Am I being ripped off??

Matt,

The builder is clearly in error. Your contract states "Provide Catergory 2 Ceaser Stone bench tops (40mm) with undermount sink in lieu of laminate benchtop including drop down sides 100mm thickened edge to front of island bench" . The contract has explicitly introduced the concept of drop down sides (and states that they are 100 mm thickened).

What you've got is "Provide Catergory 2 Ceaser Stone bench tops (20mm) with undermount sink in lieu of laminate benchtop including drop down sides 100mm thickened edge to front of island bench"

Funny how every error is always in the builders favour! You should point out the error to the builder and when they ask you to accept it, say, "sorry, can't do" or whatever it was they told you when you wanted the skirtings painted a certain way.

Cheers,
Casa

Matt, my suggestion is that you take a trip out to the display and check out exactly what they have there, if you don't already know 100%. When we walked through a single storey display in Cranbourne Nth, i ran my hand under the stone bench to check and was surprised to find that in fact it was another piece that had been joined vertically with a chamfer cut to hide it. I didn't check the surrounding benches though.

It does look impressive though. No one would know if you didn't say. But the fact is that you will always be questioning it because money is money.

I think it looks great, but i'm sure the builder would love to hear about one more issue. They are sure gonna love you mate.....

Good Luck.

Why then do they explicitly state 40mm tops in the tender then?

Matt,

In all the project homes we visited in Sydney, it's always like that: you get 20mm by standard (if included), you can upgrade to 40mm but it's joined, not all in one piece, and only in surrounding area. We confirmed about this with all of them and they all said the same thing. Some of them even provide extra fancy feature of inserting a thin metal either in gold or silver colour in the middle.

I think it would be your colour selection or sales person's fault for not explaining it clearly enough or something. Looking from that angle, unless they could prove that it was clearly explained or illustrated to you before the contract signed, you can actually said that they mislead you and may be you could use this as an argument point and get some compensation if possible...

Are there any benifits in having 40mm (but joined)?

I thought the 40mm would be lot stronger than the 20mm and that's why people get 40mm. If it's just a 'joint' then why bother?

- devank

Husbands? Boyfriends?

I think the main reason the benchtops are not 40mm all the way across is because the cupboards underneath would need to be reinforced to carry the extra weight without buckling. That extra reinforcing will cost $$$ and kitchen changes are always very expensive. Almost all builders will only add an extra 20mm layer to the overhang.

20mm of granite, quartz or whatever from a reputable supplier is plenty strong to hold anything most people will put on their benchtops.

And at the end of the day thats what matters to me.

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The price for the bench tops is on the money. They will never redo it and they will just say that its and industry standard.

I agree that they stuffed up in the contract and I bet they change there wording in the future, but I dont think you will have any luck getting a discount or getting them to redo it.