Browse Forums General Discussion Re: Need help choosing Builder!! 25May 09, 2020 5:31 am marjencait go2force Hi fellas, I have recently bought a land in Jubile, Wyndham Vale. Can you please rate the builders among (Carlisle, Metricon, Henley, Hotondo and Burbank) primarily in terms of 3 parameters (in order of priority)- 1) Customer service (includes willingness to do fixes during build) 2) Quality of finished house 3) Value for money Personal experience with these builders would be greatly appreciated. TIA If you want those attributes you don't want Henley. Currently building with Henley double storey house in Melbourne west. Cant complain about them, but Henley move bit slow in building process and finish product will be quality build. As of now admin is good we dont have any issue with them. All the appointment was fine no doubt Henley is expensive but you can build with peace of mind about quality inclusion and build. Re: Need help choosing Builder!! 26May 13, 2020 11:16 am It's a long thread, not sure if the OP found a builder of their choice but I wonder why does everyone go to the usual top 5 suspects. I've noticed people are apprehensive going to a smaller/medium builders who may be offering better/similar inclusion at a similar price to that of Henley/PD/Carlisle/Metricon. Is everyone too scared of the small builders folding during the build process ? Some of these builders have been in the market for 10-15 years. During my hunt, I was impressed by few of the designs & inclusions by Nostra,Orbit, Omnia, Hotondo etc and best of all they allow you to customise the plans to your liking. Overall the entire building industry is d0dgy then why chase the biggies ? Re: Need help choosing Builder!! 27May 13, 2020 11:25 am KameGame It's a long thread, not sure if the OP found a builder of their choice but I wonder why does everyone go to the usual top 5 suspects. I've noticed people are apprehensive going to a smaller/medium builders who may be offering better/similar inclusion at a similar price to that of Henley/PD/Carlisle/Metricon. Is everyone too scared of the small builders folding during the build process ? Some of these builders have been in the market for 10-15 years. During my hunt, I was impressed by few of the designs & inclusions by Nostra,Orbit, Omnia, Hotondo etc and best of all they allow you to customise the plans to your liking. Overall the entire building industry is d0dgy then why chase the biggies ? Few of my friends build with small builder and i have seen the cheapest quality materials were use. Like floor color start changing, doors are of cheap quality and by seeing the house one can say quality have been compromised. Its like you get what you pay. Re: Need help choosing Builder!! 28May 13, 2020 12:31 pm Instead of hunting for the standard inclusions such as tiles or taps (they all are mostly average price/quality stuff anyway as luxury homes/houses and level of their inclusions is a totally different topic where just a kitchen can cost more than half of typical project builder house) you should rather focus on the quality of the build and technologies used for building your house, e.g. if you get RBV or double brick on rafted slab from a builder A with a free blow up and thermal camera testing for the price of BV with more "poshy" inclusions on waffle pod from the builder B or let's the builder allows you to customise your roof trusses for attic/storage space + structural flooring (those generally cost more). In general, focus on the "inclusions" which won't be possible to change, e.g. higher ceilings or more spacious house is another aspect. Tiles, taps, floors, WCs, cabinets, doors - this thing will be relatively easy to upgrade in the future. Re: Need help choosing Builder!! 29May 13, 2020 12:33 pm Hussain sahara KameGame It's a long thread, not sure if the OP found a builder of their choice but I wonder why does everyone go to the usual top 5 suspects. I've noticed people are apprehensive going to a smaller/medium builders who may be offering better/similar inclusion at a similar price to that of Henley/PD/Carlisle/Metricon. Is everyone too scared of the small builders folding during the build process ? Some of these builders have been in the market for 10-15 years. During my hunt, I was impressed by few of the designs & inclusions by Nostra,Orbit, Omnia, Hotondo etc and best of all they allow you to customise the plans to your liking. Overall the entire building industry is d0dgy then why chase the biggies ? Few of my friends build with small builder and i have seen the cheapest quality materials were use. Like floor color start changing, doors are of cheap quality and by seeing the house one can say quality have been compromised. Its like you get what you pay. Isn't it the customer who is choosing floors and doors (and is also supposed to maintain them)? Re: Need help choosing Builder!! 30May 13, 2020 1:03 pm alexp79 Hussain sahara KameGame It's a long thread, not sure if the OP found a builder of their choice but I wonder why does everyone go to the usual top 5 suspects. I've noticed people are apprehensive going to a smaller/medium builders who may be offering better/similar inclusion at a similar price to that of Henley/PD/Carlisle/Metricon. Is everyone too scared of the small builders folding during the build process ? Some of these builders have been in the market for 10-15 years. During my hunt, I was impressed by few of the designs & inclusions by Nostra,Orbit, Omnia, Hotondo etc and best of all they allow you to customise the plans to your liking. Overall the entire building industry is d0dgy then why chase the biggies ? Few of my friends build with small builder and i have seen the cheapest quality materials were use. Like floor color start changing, doors are of cheap quality and by seeing the house one can say quality have been compromised. Its like you get what you pay. Isn't it the customer who is choosing floors and doors (and is also supposed to maintain them)? Yes you are right and when we upgrade it to standard floor and quality door etc etc it will come to the same price as what big builder charge. I dont know about other builder, but with Henley they are offering us 50 years structural warranty, 12 months maintains etc. See im not supporting any particular builder what I am saying is building a house is one of the biggest investment an ordinary person make. Dont take any chance just to save few $$. Re: Need help choosing Builder!! 31May 13, 2020 1:06 pm I doubt Henley will survive 50 years on this market, frankly speaking. Structural warranty is usually something they can always push back on and blame client for not maintaining the home well, too. So mostly it is just a marketing trick. Re: Need help choosing Builder!! 32May 13, 2020 1:15 pm alexp79 I doubt Henley will survive 50 years on this market, frankly speaking. Structural warranty is usually something they can always push back on and blame client for not maintaining the home well, too. So mostly it is just a marketing trick. So according to you which builder do you think we should go with and what we should consider in builder selection process. I think all this builders are there to make money. Some will charge you upfront and some with upgrades. Re: Need help choosing Builder!! 33May 13, 2020 1:20 pm Hussain sahara alexp79 I doubt Henley will survive 50 years on this market, frankly speaking. Structural warranty is usually something they can always push back on and blame client for not maintaining the home well, too. So mostly it is just a marketing trick. So according to you which builder do you think we should go with and what we should consider in builder selection process. I think all this builders are there to make money. Some will charge you upfront and some with upgrades. The one which fits your quality and service level expectations on one side and budget on the other. For a smaller/less known builder I would obviously do my own due diligence by talking to few of their clients/customers and checking their houses. Project builders are running on fairly thin margins unless they start selling the upgrades - this is where they make most of their money. Custom builders make money on thicker margins but offering customers much more flexibility. I wouldn't use structural warranty as differentiator, though, especially considering that you are highly unlikely to reside in the same house for so many years. Re: Need help choosing Builder!! 34May 13, 2020 1:35 pm My suggested considerations assessing builders, in order of importance is: Honesty and ethics Personal recommendations of real past customers Contract terms Design Price Display home aesthetics Marketing and sales talk Re: Need help choosing Builder!! 35May 13, 2020 2:00 pm Norfolk My suggested considerations assessing builders, in order of importance is: Honesty and ethics That would cull the list as severely as George Carlin culled the 10 Commandments. 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: Need help choosing Builder!! 36May 13, 2020 5:41 pm You would hope Henley had improved over the years. We built with them 22 years ago, with a front balcony (which we didn't really use much apart from some Christmas deco a couple of times years ago). Anyway, recently we had some tiles fall off the front and side edges during some very strong winds, and when we investigated, also found the floor tiles had collapsed into the frame. When the insurance assessor came out and checked, it was determined that the tiles had been laid directly on the tongue and groove boarding (no waterproofing membrane or sealing of any kind), and the edge tiles were glued on with internal adhesive (he was surprised they hadn't all fallen off). To cut a long story short, they rejected the claim as it wasn't done to the correct standard (modern?), so we had to pay for repairs ourselves (in the region of $5,000 mind you)! Trying to find similar colour tiles to the brick was a big problem, tile ranges change so frequently! Re: Need help choosing Builder!! 37May 13, 2020 6:41 pm sparkyf In 2017 Metricon were still constructing their balconies in a similar way, laying balcony floor tiles onto temporary interior grade plywood with no waterproofing membrane. I was fortunate to identify this on an inspection and asked them to do it properly, which they then did. Other customers around the same time experienced collapsed balcony floors. Something to watch out for on builds now. Re: Need help choosing Builder!! 38May 13, 2020 6:42 pm Sparkyf You would hope Henley had improved over the years. We built with them 22 years ago, with a front balcony (which we didn't really use much apart from some Christmas deco a couple of times years ago). Anyway, recently we had some tiles fall off the front and side edges during some very strong winds, and when we investigated, also found the floor tiles had collapsed into the frame. When the insurance assessor came out and checked, it was determined that the tiles had been laid directly on the tongue and groove boarding (no waterproofing membrane or sealing of any kind), and the edge tiles were glued on with internal adhesive (he was surprised they hadn't all fallen off). To cut a long story short, they rejected the claim as it wasn't done to the correct standard (modern?), so we had to pay for repairs ourselves (in the region of $5,000 mind you)! Trying to find similar colour tiles to the brick was a big problem, tile ranges change so frequently! Hi thats very sad to hear about your tiles, apart from tiles what else is not according to the building standard? Re: Need help choosing Builder!! 39May 13, 2020 7:12 pm Talking about builder’s structural lifetime/50/25 yrs warranties, how many have gone through the fine print or even run it through a solicitor? I am no law expert but it’s written well in the builder’s favour, there are tolerances, onus of care by owner/resident, any modification which can make the warranty void. Unless the building has been constructed so badly that it falls apart badly, the lifetime warranties won’t even kick off. Worst of all most builders don’t have plumbing defects covered. I’ve not read Henley’s but Simond/Metricon/PD are similar. Re: Need help choosing Builder!! 40May 13, 2020 7:49 pm If you want a good indication of most builders' behaviour towards consumers with builder’s structural lifetime/50/25 yrs warranties and addressing other defects after handover consider this: https://www.vcat.vic.gov.au/sites/defau ... ty_ltd.pdf They are irrelevant marketing fluff! Hi VK, I am now retired however I have stood beside over 300 owner builders in the past 18 years that have successfully built their own homes. First of all a building… 10 22664 Thanks for the reply. Had a look at the suggested lot and found other problem on easement, which i will asked in separate thread. 2 16658 |