2011
[quote="Hurrow"]Did PD make you put the final payment into a trust account from the offset? We're paying cash as well and they made us do that, although admittedly the interest rate is actually far better than what you can get elsewhere anyway.

No i just had to supply a letter with my banks letterhead showing i had the cash in an account and send an email stating I had the means to pay for the house.

see more at
hoffmangoldwithporterdavis.wordpress.com

We had to do the same as Bruce. Just a letter from the bank.

Hmm. We had some of our money to pay for the house in shares at the time (with a very large margin of safety) but most of it in cash and they made us do put the last payment in a trust account. Which has worked out fine so far but might have been very interesting if something happened to PD before they finished building our house.[/quote]Lucky u sold the shares as 1000 pt drops in the US hurt a little.

see more at
hoffmangoldwithporterdavis.wordpress.com
brucefil2011
Who got ugly guttering like this.

I know its very neccesary but its ugly. Its a shame because the rest of the facade looks fantastic.


see more at
hoffmangoldwithporterdavis.wordpress.com
Maybee I can improve it like this.

Looked up downpipes on pintrest


see more at
hoffmangoldwithporterdavis.wordpress.com
brucefil2011
Who got ugly guttering like this.

I know its very neccesary but its ugly. Its a shame because the rest of the facade looks fantastic.


see more at
hoffmangoldwithporterdavis.wordpress.com
Paint the PVC pipe in the same colour as the colorbond before you do your driveway. Buy it in a rattle can, hammertone finish, mask up behind it and above it, and it'll blend away to nothing

Drew01
brucefil2011
Who got ugly guttering like this.

I know its very neccesary but its ugly. Its a shame because the rest of the facade looks fantastic.


see more at
hoffmangoldwithporterdavis.wordpress.com
Paint the PVC pipe in the same colour as the colorbond before you do your driveway. Buy it in a rattle can, hammertone finish, mask up behind it and above it, and it'll blend away to nothing

Thats not the ugly part its the big black box

see more at
hoffmangoldwithporterdavis.wordpress.com
Fongeo
Charly6s
Fongeo
Hi,

We are looking at building the Astor 49 with Porter Davis. It is a pretty new plan and not sure if anyone is building it in this forum. We had asked for a few changes in our ground floor and thought will share this with the wider community to get some feedback.

We have removed the lounge and made it into a guest bed and made the study smaller.




Thoughts appreciated.

Cheers.

G




Hi G

It's a great plan, I like your changes to the guest suite.
Had you thought about adding a window to your galley, lets in light and out the smell of burnt toast.
Also changing the window in front of the kitchen sink to a bi-fold so that you can create a servery?
I personally like my pantry to have a door on it, that way it stays dark and cool.
Also, don't forget to put a nech in the shower, it doesn't cost that much and looks so much better.
Lastly, get a costing to upgrade the hight and width of your alfresco doors, if you keep the standard style (not boutique) and just get it taller (2250mm) and wider it doesn't cost that much more,
also, ask for fly screens on the alfresco doors, they are surprised cheep through PD.

So much you can spend extra money on! If you get it put on the plan and into the quote now, you can always take it out later at no charge.

All the best.
C.

Checked with my SC on the fly screen and this is what she has come back with

"Unfortunately we don’t offer flyscreens to sliding doors, however if you contact A&L after handover they can have this installed for you"
Back to class your BC goes....Clearly doesn't know what they offer. The saddest part of all will be that he/she probably won't be new to the business.

brucefil2011
Drew01
brucefil2011
Who got ugly guttering like this.

I know its very neccesary but its ugly. Its a shame because the rest of the facade looks fantastic.


see more at
hoffmangoldwithporterdavis.wordpress.com
Paint the PVC pipe in the same colour as the colorbond before you do your driveway. Buy it in a rattle can, hammertone finish, mask up behind it and above it, and it'll blend away to nothing

Thats not the ugly part its the big black box

see more at
hoffmangoldwithporterdavis.wordpress.com
Yeah, the rain boxes look crap, not much you can do about them though. On that plan, you can move it to the side elevation, but you need to do it before the slab because of the plumbing

Drew01
brucefil2011
Drew01
[quote="brucefil2011"]Who got ugly guttering like this.

I know its very neccesary but its ugly. Its a shame because the rest of the facade looks fantastic.


see more at
hoffmangoldwithporterdavis.wordpress.com
Paint the PVC pipe in the same colour as the colorbond before you do your driveway. Buy it in a rattle can, hammertone finish, mask up behind it and above it, and it'll blend away to nothing

Thats not the ugly part its the big black box

see more at
hoffmangoldwithporterdavis.wordpress.com
Yeah, the rain boxes look crap, not much you can do about them though. On that plan, you can move it to the side elevation, but you need to do it before the slab because of the plumbing

[/quote]Wish i have of done that

see more at
hoffmangoldwithporterdavis.wordpress.com
brucefil2011
Who got ugly guttering like this.

I know its very neccesary but its ugly. Its a shame because the rest of the facade looks fantastic.


see more at
hoffmangoldwithporterdavis.wordpress.com


Can you paint it after handover to blend in?


Fongeo
Charly6s
Fongeo
Hi,

We are looking at building the Astor 49 with Porter Davis. It is a pretty new plan and not sure if anyone is building it in this forum. We had asked for a few changes in our ground floor and thought will share this with the wider community to get some feedback.

We have removed the lounge and made it into a guest bed and made the study smaller.




Thoughts appreciated.

Cheers.

G




Hi G

It's a great plan, I like your changes to the guest suite.
Had you thought about adding a window to your galley, lets in light and out the smell of burnt toast.
Also changing the window in front of the kitchen sink to a bi-fold so that you can create a servery?
I personally like my pantry to have a door on it, that way it stays dark and cool.
Also, don't forget to put a nech in the shower, it doesn't cost that much and looks so much better.
Lastly, get a costing to upgrade the hight and width of your alfresco doors, if you keep the standard style (not boutique) and just get it taller (2250mm) and wider it doesn't cost that much more,
also, ask for fly screens on the alfresco doors, they are surprised cheep through PD.

So much you can spend extra money on! If you get it put on the plan and into the quote now, you can always take it out later at no charge.

All the best.
C.

Checked with my SC on the fly screen and this is what she has come back with

"Unfortunately we don’t offer flyscreens to sliding doors, however if you contact A&L after handover they can have this installed for you"

We didn't upgrade our sliding doors to Boutique, we stayed with the standard inclusion style door and just increased the height and width.
Perhaps the Boutique sliding doors do not have an option to include sliding flyscreen doors, whereas, our standard inclusion style do have that option.

Although I'm inclined to agree with Mondeo, I think your BC needs to go back to BC school and learn what they can and can't offer the client.

Ask them again, and push the point that others building with PD have been able to include flyscreens for their sliding doors.

We have a friend who recently had some renovations done to their home. They had a couple Boutique doors installed as part of the reno, but forgot to mention wanting flyscreens, they are now in the position where they can't upgrade because the frame used does not include the necessary channel for the flyscreens to be attached. I'm sure their builder said it could have been done, if only they had asked before the build was started.

Our 2250mm x 2400mm Flyscreen was $250 and our 2250mm x 3000mm was $330

Hope this helps

Cheers
C
brucefil2011
Drew01
brucefil2011
Thats not the ugly part its the big black box

see more at
hoffmangoldwithporterdavis.wordpress.com

Yeah, the rain boxes look crap, not much you can do about them though. On that plan, you can move it to the side elevation, but you need to do it before the slab because of the plumbing


Wish i have of done that

see more at
hoffmangoldwithporterdavis.wordpress.com

Given it appears to be a non compliant box gutter you could probably force their hand to move it to the side elevation. If my understanding is correct, box gutters can't turn corners or have the rainhead draining out the side of them. I think your rainhead should be on the side elevation. Because we are on the boundary we had to change to a flat roof so that the box gutter could run along the boundary and out the rainhead on the back of the garage. Back 12-24 months ago there were a heap of builders changing the design mid build to comply, our builder was one and I remember a lot of Metricons on here having the same issue. I have noticed that the PD's in our estate, including my neighbours, haven't changed their design, which I thought was odd.

Our neighbours not only turns a corner, it also drains into a normal gutter rather than a rainhead, and then the entire garage roof drains into one downpipe even though there are 2 downpipes draining onto it from the first storey roof, very interesting design
! The roofing plumbers are the ones that sign off on it, so I guess they have been willing to take the risk that they won't be audited.

Google vba and box gutters for more info.
Charly6s
Fongeo
Charly6s
[quote="Fongeo"]Hi,

We are looking at building the Astor 49 with Porter Davis. It is a pretty new plan and not sure if anyone is building it in this forum. We had asked for a few changes in our ground floor and thought will share this with the wider community to get some feedback.

We have removed the lounge and made it into a guest bed and made the study smaller.




Thoughts appreciated.

Cheers.

G




Hi G

It's a great plan, I like your changes to the guest suite.
Had you thought about adding a window to your galley, lets in light and out the smell of burnt toast.
Also changing the window in front of the kitchen sink to a bi-fold so that you can create a servery?
I personally like my pantry to have a door on it, that way it stays dark and cool.
Also, don't forget to put a nech in the shower, it doesn't cost that much and looks so much better.
Lastly, get a costing to upgrade the hight and width of your alfresco doors, if you keep the standard style (not boutique) and just get it taller (2250mm) and wider it doesn't cost that much more,
also, ask for fly screens on the alfresco doors, they are surprised cheep through PD.

So much you can spend extra money on! If you get it put on the plan and into the quote now, you can always take it out later at no charge.

All the best.
C.

Checked with my SC on the fly screen and this is what she has come back with

"Unfortunately we don’t offer flyscreens to sliding doors, however if you contact A&L after handover they can have this installed for you"

We didn't upgrade our sliding doors to Boutique, we stayed with the standard inclusion style door and just increased the height and width.
Perhaps the Boutique sliding doors do not have an option to include sliding flyscreen doors, whereas, our standard inclusion style do have that option.

Although I'm inclined to agree with Mondeo, I think your BC needs to go back to BC school and learn what they can and can't offer the client.

Ask them again, and push the point that others building with PD have been able to include flyscreens for their sliding doors.

We have a friend who recently had some renovations done to their home. They had a couple Boutique doors installed as part of the reno, but forgot to mention wanting flyscreens, they are now in the position where they can't upgrade because the frame used does not include the necessary channel for the flyscreens to be attached. I'm sure their builder said it could have been done, if only they had asked before the build was started.

Our 2250mm x 2400mm Flyscreen was $250 and our 2250mm x 3000mm was $330

Hope this helps

Cheers
C[/quote]

We were showing our neighbour through our house yesterday and we were discussing our evaporative cooling and the need to open windows and doors but that all our boutique doors didn’t have fly screens. He looked at the track and pointed out there was nowhere for them to go should we wish to add after handover.


bank
brucefil2011
Drew01
[quote="brucefil2011"]Thats not the ugly part its the big black box

see more at
hoffmangoldwithporterdavis.wordpress.com

Yeah, the rain boxes look crap, not much you can do about them though. On that plan, you can move it to the side elevation, but you need to do it before the slab because of the plumbing


Wish i have of done that

see more at
hoffmangoldwithporterdavis.wordpress.com

Given it appears to be a non compliant box gutter you could probably force their hand to move it to the side elevation. If my understanding is correct, box gutters can't turn corners or have the rainhead draining out the side of them. I think your rainhead should be on the side elevation. Because we are on the boundary we had to change to a flat roof so that the box gutter could run along the boundary and out the rainhead on the back of the garage. Back 12-24 months ago there were a heap of builders changing the design mid build to comply, our builder was one and I remember a lot of Metricons on here having the same issue. I have noticed that the PD's in our estate, including my neighbours, haven't changed their design, which I thought was odd.

Our neighbours not only turns a corner, it also drains into a normal gutter rather than a rainhead, and then the entire garage roof drains into one downpipe even though there are 2 downpipes draining onto it from the first storey roof, very interesting design
! The roofing plumbers are the ones that sign off on it, so I guess they have been willing to take the risk that they won't be audited.

Google vba and box gutters for more info.[/quote]It seems you are correct. AS/NZ3500.3 Part 3.7.4 (layout). Initial investigation states the following.

Box gutter shall;

- Be straight
- Have a horizontal constant width base
- Have a constant longitudinal slope between 1:200 and 1:40
- Discharge at the downstream end without change of direction. i.e. not to the side
- Be sealed to the rainheads and sumps

Option A looks to be a better and more aesthetically pleasing design, which is mounted to the garage side wall, with an overflow weir.



Opinions please. Does the study window look too low?


Here are the drawings


And here is the pic I took of the display home



Waldorf_Grange_Build
Opinions please. Does the study window look too low?


Here are the drawings


And here is the pic I took of the display home




It looks lower than I would like personally, but it's probably about right compared to the plans if that's what you are asking?
Hurrow
Waldorf_Grange_Build
Opinions please. Does the study window look too low?


Here are the drawings


And here is the pic I took of the display home




It looks lower than I would like personally, but it's probably about right compared to the plans if that's what you are asking?


Yes was trying to compare to plans. The top of the window looks like it should line up with the top of the front door frame on the drawings. And there is a space of rendered wall under the moulding in the drawing but my moulding looks like it’s almost touching the dirt.


Waldorf_Grange_Build
Opinions please. Does the study window look too low?


Here are the drawings


And here is the pic I took of the display home



Plan shows top of the windows on the same level as the doors (on phone screen).
Is that how it is built? Top of study window does look a bit lower than the doors.


KushD
Waldorf_Grange_Build
Opinions please. Does the study window look too low?


Here are the drawings


And here is the pic I took of the display home



Plan shows top of the windows on the same level as the doors (on phone screen).
Is that how it is built? Top of study window does look a bit lower than the doors.






Here is another angle from December before the bottom window moulding was put on. The top of the window looks lower than the door frame.


Waldorf_Grange_Build
KushD
Waldorf_Grange_Build
Opinions please. Does the study window look too low?


Here are the drawings


And here is the pic I took of the display home




Plan shows top of the windows on the same level as the doors (on phone screen).
Is that how it is built? Top of study window does look a bit lower than the doors.






Here is another angle from December before the bottom window moulding was put on. The top of the window looks lower than the door frame.



Yes the top of the door does look a bit higher and not level like on the drawings you showed earlier
gavrook
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.

Hi All, just thought i'd update this. After our SS said he's replace the Galvanised downpipes with Colorbond our BC piped in saying no, single storey lifestyle range homes don't get Colorbond and the contract was wrong. Now both of them won't budge on it despite the contract saying "Provide slotted Colorbond quad profile spouting and 100 x 50mm downpipes as noted on standard house specification and shown on working drawings..." They are saying as the colour selection document and Lifestyle range inclusions flyer say Zincalume that's what we get. They have claimed it's a wording issue that will be corrected for future contracts but are still refusing to supply Colorbond despite what our signed contract says!

I think there's no way to get them done as per the contract says without going the legal route and I bet they know no one is going to bother with lawyers for a few hundred $ worth of downpipes. Just another in a long list pf disappointments dealing with PD.

As for progress, since my first post the only thing that has happened was the correct servery window was delivered a week ago, but still sitting in the hallway, and they painted the internal walls yesterday. I'm not sure why they bothered painting yet as there is still a lot of plaster work still to be done. They need to install the correct servery window and drop the 2 windows in the kitchen down 4cm as they are meant to have the stone benchtop run into the reveal and were installed too high, they have to smash the bricks underneath to do this too. They also still haven't plastered the sliding doors on the rumpus or the skylight internals.

They seem to think handover will be mid March, so 2-3 weeks over contract date but I highly doubt it'll be March, April sometime is much more likely. Also I realise i've made mistakes by paying them progress payments they have claimed for way before they were due with a lot of things still in that progress stage to be done. There is still things from Fixing stage to be done almost 2 months after they put in the claim for it! I won't be giving the final handover payment until the place is perfect, none of this 90 day rubbish. I know from my last build you never hear from them again once they have all the money, they don't want to know you.
Waldorf_Grange_Build
Opinions please. Does the study window look too low?


Here are the drawings


And here is the pic I took of the display home




Looking at the drawings it looks correct
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