Darwin Builders

Hey guys,

We are just about approved for a loan to build our first home and I wanted to know your opinion on the different builders we have available in the NT.
We're first home owners so I am not so sure on what to expect. We've looked at different display homes in Zuccoli and are torn between a few. I personally am leaning towards NIMM or Tropical Lifestyle as they seem pretty open with their inclusions and added costs, but my partner is more keen on Kassiou as they have the cheapest plans to offer so far. But I'm not too sure. Is quantity better than quality? Looking through one of Kassiou's display homes I noticed a crack in the wall from the ceiling to the floor that had been bodgedly covered up, and most of the reviews on their facebook page are by people with the surname 'Kassiou' (dunno if biased or coincidence.) It's difficult to find reviews anywhere.

Craig, let us know how you go with Killarney! They seemed nice to us also however their price per m2 put them out of the running for us.

Parrotfish - you are right it is very hard to find info, that's why I started this thread!

Darwin builders pretty much run on word of mouth I think.

Hello everyone
Glad I found this post.
We just bought a block ourselves.
Has anyone had any experience with Vanguard Homes or Overlander Homes?
Price and quality?
Cheers

We have it down to Vanguard Homes or Tropical Lifestyle. (also open if you have any recommendation)

Vanguard Homes want to charge $240 for every extra power point, is this normal for a new build ?

I just had one installed in a old house and it did not cost that much

After reviewing and getting prices for nearly every builder in Darwin we settled for DAPT in the end. We are currently building in Mitchell Creek Green.
Customer service by far the best I have experienced in Darwin , nothing is to much trouble and we are already ahead of houses that started 4 weeks before ours. Give you a little run down.
191SQM total
Garage
35$ SQM tiling allowance
$3000 for kitchen appliances
Stone Bench tops
We paying 342,000 and could not be happier at the moment, should be completed maximum 5 months.

That's pretty good Spuddy. Definitely on the cheaper side of Darwin houses with a pretty good finish level.

Luke the DAPT foreman is awesome, he's building our front fence for us, super chilled and reliable.

I am pretty sure they had their display finished in like 12 weeks start to finish too!

Do you mind sharing your floor plan ?

I checked this thread out a couple of years ago and have come across it again today.
So annoyed buy the attitude of the builders in Darwin I have signed up and will post my thoughts.

If you building a house and its being built in 12 weeks I would be worried about quality control.

It seems a lot of people are concerned about how builder price there houses to the clients.

It takes alot of time to price a house within a few %, the ones with time and think your interested will make time and get the price down. If they have someone full time to price a job your going to get charged overall more by these people..

Builders that are charging alot more arent always good builders. There are some fine examples in Zuccoli if you ask tradesmen you will find out pretty quick.

I have seen this first hand as I'm a carpenter working in Darwin for 7 years. I have been on many residential sites (mainly commercial& shed building)

Some of the project builders are terrible, the carpentry contractors are basically racing to finish every job. No respect for the owners or any effort for quality workmanship.
Obviously not every carpenter is like that but it is more than most.

Another example i seen a few weeks ago in zuccoli was a slab being poured that was that wet it nearly was self levelling. Slabs are suposed to be 80-100 slump this must have been 120-150 and flowing. If you dirve around zuccoli you will notice hardly any of the slabs have been vibrated, check for rough edges with hols and rocks showing, its just a weaker slab and footing beacuse of the concensus in darwin that you dont need to vibrate concrete.

If the builder has off the shelf plans ready to go i would be worried.

After studying a degree in Architecture i have become even more intolerant to poorly designed homes. They are often just concrete blocks placed on your land. Most offer:
1) no design for climate
2) not designed or oriented for block of land
3) not designed for the client

Dont follow everyone else and have a heavy mass home in the direct sun allowing blocks to heat up and make your rooms hot. how many have cross ventilation in the bedrooms? shaded bedrooms from afternoon sun? it make a big difference.

Alot goes into designing a home let an architect or building designer design it and let a builder build it.

Good luck
I wouldn't name any builders as Darwin is small and I want to be a builder in Darwin one day.

In Darwin what is better for the inside walls, Core filled block walls or steel frame.

and why ?

Anyone built a house with Tom McCullough from Vantage homes?

Thinking of building with them, but as this is my first build, feeling a bit vulnerable.

If anyone has some info, it would be much appreciated!

did you end up going with them ?

We're thinking about having Vantage Homes build for us. Too soon though. We can't get a proper quote until we buy the block, but we don't want to buy the block until we can figure out if we can afford the house we want?

Vantage are one off the top builders in Darwin.
You will get the best finishing trades in darwin working on your house.

Tom used to literally feel every tile to make sure theres no imperfections.

Vantage would be my choice

They have a full time designer so your hiuse will be designed properly

Cheaper to put steel frame internal.
Thermal mass would similar around r3.5 each.
Finish on plaster would be slightly finer then white set of rendered block wall.

Steel will have a more hollow sound and will carry more sound between rooms.
Unless you have certain sound inhibiting insulation

If you go steel inside ask go high f rating bats and maybe 16mm plaster in your bedrom. Some plaster has extra r ratingd and sound inhibiting elements.

Thanks

I spoke to DAPT and Vantage, they are both horrible at getting back to you.

Anyone used http://abouthomesnt.com.au/ ?

I Found DAPT brilliant at getting back to me, Heard abouthomesnt are pretty good, also check out Overlander homes, Beare homes.

Hey guys, great post!
We previously built our first home with abode homes off the plan didnt have any dramas with them, but a post like this would've been great back then!
since then we have decided to upgrade and we were recommended by two of our friends to build with Alpha Homes (as they did), and i have to say they are pretty good. Worth chatting with the guys if your after a quote, its a family of 4, George, Nick, Natalie, Katina, flick them an email and they respond within the day. There standards are very good as well, and they do custom builds (which we did) and were very accommodating.
One thing i didn't pay attention to last time is how builders look after there work site and Alpha keeps there site very clean (clean as a work site can be of course) compared to others and they also fence of the block, which made us feel like they put more effort into their work and keep the their tradies in line.

What i also liked is you do walk through during the build tp double check everything, also amongst other things you get 2 power points in every room and extra power points are only $50 not $250 like the previous post stated lol

Overall really happy with the process. Highly recommend.

The other builder we were recommended was Tropical, but they didnt return our email when we were chasing quotes and overlander are good i heard.. Probably avoid the bigger ones.

Should i be looking for anything in the contracts before i sign ?

Well, we bought the block in June, I had my heart set on having Vantage Homes build our house, so we're going with them. We signed contracts two days ago, but the house has been designed (Dennis, their designer, has been very patient), the rock breaker thingy was in on Thursday preparing for the new back fence and the pool. On the plus side, there are a lot of pretty rocks we can use in landscaping.
Tom has been a delight to deal with and very obliging. He's taken us through two of the homes they've built, and I went through a four year old one a few years ago (fell in love) and they are all beautifully built and finished.
We've chosen our tiles, bathroom fittings, kitchen has been designed, finishes chosen, and he's having timber samples sent up so he can lay a section for me (Forest reds). I'm very excited and looking forward to seeing our dream home emerge.