Building Arden Homes Genoa Verve 26 in North East VIC

×KolloscheAre you building with Arden?

Sure am! We are building a modified Mercer 39.

I too am a bit of a nerd, so i want to have the WSC mounted in the wardrobe in the study and co-located with the NAS, router, switches and other stuff going in there.

At this point in time (we have just booked our colour appt) I am also going to have an extra line run off the backup function of the powerwall to go to the cabinet and keep the power going in IP cams etc.... One should never be without internets.

Ah I think I saw your post today on the Arden Homes - New Build Facebook Group.

Sounds like you plan your networking in a similar fashion as myself! As we signed up after the Powerwall 2 backup function points were made available, Arden have generously given us 3 standard backup points, fridge, USB power wall and I think hot water? Cannot recall! I'd imagine the battery would essentially perform as a whole house UPS anyway and rely on the backup points once dropping below a particular percentage of battery capacity, however I am not entirely sure how it works!

Most of my networking functionality relies on my PC (which is currently connected to a UPS) so if that is not running, not much need for the internet haha!

You are right about backup points! To be honest... if I can’t have it, I will use the ups like I do now.... it’s more about the PoE security cams I am moving over. Plus the ceiling mounted access points!!

We are getting Fibre To The Curb, but I am hoping to upgrade that To FTTP depending on how nice NBN are!

Interesting times ahead!!

UPDATE 1

I will start this update from a couple of weeks ago. To provide some context, our block is on the side of a hill and has essentially been cut out like a step. This means we have a retaining wall on our garage side which goes up and on the other side we have a retaining wall which goes down to the neighbouring property. As a result of this, we also have a nicer looking stone retaining wall which (was originally meant to) makes an "L"shape from the low side neighbouring block and then across the front of our block up the hill. It looks quite nice to be honest. However, whilst the original engineering was meant to have this wall make an "L" shape, the actual result was more like a "U" shape, where after the stone wall went across the front of the block, it returned in to the block.

This would not usually be an issue... however this portion of the wall intruded approximately 3-4m into the block! This meant that the porch of the house was sitting over the retaining wall on the construction plans! As our backyard was already cramped enough as is, we did not wish to move the house back further on the block... This left us with one option... demolish at least 1m of the return of the wall....

To keep this story short, the wall proved harder to remove than originally thought, requiring power tools which my landscaper cousin was generous enough to provide. What originally seemed to be 1m in length by maybe 30cm in height ended up at an amount of nearly 2m in height once digging down to the foundation which also was required to be removed!! This took 3 people an entire day to remove. If this is the worst of my build problems though, I think I have done well... On a side note, a lot of others in our estate are facing much worse issue due to utmost stupidity on the behalf of the developer.

Fast forward to today

I have been out to the site now and can see that they have commenced the site cut. It's a shame that I cannot get down there before dark now as I leave work at 5 and its dark by 5:30....

I was hoping that I would have heard from my site supervisor by now, but I have not yet. Hopefully I will hear from him in the next few days.

I noticed as well that the footings for the temporary fencing are running perpendicular to our retaining wall and protrude approximately 300-400mm into the site. In the scheme of things I am sure this will not be an issue, however as our garage is meant to be cut 200mm off the wall, the excavation equipment appears to have cut the side of the garage out around the footings, rather than moving the temporary fencing... I'm sure this will be rectified before the slab is eventually poured in the next week or so.

I have notified Arden also that I have engaged an independent inspector. Not because I do not have faith they will do a good job, rather for peace of mind and reassurance. There are a lot of things to consider in a build and sometimes things may be overlooked inadvertently. Hopefully another pair of experienced eyes may pick up on something important that may have otherwise been missed. Only time will tell. I will post a picture once the slab has been poured.

Week 1

Ok so what has happened this week! First, the area for the alfresco & garage were cut. This was done early in the week.

Following these cuts, the screw piles were installed (for lack of a better word). The equipment used to install the screw piles essentially destroyed the work done originally for the cut of the alfresco and garage. The garage cut should be able to be fixed with excavation equipment, but the alfresco may need to be done manually as no heavy equipment will be able to get to the back of the block due to the littering of steel screw pile rods across the block... Guess not a lot could have been done to prevent this though.

Today was the first day we were able to actually get down to the block in the daylight to have a look at the progress. We also noticed that the switchboard/meter box had been installed in preparation trenches to be bug and for the electrical cables to be run at some stage next week.

Here's hoping next week the builders will have a plumbing/sewerage connections completed, electrical completed and telecommunications provision completed (that is, the pipe for the NBN connection is actually run under the house to the garage). With any luck I am hoping that the slab will be laid or at the very least close to being laid.

Still have not heard from our site supervisor... Hoping I will hear something from him this week. The fact that I emailed the builder to advise them that I would like notification within a few days of slab pour so that my independent inspector can actually go out and have a look and I have heard no response from anyone is a little alarming. Arden's communication has been great thus far, I hope that the communication will remain of high quality throughout the build!

I also noticed that silt pits have been added to the final construction drawings and flew right under my radar. One is prominently displayed in front of our feature tiled pillar... I don't know why we need them and will be bringing this up with the builder once I hear from them (see picture).



Still very excited! Hoping things will continue at this pace next week!

So jealous of your site start, we will be driving by this morning on the way to grocery shopping so will check your progress out. Hopefully your ss contacts you this week.

Hi Clareymoo, I have read through your build build thread. IT seems like the developer has really sucker punched a lot of hopeful buyers in our stage! Fortunately we have been pretty lucky all round and havent been too inconvenienced, but as you said, a fair few people have been thrown under the bus by builders also! I know that both of my next door neighbours will be lucky if they can have a build start in December 2018! We are hoping to be in by then! Hopefully you can get your site costs and a site start quite soon!

Oh wow December is scary. I'm still fingers crossed for next month. Luckily we don't have the sewer problem just waiting for Como to give us a final price.

Went past your pretty blue fences today

Week 2

So since last week we have had the pipes for the plumbing installed and from a glance it appears that the plumbing has been installed in the correct places for toilets, showers, sinks, etc. We do have one concern that a pipe installed for a downpipe on the front of the garage is too far left of the retaining wall. As there is a 200mm gap between the garage and the retaining wall and then there is 420mm between the right hand side of the garage (closest to the retaining wall), this means that the garage door should in theory start at about 620mm off the retaining wall... My measurements with a tape measure however put the current downpipe location at about 750mm or so. I really would not want a downpipe in the way of the garage door!!

I brought this to the attention of my office contact at Arden who said they would follow this up with my site supervisor. I was then advised that the pipe is in the correct place, but I am still not convinced. Fortunately I am having my independent inspector go out tomorrow (i.e. Monday Week 3) for a pre-slab inspections (at least that is the plan thus far).

In last weeks update I mentioned that I was meant to have the site supervisor give me a call to introduce himself. This unfortunately did not happen (I will get to this shortly). I had also emailed my office contact and site supervisor to inform them of my intent to have an independent inspection. After still not hearing back, I decided to give them a call and discovered that they in fact did not receive the email as it went to their spam box! Good thing I followed this up with a phone call!! I do not blame them for this, just something that needs to be kept on top of. This also happened a few times with contract queries, must be my "hotmail" email address! Too much spam these days!

After this call I have been using my work email which does not seem to be picked up as spam. I was also told that the site supervisor would be in touch with my independent inspector regarding setting up a time for the inspection. As Friday came around and I had not heard anything confirmed by either the inspector or site supervisor, I decided to call my inspector and ask if he had been contacted... which to no surprise he hadn't... Again, good thing I followed up!

I then took it upon myself to make the courtesy call to my site supervisor. So no, he didnt call me to introduce himself, I had to call him to follow up on something he was meant to do... As I was informed that our slab was due to be poured on Tuesday (Week 3), this means that my inspector will have to go out tomorrow (i.e. Monday Week 3) to preform the pre-slab inspection. I have not heard confirmation of this yet and from my phone call from the site supervisor, he said he was unsure as to whether the slab pour was delayed till Thursday, not an issue, just unsure as to when the inspector will head out, I'm sure I should get confirmation tomorrow.

From what little discussion I had with the site supervisor on the phone, I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and forgive him for not contacting me as he did seem to be on top of everything to ensure the construction was on track. Hopefully poor communication isn't going to be an issue.

We have been able to get down this weekend (in the daylight) and take some pictures of the site cut (see below) and prepared for the next stage. The cut at the front in the ensuite and garage seemed to be a little strangely cut, but I am no expert so I will just have to have faith in what my inspector comes back to me with. All the dirt that was also moved to make this cut has also been left in a pile at the front of the block. This will likely be moved tomorrow so that access can be had to the site for the waffle foundation system and later reinforcement and concrete!

If the inspector does head down tomorrow, I may post another update with his feedback. Looking forward to what is ahead in week 3, but not looking forward to the bill that will come in once the slab is laid!

Update

Not very happy currently, I was told that our site was meant to have our slab poured on Tuesday, but that was subsequently delayed to Thursday, and now if I am lucky this Friday!

Apparently the concreters had 3x people out sick, meaning that they were able to fully lay and pour the concrete for another who is building with Arden, but not ours!

If the slab is not ready and poured on Friday (8/6/2018.) due to the forecast rain, it may not be done till Wednesday (13/06/2018.) next week as it is the Queens birthday long weekend and the following Tuesday (12/06/2018.) is also forecast for showers! Tuesday (gone) this week would have been optimal as the weather has been clear all week, of course the pour gets delayed till the rain starts! Just my luck!

I get it is out of the builders control, but it is still annoying to see another building with Arden to get their slab laid whilst we have to get postponed! I would be especially annoyed if those people out sick are just "sick" because of the cold mornings we have had this week!

I get this is a minor delay, but I don't see it as a good sign this early in the build. Also no communication till I was told by the person whose slab went down today that there had been no progress on our block...

Update

More bad news... due to the "windy" weather today, the concreters were unable to install the polystyrene that is to be used for the waffle raft today. This of course meant that the independent inspector had to again re-schedule his pre-slab inspection. Apparently it is not to be 2pm tomorrow, but I am not holding my breath!

If they thought today's weather was bad, there are forecast showers for more-or-less the next week. I have been told that the pre-slab is meant to be done by 2pm tomorrow and the slab is due to be poured on Saturday morning. Again, I'm not holding my breath!

Feeling a little disappointed this week, bit let down. Just have to hope that once this slab goes down, things will start to pick up!

Week 3

What a roller coaster of a week this has been!

Long story short (long story in the last two updates), the concreters were able to get the foundations down (waffle raft) on Friday (08/06/2018.) and finished the pouring of the concrete slab today. It looks great and we couldnt be happier with the end result.

Our independent inspector went out on Friday afternoon in the rain and mud to do his pre-slab inspection after many delays and provided us with the report. All is good, everything appears to be in the right places in terms of plumbing so we should hopefully have no issues!

After discussions with my site supervisor this week I was informed that timber was due to be delivered Tuesday next week (12/06/2018.) for the framing. Given the sunny (but not incredibly hot) weather expected for this long weekend I expect the conditions will be perfect to allow the concrete to cure and should be adequately strong for the framing.

So that is the good news. On the bad news side it looks like the concreters do not have much respect for anyone else, leaving rubbish and left overs everywhere and also knocking the temporary fencing over the edge of the retaining wall!! This has quite severely damaged the temporary fencing. I am sure that if the builder had to pay a deposit, they will not be getting it back! I will be sending an email to my site supervisor and office contact with pictures of the rubbish and damage to the temporary fencing as a result of the negligence of the concreters.

I'm expecting to see a bill soon from Arden for the slab stage, not looking forward to that! But at least it means we are making progress and are a step closer to being in our nice new home!

Looking forward to hopefully seeing the commencement of the frame next week!

Week 4

Following the slab pour last Saturday (09/06/2018.) the pre-fab frames were delivered on Tuesday (12/06/2018.) after the Queens Birthday long weekend. Carpenters/Framers were then on site on Wednesday (13/06/2018.) and very quickly put all the walls up. The roof was on by Thursday (14/06/2018.). Unsure if much happened on Friday (15/06/2018.), perhaps delivery of the windows and door frames and nothing happened over this weekend.

Given the gates are wide open and quite inviting, we took the opportunity to walk through the house. I also had my brother who is a carpenter/framer go through the house with me over this weekend and point out some things that need fixing. For them most part the frame has been done well, only a few issues. He found two of principle points of concern, the most concerning of is that the to right hand side front corner of the garage which is a load bearing portion of the wall is not sitting on the slab AT ALL! This is not the fault of the framers, but those damned concreters! I don't know how this is going to be fixed, but i'm sure it won't be as good as if they had correctly laid the slab in the first place.

The second point of concern is the ensuite external wall. The frame is not sitting correctly on the slab. It appears that there are two high points on which the frame is sitting as a result of the concrete being a little higher around where the two drain pipes for the sinks are. My brother advise me that if the area under the frame there is not packed then it would eventually move over time down to lay on the rest of the concrete given the weight of the house and would result in cracks to the plaster and tiles in the ensuite.

Other than these two points, the frame overhands the slab in some points which is almost definitely beyond the builders code accepted tolerances. The same also applies to the shower bases. I'm sure i'll get my monies worth out of my independent inspector on the frame/slab inspection!

I also notices a few hairline cracks in the slab, but I don't think these are of concern.

I anticipate next week that the window & external door frames will go in and given the good expected weather, I am hoping that they will also get the fascia, guttering and even colourbond roofing on! Will really start taking the form of a house then!

Week 5

Think I will keep it short and sweet this week as I am lazy and busy (end of financial year and all!)

We did not have time this week to go down to look at the progress as much as we would have liked last week, but no matter, we can easily see what they have done this week gone.

The Colourbond roof is on and it looks fantastic! I must admit I was a little worried that we went too dark given we will be rendering the house in a light grey, but I think it is perfect! The windows and rear sliding door have also gone in. Only two windows have not been installed but that was just because the scaffolding was in the way. I suspect the scaffolding has probably come down now.

With the roof on, we are (hopefully) not as prone to delays as a result of poor weather. This week we are expecting the Hebel to arrive and perhaps even the install to start tomorrow (Tuesday 25/06/2018.) and we are apparently due to have an electrician come out on Thursday (28/06/2018.) to dig the trench and connect the switchboard/meterbox to mains power.

Now that I think about it, I should probably call the site supervisor tomorrow and just make sure that if the Hebel installers are actually starting tomorrow, that the slab issue under the garage wall has been rectified. Wouldn't want an issue like that just "covered up".

Will be an interesting week coming up hopefully!

Week 6

Whilst the picture below may not show a substantial change since last week, most of the progress has now been happening inside the house!

Quite a bit has been done this week to our great satisfaction. Early in the week the house was wrapped/weather proofed, the ducts for the heating and evaporative cooling were installed throughout the roof space and the plumbing has been installed throughout the house. Later in the week the Tesla/Bradford Solar staff came out and installed the solar panels on the roof and on Saturday (30/06/2018.) the electricians were on site in the morning/early afternoon and had done quite a bit of the necessary wiring including finally connecting the home to mains power.

It is my understanding that Arden have been pushing to get everything roof related done whilst the weather has been good so that the scaffolding can come down. The final two windows should also be able to be put in once the scaffolding comes down.

We also met up with our site supervisor on Saturday for the first time and had an official walk-through of the house. I had my brother who is a carpenter come through with us and he could speak builder talk to our site supervisor with regards to some outstanding concerns in relation to the frame.

Nothing too concerning. Although the frame had been signed off as compliant by DJM, there still were some things that my brother was able to pick up as not being to code. Our site supervisor told us he would address these concerns which is good. Our biggest concern being slab overhang on the garage wall has been rectified, but our second issue being the ensuite wall sitting off the concrete had not been. Once confronted by my brother our site supervisor did commit to fixing the issue with some concrete sheets, which is an acceptable solution. I also noticed that the plumbers had run a rigid pipe across where our manhole access to the roof space was, this has been raised and will need to be rectified.

I also took this opportunity to have my brother lend a hand in running some CAT6 cables (wired data/internet) through the walls to the two rear bedrooms. We decided that we would do these two rooms ourselves as it was quite expensive to have the electricians do this. I put the plugs on the cables today and tested them to ensure they worked (SUCCESS!). Fitting the ends to data cables can be quite a chore! As the cables are now in the walls, we should be able to just pull them through and into wall points after handover.

After speaking with our site supervisor, he advised that we should expect that by the end of next week that the electrical will be done, the Hebel to likely be installed, all external doors and windows to be installed and perhaps the plastering to commence by the weeks end. Things are sure progressing quickly!

Shouldn't the have inspector picked this up in the slab inspection - measuring out the slab?? Of the SS realised that the slab was short?

Seems like your the SS on the job! LOL

DJM just signed off my frame approval without proper inspection. There were more than 20 structural issues as per my private inspector. Then the overhang issue DJM signed ok - the overhang was 25 as noted by DJM and my inspector but Arden got rectification for a 20mm - I send a photo to my inspector along with engineering drawing - he said the rectification is not as per the drawing at all. Questioned DJM - After 2 months they sent their inspector for checking - opened up a lot - they should not have given frame approval. I lost my cool when they send me fixing invoice with them still rectifying frame structural issues. Arden agreed they did the wrong thing. A couple of issues they gave photos were still to be rectified on my fixing inspection.

My carpenter brother picked up on it. My independent inspector picked up on it at the frame inspection, as I had him do a pre-slab inspection, but not a slab inspection. DJM also did not signed off the frame as compliant till the slab overhang was rectified. I am still awaiting Arden to send me the DJM compliance report for the frame for my records.

I tend to agree that DJM don't seem to be putting in much effort. My carpenter brother does say that they are quite thorough from his experience as being a trade who is constantly hassled by DJM for insignificant issues prior to granting frame compliance. I suppose at the end of the day it comes down to the competence of the actual inspector DJM send.

My brother has picked up on a number of frame issues which DJM missed and our inspector has agreed to rectify. However, in large the frame has been completed to a high standard using quality timber, my brother does framing for Henley largely and says that the timber he uses is not nearly the same quality.

Thus far my biggest let down has been the concreters. The framers did a great job, I can't blame them for the overhang due to poor concreters... I have noticed that when my brother was talking to my SS, he seemed to pay more attention to the issues than when I brought them up with him, I suppose it is the impression that most SS deal with that the owners have no idea what they are talking about, but when it comes from a qualified trade then they take it more seriously. That said, so far I am very happy with my SS.

Hi treedance we are only vacating outlet home next week .. still to demolish