We are nearly finished a reno that is wayyyyy over budget and 6 months outside estimated finishing time.
Builder has already submitted his final bill. Cheeky buggar ( for want of a far more derogatory term) has not finished. Number of things not done, final bill $ nearly $6000 more.
We have emailed him with this list - he has given us a reply that indicates he must fix statutory things...we really don't want him back in our house.
Throughout the process he would turn up before we went to work and about after an hour after we left he would leave the job and go to another job only returning just before we came home from work. Our neighbours texted us everytime he left.
One major issue we have at the moment is the driveway.
Our old house was a single car garage and single driveway...our new house is double with double. In his provisional costing's he has listed cutting out crossover....he has not listed the driveway as an exclusion. At the time he made us pay for it and we were too embarrassed to question him on in. Then when we reread his costing's at the end we saw the part where the crossover was cut out....So now we want what we paid extra for the driveway back. The other builder who quoted said the driveway must be included as how elese would you get in to your driveway?
Would appreciate feedback and advice
Factors we are concerned about: ( and listed to builder)
• The manhole is unfinished – no architraves and no covering.
• The nib wall is unfinished.
• There is a join in architrave above the back sliding doors that needs to be repaired.
• The front door is not straight. It appears to be bowed and not in line with the door frame and rattles at times.
• 3 of the internal doors rattle. A building friend has said these could be adjusted.
• The main skirting corner in the lounge room is rough and sharp.
• The architraves in the hallway were an issue. The house was a renovation , it was not the front and the back. When you quoted on the job it was the whole house. We realise that the floor guy had removed the middle skirting board and that had to be redone, however the two hallway doors needed skirting to match the rest of the house. It would have taken you an hour or so to fix them, instead we had to pay someone $120 to do them.
• Removing the kitchen was work that you didn’t have to do.
• A day and half was spent removing concrete spray from the front glass windows because the concreter or whoever forgot to cover them. We were only alerted to this fact after a few days when the renderer said if you don’t get that concrete of it will stick for ever.
• The plumbing bill. One bill is dated 10th Jan and the other two are both dated 30th July and there are no details as to hours or materials used. In the last two weeks we completed the other bathroom/ laundry. The plumber charged us $900 for the laundry, toilet and bathroom fit out and finish off for which we received an itemised account. Apparently quotes over $3300 should be itemised. We need more detail. The skips , excavation and cutting are provided in great detail but the plumbing figure is much greater and should be able to be accounted for.
• There appears to be no able flex at front sideway
• On the plans there was Axon cladding to be included at the rear, the side and the front entry to the house. After the frame was up we had a conversation and we decided just to render as we couldn’t decide on a colour there and then. The omission of this cladding has not been reflected in your final figure.
• Did your tally of the tilers time and tiles include the front door entry door and the front double door sections?
• Your quote allowed $6800 for cutting excavating and skips. The actual costing was $10,176.10. So the makeup amount is 3376.10. Your allowance was for $6800 cutting, excavating and skips as the figure regardless of the crossover section being done.
• The crossover. At the time it happened we were surprised by that but being novice renovators we didn’t know how to bring it up and you said it wasn’t your job. In all fairness our renovation was for a single carport/ driveway to become a double carport with a double driveway. That was what was on our plans. You quoted on that job and the crossover is not listed as an exclusion but cutting the crossover out is listed in proposed provisional costing’s. To us It goes to follow that if you were cutting the crossover out you would have been replacing it and factored in the concrete component of the job quote. We rang the other builder who also quoted on the job and he said a driveway was included in his quote – how else would you get in the garage? His quote was very similar to yours. The driveway has ended up being a total disappointment to us. The fellow that did it charged us extra because the fence was not excavated out correctly (despite excavation fees) and we have ended up with a horrible bump at a grand cost of $3450.
• A crack has appeared in the floor over the section where the two slabs meet. We are not sure how this will progress. At the moment it is a hairline fissure/crack in the concrete floor and it is on both sides of the kitchen benches.
- there are issues appearing also.
Bit stressed at moment - would appreciate advice on how to handle conversations with builder