Allcastle Savannah- Gregory Hills

Yes we have been relatively pleased with the Progress so far, thought Bricks may be an issue, but that has started and hopefully is a bit higher up the house now... I was told by the builder that the scaffolders are running behind due to the weather, so it could be mid week before that goes in.

Our hope is to be at least at lock-up by Christmas, which is still 8 weeks away, so where we are at the moment is making that look possible.

It is then just the home run to fit out the inside and to completion. This is the part that everybody points out as Allcastle's big weakness as they have most of your money so no need to rush anymore. I am planning on this stage taking 8-12 weeks (Which should get us in the house in April 2016), but I have been told to expect a lot longer. Just have to see if Allcastle can prove everybody wrong...

But I think we are on track at the moment

Yes they say the home is done in about 38 weeks, but I've noticed a few of them being built near me and they seem to be closer to the 12 month mark. There is a 1 year old Allcastle Home (Grandworth 42) for sale around the corner from me which goes for auction end of November, so that will be interesting to see how much it fetches. We have our plan presentation next week.

Week 11 - Didn't visit the site this week, but was given an update by a future neighbour that the brickwork is close to half way, so looks like another 1m in height was added during the week. Will be visiting on Saturday so hoping the brickwork is more or less finished so we can get a better idea of what the house will look like, but that will be weather dependant.

Week 12 - Little bit slow in the last couple of weeks, due to the rain so can't hold the builder responsible. Visited on the weekend, and the scaffolding is erected, and a large number of bricks had been placed out around the upper level. The bricklayers equipment was chain up on-site indicating that they will be back on Monday. Hopefully if the rain holds off this week, they could be close to completing the brickwork by the weekend.

Also, scored a bonus this week. The developer of the home and land package next door has erected a colourbond fence. Would have preferred timber and wasn't the colour we would have chosen , but can't complain if it is free.

You might still get a bill for it

According the NSW Fences Act, as they have built the fence without any consultation, it is viewed that they have agreed to take on the full cost of the fence, and I am not obliged to pay anything towards the fence.

The developer as my email address as I contacted them to remove stuff left on my land so we could start, plus my details are with Gregory Hills and the council, so not difficult to get.

I am also not too happy with the way they have built the fence anyway and I would have raised those issues had I been consulted.

So they can send me a bill, but I am not required to pay it.

Week 13 - Been quick a lucky week for us, the weather seem to hold off most of the week and by Saturday there was only a little bit of brickwork left at the front, which probably should have been finished on the Monday.
Next is the guttering and then the roof. Majority of the outside will be done then, just the rendering at the front, the weather board at the back and the eves, and the remainder of the downpipes.
Hopefully the inside will then start, which at the moment looks like an absolute mess with all the rain. I am concerned about the first level floor as that is a chipboard type of material and it has been exposed to some very heaving rain over the last 3 weeks, so hoping there is no permanent damage. So really looking forward to getting the roof on...
Sounds like the build might stop earlier than expected for Xmas, the builder indicated that they won't install electrical before Xmas unless they can get it certified and the Gyprock up before Xmas, as there is a high risk of the electrical cable being ripped out and stolen if it is left exposed for a long period of time. We where probably on track to have that completed, but the rain has cost us 2/3 weeks, but still hoping, if the roof can be on in the next week, then there is still a chance...otherwise our April 2016 completion will become unlikely...

April 2015 - Settled on the land, and received the tender that includes Site costs. This came as a shock, as it was an additional $25,000 which put the house build over our budget. The site costs included fill, drop edge beams around the whole of the house, scaffolding costs, increase piering, machine hire, saline protection for the slab. For some reason, not sure why, they decided to increase street appeal by raising the house. After discussions with the pre-construction manager the house was lowered by 200mm, which dropped the tender price by over $10,000, plus we had another bonus when the soil sample confirmed we didn't need an 'H' class slab so another $5,000 saved.


We had originally received a quote with variations to our site for around $15,000. We had asked to raise our site, less than 200mm, and our price has come back as $45,000 just for the variations to the site costs.

I just checked back on the tenders, and when I lowered the house by 200mm it saved me $9,800 in site costs to be exact. I have no idea why raising a house by the same amount would be 3 times more...Maybe a little for increase in costs, and possible some difference for the different style of house but the costs are related to Drop edge beam, machine hire, scaffolding, fill and difference in Piering.
The Piering should give an indication, an average a 2 story has 50 piers, so 200mm reduction or increase is a difference of 10m, 10m of piering is worth $950 which is exactly what was taken off our tender for the piering side of the costs, so I know that part of it is right.

Yep, we were very surprised at that amount. We told them we wanted the house the same as where our current house is. One side of the current house is on piers. It means that it needs to go up about 946mm on one side because we didn't want to cut as our house would look low. The original tender came back raising it only 780mm. The original tender with the site variations cost was around $15K. So when we asked for this extra height (166mm more), it has come back around $45K. Some of the increased prices include additional machine hire ($5.6K), drop edge beams ($15K), extra piering ($4k) and import fill ($13k). This may not even be the end of it as it's ambiguous as to how much more piering will be needed. Not sure what we are going to do now. I'm a bit disappointed. It seems overpriced.

Does seem over priced compared to what we paid, $15k to raise the house 780mm and then another $30k to increase that 166mm more. It is like a 20% increase in height, so you would like the price to increase would be around 20% as well...
I am thinking somebody may made a mistake, but I would question the increases...

Thanks Wazza773. I did question it, but was told this was the price. It's not even the whole house - just one side to make it level with the rest of the house.

Week 14 - Did a visit the site yesterday on our way to the Airport (daughter swimming in Adelaide at the Pacific School Games for NSW). Brickwork finished, was hoping to keep the spare bricks as we need quite a few for a wall, unfortunately the bricklayers look though they have just got every brick that was left and thrown them in a big pile. Very disappointed with that as it is common for the owners to want the leftover bricks. Would have tried to salvage some if we had the time but it was just a flying visit. Can't get down to do anything about it for a week or two now, so they will probably just get taken away as landfill.
Nothing else seems to have happened regarding the build, was hoping that at least the Roof Tiles would have been delivered, but no sign of them...

Week 15 - Been interstate the last week so no actual visit. Did get an update from the Builder that the Roof Tiles would be delivered on the Thursday, and the roofers would be on-site the next day to make a start and it would take 2 days to complete. So based on that the roof should now be finished and I will be getting the next progress payment invoice very soon.

Week 16 - Did a quick drive buy and the upper roof has been started, but not actually finished as there was still some of the capping to complete. The eaves on the upper level had also been started.

Week 17 - Visited the site this week and was looking at the pile of bricks that was still there...the gate was open and we started sifting through the pile and started to find perfectly good bricks, so as these bricks cost $1.40 each, and we need to buy about 2000 for walls and landscaping, we decided to salvage what we could, and I think we got about 300 bricks that could be used for our landscaping. So happy about that as it will be a considerable saving for use...

Looked like the roof was completed, but then as we was just about the leave, a guy arrived to finished off some pointing on the roof. So I would say that the upper roof is now completed. The Bricks on the upper level have been cleaned, so was starting to look good.

Is possible they could get the outside completed before Xmas, but they would need to pull there finger out a little, not feeling too confident that will happen. I am sure some contractors will still be working next week, just don't know if it will be the ones that we need...

Left to do outside... The weather board at the back of the upper level, Painting on the upper level, then the scaffolding can come down. It is then the lower level roof and gutters, lower level down pipes, cleaning of the bricks on the lower level, rendering at the front lower level and then the lower level painting.

Week 18 - did not visit this week but got confirmation that the rendering at the front was done. Was told that the painting of the eaves and the top level scaffolding would be pull down but no confirmation that was done.

Week 19 - This was the last week before Xmas. Builder contacted us to let us know that the lower level roof was scheduled, but got postponed because of the rain. Did a visit on the 27th Dec, the rendering we have at the front was completed, and the scaffolding was removed, which means we can now see the outside of the house more or less completed. Lower level roof was still not done.

Week 20 - No work this week, rained a large part of the week, plus most contractors probably took this week off.