Porter Davis homes

I reckon 1.5 wall is covered by wrapping.
Wall batts are not standard, mostly these are used when you upgrade it to sound proofing.

I might be wrong here.

I just checked my tender document and it reads the following:

Based on the independent 6 star energy rating assessment, the following items are required to achieve the 6 star rating but are included as part of the standard home allowance:
- Self sealing exhaust fans
- Sealing of gaps and cracks between house frame and window/door frames
- R2.5 rated glasswool external wall insulation with sisalation foil
- R5.0 rated glasswool ceiling insulation

I spoke to an insulation company to see if wall insulation is compulsory under 6 star and apparently builders can get away with no wall insulation if the house is oriented the right way. Which is annoying for consumers. I guess its 6 out of 10 stars so the bare minimum to pass will do for PD. I know that Burbank's Future Collection of homes have wall insulation and double glazing as standard.

Hi Guys


We are heading to out tender appointment next week, just heard from our BC, We won't have any drawing plan @ Tender.

We did not expect a construction drawing, but, not even getting a plan like the SC provided to us with all the changes marked on @ tender? We are bit supprise about that and wondering is it normal?

Our main concern is :

1. how we going to know all the changes we have requested are clearly marked on the plan? (nothing been missed)
2. how we going to know each elavation will looks like (since we had made windows / Sliding door change)?

Any experience/thoughts appreciated

Thanks

as long as all your structural changes are correctly included in your tender documents then you should be fine. Ensure all changes are documented in the tender proposal with correct measurements. You need to plan ahead of your meeting and bring in a check list.

I do agree that they should have a proposed drawings for your review at the meeting. They provided this to us.

Thanks for sharing your experiense , tstr1a

Seems we have to insist a proposed drawings @ Tender.

What we do not really understand is PD are expecting get 3% deposit (in our case , 15K) without even willing to show roughly what our house will look like.

Such a simple thing will give customer some level of confidence for go ahead spending 500K with them, but not as their standard process................

We are really second guessing using PD now...........................

We said we wouldn't have our contract appointment until they had the information we required all ready for contract. I reckon you can do the same for your tender. Cancel the meeting and say you'll reschedule once they have the drawings ready. You'll probably find they'll get them ready fairly quickly. Don't be in a hurry. They'll come to the party b/c they want your business.

We went to tender under the same situation and it was in hindsight an administrative nightmare. And there is a snowball effect, because they don't have the documents at tender, if there are significant changes, things get forgotten/left out, plans may not completed in time by the time you do Hopetoun/Electrical/National Tiles, so they're working off the wrong plans potentially and any time you have to make a change to the plans it needs to be recirculated back to them etc.

Unless you are squeezed for time or you really have a stock standard off the plan build with very minimal structural changes, you may find that it becomes a bit of a never ending chase trying to lock down all the moving parts because the plans were wrong/unavailable to start with.

Same here. Don't attend tender without the full set of documents or you will spend the next six months of your life arguing with your builder. You can't safely sign your tender without the drawings, which means you cannot hand over your deposit without accepting significant risk.

My advice is to call your BC and politely but firmly advice them to re book when they have their act together. If push comes to shove consider alternate builders.

Our build was plagued by incorrect drawings. I would tackle the process far more forcefully next time.

Hi Guys


Thanks for all your suggestion regards our coming Tender.

We have let our BC know we require a proposed drawing with all changes on it as well as the extra cost for all major upgrade ready for the Tender.

Still a bit upset by PD's process and we will go to visit another builder just in case things fall into parts with PD

Again, thanks all your suggestion, really appreciated

I'll have to say that the tender/contract process for us was the worst phase. The tender and contract presenters were fantastic, full credit to them - but the administration process post the meetings was nothing short of farcical at times.

And I will admit, it does not instil a lot of confidence heading into build and we were quite hesitant as well - did we make the right choice, if you can't get paperwork right what's going to happen when you have to actually build it etc. But once build started and things started falling into place, it was a marked turnaround and the house itself has given us a lot less grief.

PD (and I'm sure any other builder out there) will continually refer to the contract - if its not in there when you signed, sorry, too bad. We forgot an exhaust fan in the downstairs powder room and no matter how hard we pushed, they refused to add it (and we had just started frame stage, the electricians were not even on site yet). My advice would be, get that contract absolutely spot on - if PD are impeding you in this, refuse to sign until it is accurate and to your satisfaction.

Thanks Serenity_Now

Glad to know everthing from you end is much smoother now

For those that are interested, the free-standing bath included in the Dream Big promo for Prestige is...

http://www.reece.com.au/bathrooms/products/9502399

Has anyone had to, for any reason, ask for an extension on a progress payment before?

I got formal approval and docs to sign in mid December and sent these off as well as showing PD a copy to get things moving, then on the 3rd of Jan I get a call from my broker saying the bank requested confirmation of a large discount that was out through as a PCV for $17k.
I asked my BC for this straight away, knowing they starts back on the 6th. I explained that the bank has asked for this confirmation including which payment it will be deducted from, after which they will send me another form to sign to finalize things. I didn't get this form until the 20th of Jan, two weeks later.
In the mean time things have started and as of today my slab is boxes up ready to be poured. I haven't received the form from the bank yet, so I'm worried about what happens when I get this first invoice..

Yes we had an extension over Christmas, we got the fix invoice dec 3. We told PD that we would not pay until inspection , that happened the next week , found issues which were rectified by dec 20. Because the bank were only open some days over Christmas the payment was not made until dec 31.

PD have been pretty good as long as you keep the lady in accounts in the loop as to what is going on.

Lock up was also paid about three weeks after it was issued because our inspector had to get there to inspect and then took three days to get the report. Then it took our SS about a week to get them fixed and then another three days for the bank to release the funds.

I have to say though, since we have had our new SS most issues have been pretty minor and he has no trouble getting anything fixed. In a lot if cases he was already on it before the inspectors report came in.

Happy Australia Day everyone!!

Just a question we have just had out tiling started and we can't see any waterproofing on the floor in laundry or ensuite. Does anyone know if this is compolsury or not in Victoria?

As I know , PD use boral wet board in all wet area, guess it will satisfy the waterproof requirement ?

I am not an expert in this area Though......

Thank you

Anyone consider sound insulation batts between floors? If 3k, Is it worth it?

Our experience was and I have seen others a few months back also comment, that PD will not allow between floors.
We put sound insulation around our media room. I would also consider putting around the powder room if I had my time again.