The dreaded Christmas shutdown

So, where are you stuck at now everyone has closed for the Christmas break?

Our site has been cut for the slab and pegged... Now we wait! So frustrating to just get started then to have to stop!

My roof was supposed to go on before Christmas but the delivered the wrong tiles !

We are on our second shutdown. Not happy about it but nothing you can do. Just waiting for final fit out, keys should be in about eight weeks.

We were really lucky and got a slab,
When they go back it can really start
18 extra working days added because of Xmas break to end finish date.

Shutdown, what shutdown? Our builder & his crew worked through Christmas and last weekend, had a handover yesterday. 3 months ahead of contract deadline.

How do they work out that it is 18 extra days for Christmas/New Year break ?

Take out 5 days for this week, which is fair enough, but that means 13 work days unaccounted for.

So even if you take out 3 days leading up to Christmas Day (last Thursday), where is the extra 10 days (2 working weeks) being taken out from?

Most businesses will be open from next Monday, or even Tuesday if they wanted a long weekend, so there's no real reason for the 18 days total, unless he's taking his only personal holidays, and that to me should have been put in your contract.

Oh Marcia, I think I'd die!

I'm hoping they go back next week but I'm not sure at this point. I think the head office is closed until the 13th so I'm not hopeful that anything will happen before then.

We are living on a brand new street. As a result there is a lot of construction happening at neighbouring houses... A few of the builders we haven't seen tradies there since the 19th of December (Fairmont, Hickinbothan/Statesman & Sterling).
But a few other builders - Rivergum, Format and Dechellis have had people in intermittently over the break. There was someone at the Rivergum place across the street this morning doing guttering and a Format home was being painted up until 5pm on Christmas eve!

As long as they're not thieves doing a dash and grab that is awesome activity! Mesophyte, who is that amazing builder????

We're beyond dying. We are resigned to it happening when it happens. Doesn't mean though, that the builder isn't copping a bill from us for the extra rent and landscaping package we have just lost due to their lack of speed.

That really is beyond a joke Marcia.

Hi all please see below for EB builders hopefully start back up when their head offices re-open.


Christmas / New Year Closures: Please note Our Sydney and Hunter office are closed from Wednesday 24th December and will reopen on Monday 5th January 2015.

Sydney Head Office
Level 3, 22B Brookhollow Avenue
Norwest Business Park, Baulkham Hills NSW
PO Box 7210, Baulkham Hills BC 2153
Tel: 02 8860 9222
Fax: 02 8860 9233

Hunter Region Head Office
Thornton Supa Centre
Unit 6, Cnr Thornton Rd & New England Hwy
Thornton NSW 2322
PO Box 3204, Thornton NSW 2322
Tel: 02 4028 6259

Block work finished and solid filled, so trusses and framing to get started after the Xmas break. My builders do not start again until 12th January - all in the contract though

We were so close to the finish line and now the shutdown. All electrical finished so just the final fit out of shower screens and mirrors etc. its killing me as Ihave to drive past it every day in my way to work and its torture seeing it so close but now at standstill....

[quote="DonThom"]We were so close to the finish line and now the shutdown. All electrical finished so just the final fit out of shower screens and mirrors etc. its killing me as Ihave to drive past it every day in my way to work and its torture seeing it so close but now at standstill..../quote]

Oh yeah that would be the worst. At least I still don't have the finish line in sight

Used a small local (NE Melbourne) builder. Was an all-around awesome process.

Oh DomThom that really would be horrible!

It was not so long ago that the whole building industry shut down for 4 weeks over the Christmas break. Now it is much shorter.
Builders work hard these days and they deserve a break. I wonder how many people posting comments here, are on leave at the moment?
Having worked in the building industry (but not for many years now) it never ceases to amaze me that so many people have to have everything finished by Christmas and Easter.

Dangerous comment to make.

I'm not whinging about the builders closing down over Christmas, far from it. Everyone deserves holidays and having built before, we know that the industry has always shut down at this time.

My own whinge is that this is the 2nd shutdown we have faced. We aren't building the Taj, rather a 4x2 single storey in sunny Perth that we were promised by the builder would be our very own by this Christmas 'for sure, without a doubt' (their words, not ours). But due to their delays and poor management we are now experiencing a $15-20k blowout in out of pocket expenses and a 20 month wait for keys.

I don't think anyone expects keys by Christmas or Easter. But they do expect honesty, integrity and commitment to customer service, something which many builders seem to lack at times.

Marcia,
Please explain why you are so upset with my general comments to come back with a personal attack by stating that they are "dangerous comments to make and very uneducated".

I see that your post has now been edited to remove the "very uneducated" comment.