I feel like we're being ripped off! Advise please

Hi all,

I just got an email back from our building admin in regards to some costings and I think they are trying the rip me off.

1. We asked for Standford doors instead of standard plain doors and they came back with a costing of $990. We have 12 doors so thats $82.50 per door. When I asked her about the upgrade to the stanford door, she said that it would be $50 extra. A Stanford door from BUNNINGS will cost me $40!!! Is it worth me getting my own doors and maybe trying to offer them to av. I mean thats double the price! Or should I just not get them to do the doors and then get the installed myself???

2. We asked what it would cost to change the hinged wardrobe doors to sliding doors. Now to change them to vinyl sliders it will be an extra $400 and to change them to standford sliders it will cost $870. We will have sliding wardrobes in 3 bedrooms. So assuming thats 2 doors per wardrobe.... so they are charging us $66.6 per sliding door (if vinyl) and $145 per sliding door (if standford)

3. We chose the Canterbury bricks as our brick selection.She came back with the price $2327. When we enquired about the HAWTHORN, she said it would be $2000 upgrade. I looked up the AustralBricks website, and the Hawthorn is MORE expensive per brick than the Canterbury. What is going on??? Why is she quoting me an extra $327 when the brick we chose is cheaper than the one we enquired about???

4. 3 power phase. The cost is $1699. I asked her for the breakdown and all she wrote back was:

Hi Layla. Answer to your question regarding 3 phase power.1. Upgraded meter box2. Additional connection costs to the power company3. Additional wiring from Electrical pit to meter position4. Larger conduit for underground wiring.

Does that make sense? Should 3 phase power cost that much? I called up our electrical providers and they said that 3 phase is available on our street.

I am livid at the moment and would really appreciate anyone's help/advise.

Thank you
Layla

I upgraded my doors to stanford and was charged $46 each, so yes your does see too high.
I dont understand your question about the bricks. The Hawthorn is more expensive and they are charging you more? Maybe by $2000 upgrade she is adding that to your $2327, so its $4327. Builders get discount on certain bricks, so if you chose another that price may not beat the builders discount.
There is a thread going around about 3 phase power. For my 20 meters (stobie pole to house) my builder is telling me my total cost is $1500. Remember they dig this into the ground and go across the block to the meter box, so even if you house is 6 meters from the power pole, your meter box maybe 20. I learnt this the hard way.
Cant help with robes.

Layla,

Would not be surprised with some of those upgrade prices. As I have mentioned before to others, try to close your eyes
on the upgrades and just look at the end price of your total build. That way you will not cry. Well maybe not as much.

We paid around $80 per door extra for Corinthian Colonial internal doors and i knew that was probably double what the upgrade
should have been, but also what cost do we say for convenience. Sure I could have just got plain doors, but then after stuffed
around down at Bunnings buying 20 internal panelled doors, getting them home, fitting them, painting them.. What cost is our time?

Bricks I wont comment too much on but they can vary massively for upgrades.

Three phase seems a little high but can depend on your run in.

Ozz

hello,


sorry i dont know about the other stuff but i personally think thats they are major major majorly ripping you off on the 3 phase power. coral only charged us $499 for ours.

good luck

caitie

I all depends on the circumstances. Ours cost over 10K at a bargain price.

cheers
zeke

Layla,

We paid $62 per door to upgrade to stanford doors garage internal acess door was slightly more... for 3 phase power that seems about right... but the price does vary from builder to builder quite a bit! Wardrobe doors can't help you on but with the bricks we found that the builder had their own categories and it didn't matter how much the brick makers website had a price on them... we had to re pick our bricks due to supply issue and the amount of bricks that had changed categories was amazinf but the brick makers had not put the prices up...

yes very pricey! My doors were $50 each and the gas, less than $500.

Thanks for all your advise. I might give them a call tomorrow just to see why there is such a big difference in the door prices, etc... it feels really unfair with the cost of some of the upgrades. I feel like everything is a bloody upgrade!

Ozz, you're right! I should just try and close my eyes and think of the end price (&product).

Thanks everyone for letting me vent!

Hi Layla

Just remember things like doors and wardrobes can be done post handover - especially the wardrobe. Do your homework now - get your concrete quotes including installation and find out how much credit you will get, the maths is easy. I'm getting to the stage where I don't want to give my builder any more money than I have to! Good luck with it.

What if you just bought the doors from bunnings and just copied the screw placement yourself, then sold the other doors on ebay?

builders suck sometimes, everyone is out to make more money than they should. problem is they dont get anything out of it as to pay for it everyone increases their prices. inflation is out of control, but i digress...