KDR - Allcastle Homes Grandworth 45 MK2

Piering was done last week, laying pipes for plumbing now, scheduled for the pour to be done on friday. got a call from the plumber asking if we want to do the stormwater drain now with them, 100m of pipe and a 5m x 600mm absorption pit for 3.5k. no builder mark up on this.

once slabs are in our first inspection will happen.

Yeah for us, the slab was done a few weeks back, then sewer and stormwater plumbing was completed not long after that. Big team of plumbers, got the whole lot done in a day. Got slab inspected by housepect, nothing major was reported back. Overall been good so far. Hoping frame gets done in next week or so- windows already dropped off.

Hi Ymiao4398

Only 3.5k for plumber including absorption pit that was good price. I believed it also included certification.
I have 3 pits & grate(450x450mm) and 150mm pipe, total length of all pipes is around 25m, connected to council pit and cost me 9K + included tax. Plumber recommended by AC

great, i guess 3.5k is ok as it was just a shock seeing another 3.5k on top of the build. we just thought putting a grate in the driveway would have costed less than 1k.

Hi LevaneT and Ymiao

This is the place I am not sure who will be doing it and at what cost . $10k for storm water is good as provisional sum with other builder were around $20kpluse .

That looks like metal frame LevaneT , is that what you went with ?

Yes that is steel frame it was by default. I didn't ask for that but seems like it last longer than timber.
I still yet to do the driveway grate. It is not included at the moment. May be when I do the driveway later.


External Plumbing/storm water work is owner's responsibility. I paid for the plumber direct but he works with AC so I didn't bother to find my own. When time come the plumber schedule works with AC and ask you to pay.

Thanks LevaneT

I was going for the still but opt for the wood in the end. ( one of the many struggles in the build to decide )

My budget is through the roof and will be liv Ng very frugally once the build starts.

we are lucky that we budgeted another 20% out for over runs and post build items,

Hi LevaneT,

Ours included sewer and stormwater, all the way to the street, im suprised to hear that a few of you had to organise separately

sewer and stormwater is included but there are stuff that isn't e.g. absorption pit for driveway grate it's not. this was made clear to us from the begining

I had to engaged a hydraulic engineer for the stormwater design and plumber for the work. May be I had to drain to council pit/easement and I also need council stormwater engineer came out to inspect/certified it. Basically checked the pipe connection to the council pit. Anything to deal with council probably AC don't want to get a hand on it. The storm water issue been worrying me during the initial build design, such that if there are no drainage point, need to put in absorption pit and house size shall be less that 35% of the land etc.. so I am glad that was done by now.
What left out for the budget is front fence, driveway and levelling the land afterward and whatever it need to get the interim OC.

Never ends LevaneT..

At least you are 30% in .

Ok, we are doing driveway ourselves afterwards. Im budgeting for another 100k once house is done, and everything always ends up costing more!

One thing I have realized, they hadnt installed electrical conduit on the slab to come into cavity where meterboard goes- this leads me to think the board won't be recessed into the brickwork, but mounted on it, with the service coming up on a surface conduit. I wish they made this clear or gave an option. Too late now...

Mate , they will slap you another $1000 to do that , doubt you will be looking at your box once the house is built so don’t worry about it I say

i have to say one thing that allcastle is good at is the build time, they are pretty fast, we had our slab done on Sat morning, all down now it's just drying the inspection for houspect is on wed.

7 concrete trucks came and from the street the base looks pretty good

I think they are quick now because the market has changed and they no longer have back logs .. good for us building now as won’t be 44 weeks but trimmed down toe 6 months build time as it should be really.

Yes from slab to frame and roof truss up. It took only 1 month. Brick will follow very soon.
Much faster than I expected.
Tile supplier is beaumont tiles now

Nice we have local beaumont, they told us was someone in guildford before. we looking at getting the larger tiles for the foyer do they offer it? prefer the none slip ones.

yes it was beautiful tile before and now we were told beaumont. I have yet to make appointment but beaumont is doing end of year sales now. I think our appointment will be after the sales period.