Montgomery Homes

Would anyone be able to provide information on their experience with Montgomery homes.
Were you happy with the end product? Any downside to building with them?
Cheer

We have hand over of our Carolina with Montgomery on 23 March and have not had any major issues during our build.

Two, maybe three very minor issues that our site supervisor had rectified promptly.

A very positive experience from initial contact through contracts and during the build.

We've just had painting completed (1 coat to go once other trades finish up) and everything is looking great.

We really couldn't recommend them highly enough.

Link to my blog is in my signature if you wish to have a look at our journey.

Cheers,
cliffo

My experience was not as pleasant. Pm me if you want details.

My dealings with have left me wondering if I would ever build again after building 3 homes previously. The quality of their homes is questionable and they just keep adding to the price even when I have signed.

If you have a sloping site, speak to a local builder who can customise something for you. Montgomery Homes - Worst Experience Ever !!!

I sympathise with you. We have been in nearly 8 months now and Montgomery homes are yet to fix the majority of our defects. We still have orange defect stickers all over our new house. It is left to me to chase up the subcontractors like boral for the gyprock etc. Gutters overflow every time it rains. There are lots of things I won't go into here but their communication and dealing with and closing out issues is terrible. Quality is pretty average in comparison to other builds I have seen (I have friends who have built masterton, allworth and clarendon). I recommend looking elsewhere. I wish I had spent my $360,000 with someone other than Montgomery Homes.

I sent you a pm with further details of my experience with Montgomery Homes.

Don't build with Montgomery Homes. Was the worst experience of my life and I have built once before. I had some idea of what to expect and realised that building a house is not all smooth sailing but this experience was like being in a dingy in a cyclone.

They must use different contractors in their display homes because the quality of finish is nothing like the displays. I am not talking about nicer tiles or benchtops, I am referring to the quality of the way the bricks are laid, the finishing of the painting, the way the skirting is fixed, the cornicing, walls with bends in them...... it never stops.

The site manager has his head in the sand and thinks there are no issues. Will see that when OFT get involved.

Are they slotted?

Update. Been in for a year last week! Still chasing Montgomery Homes to close out some plumbing Quality Assurance issues raised by Fair Trading during the build.

I have had big problems with subfloor groundwater and moisture. Montgomery Homes did not want to know about it and said under floor drainage is my problem which contractually is true but it is a head in the sand approach.

Since handover I have had a significant amount of drainage works done under the house by others to try and rectify the problem. It would have been much simplier and overall cheaper for me if Montgomery Homes installed drainage under the house during the build process when they had excavation equipment and plumbers on site. But they chose not to and so all works have had to be done by hand with shovels and buckets through the access door at significant time and cost. I have also had significant amounts of excess soil, loose roots, builders rubbish, bricks etc removed to clean up the subfloor and minimise termite risk and areas for water to pool.

I think Montgomery Homes' choice to provide no drainage under their houses is a big mistake for a builder who specialises in sloping sites where ground water ingress and subfloor moisture is an obvious issue. They only provide a capped off pipe for future drainage works to be done by others (through the limited access - cant even get a barrow in there). They could have done the required works in a few hours when the excavator was on site.

In addition to the drainage works I have also had ventilation fans installed to try and control the subfloor moisture content. The timber frame and subfloor are currently at 18-22% moisture content which is still too high. High moisture content is a big termite risk and also results in mould growth on timber, corrosion of connectors, corrosion of steel work as well as a persistence of warping of floorboards, etc. I have had to pull up carpets because of the mold and moisture.

I am now looking to get a subfloor vapour barrier installed to get the subfloor timber moisture content down to acceptable levels.

In summary I would have expected Montgomery Homes to forsee and address some of these issues. There is nothing particularly special about my site. To be clear it is groundwater ingress not surface water run off that has been the problem. They should provide proper drainage under the subfloor of sloping sites not a single capped off pipe only and leave the rest to the owner after handover. Most owners are not builders and dont want to have to deal with this after handover. I battled with Montgomery Homes for 6 months and they consistantly told me they would get the plumber to address the issue but finally they decided to do nothing when it got too hard as contractually they did not have to.

FYI my decision to build was a toss up between Montgomery and Tullipan. Prices and inclusions etc were about the same. I now wish I went with Tullipan for the above and other quality/finish issues. Tullipan seem to have some good reviews.

Hi Cliffo, would love to read your blog, we are going with Carolina 302