Omnia Homes

Hi,
I am currently looking at building a new home on some land I purchased in Woodlea.

I have spoken to a few builders and so far Omnia Homes seems to be the easiest and most transparent to deal with and reasonably priced.

The only thing is they dont have display homes - should I be concerned?

Hi Terry,
Just wondering how did you go? did you end up building with Omnia?

If the builder don't have a display home, then I would look for existing customers reviews who are building and also who have already built with them. Just my suggestion.

Hi Terry33,

DId you go ahead with your building with Omnia? How did it go?

Hi,
did you go ahead with Omnia Homes?

We are currently building with Omnia homes.
The build is still in progress so I cannot give a complete review yet. However, I can provide some information based on my experiences by far.

The initial experience of selecting a floor plan from their catalogue and customizing it as per our needs was great. Even before signing the contract with them, they spent a good amount of time with us understanding our requirements and customizing the floor plan. Unlike other builders, they accommodated our requests (change of mind) for edits multiple times and did not charge us (administration fees) additional money for those changes. Also, we did not feel that they were pressurizing us to sign with them quickly, as other builders often do.

Initially, we were given a tentative site start date of mid-August 2020 and were told it will take between 6-8 months to complete the build. The building permits got delayed due to the pandemic and restrictions and the site finally started by third week of October 2020 (site cut).

The foundation concrete was poured in the last week of November 2020 (5 weeks after site cut).
We have hired a private inspector for all building stages. We had shared the details of the inspector well in advance and were in constant touch with Omnia homes to let us know about the concrete pour date in advance so that we could book in a pre-pour inspection. However, we were told about the concrete pour on the morning of when it was being poured. By the time we reached the site along with the inspector, the concrete was already poured.
This kind-of threw us off a bit. We enquired why weren't we informed of the pour date in advance, to which we were told that it was our responsibility to get-in-touch with them and know the dates. This is when we were in frequent touch with them, by both phone and email. As the concrete dried, it developed a large numbers of plastic shrinkage cracks, that we have been told are non-structural defects.

Material for framing has been delivered on site but we are waiting for the carpenter to start the frame (as of date - 10th Feb 2021).
We're unsure on what is holding back the progress. It has been around 2.5 months since the foundation was poured. Taking into account the end of year breaks (4 weeks), it is still 1.5 months since the completion of slab stage.

To be honest, I feel that the build is progressing at a slow speed.
I believe these delays are not covid related. Houses on the street that started around our same time as ours are way ahead and are nearing their lock-up stage.

I will keep on posting updates as we proceed with the build. Hopefully this will encourage other customers to share their experiences too.

sid16, how's the progress now?

Frame has been completed and we are currently progressing with lockup stage works (outer brickwork, facade/cladding, etc).
Frame completion took a few weeks longer than it should have. I was told that the framer started late due to other commitments, and then mid-way we were waiting for building materials to get delivered.
During frame stage inspection, the building inspector did find a few things, but overall he was satisfied with the frame work.

Frame stage start date:19th January 2021
Frame completion date: 30th March 2021

We are currently 9 to 10 weeks away from the practical completion and handover date. There's still a lot of work to be done, hopefully the build gets completed in the mentioned time-frame.

Heard that too much builds this year but not enough workers. Delay for sure, wish not much is good enough. Good luck!

Are you building with Omnia too?
If so, at what stage is your build?

Hi AhmedHassan88,

Did you build with Omnia homes?
Would love to know about your experience.

Hi sid16,

We're building with Omnia Homes as well, just wondering if you had to pay for your own soil removal?

Hello sunsin,

That's great to know. How has your experience been by far?
I had my contract price include all site costs.
By soil removal, do you mean the initial clearing the land of grass and other debris before the site cut?
Cause that is something that was initially mentioned to me would cost me extra.

In my case, I initially requested Omnia homes if they could take care of clearing the vegetation on the land, as to get it done professionally would have costed me quite a bit.
I guess the vegetation growing was not that much, and they carried out the site cut.

I remember from when I built, they looked after the soil removal during construction.

I think like most builder's you need to give them the Site cleaned when they start but after that they look after it all.

Ps. My Vrother in-law is now building with them and he shopped around and wanted good inclusions.

They were over $15k better value then his next closest quote which is good too know your getting value if u go with them.

Good Luck

Hi sid16,

Our experience has been very slow also. We have signed the contract in November 2020 and are still waiting to start.
We're not really sure what they mean by soil removal ourselves but the communication hasn't been great. There is no land of grass and other debris on the lot either so I'm not sure what they mean by soil removal. Would you happen to know?

Yeah, my build has been progressing extremely slow as well. Some of the members on this group have had great experience, with the timeline so I am not sure what has changed now.

From the term soil removal, I suspect they mean the initial clearing of the land. If your lot is already debris free, you should be good to go. Having said this, you'll have to get clarity from them what do they mean by soil removal, as from what I understand, all site costs are included in the contract price.

Yup, for my build as well, all soil removal from site cut until now has been looked after by them.

Hey sid, how is your build going? is it completed? are you pleased?

Just built with Omnia
A nightmare journey
High staff turnover, pathetic communication.
Mistakes in built are terrible,
What you will say when you find that the plan built on site is different from drawings
Your slab is built shorter
Thinking to sell the house and built again somewhere else