Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Ben Trager - OMFG PLEASE DO SOMETHING RIGHT!!!!!!!! 241Nov 28, 2013 10:49 am My Hamptons build (completed): viewtopic.php?f=31&t=63370 Moved in Wednesday 11th Dec 2013 Front landscaping completed June 2016 Re: Ben Trager - OMFG PLEASE DO SOMETHING RIGHT!!!!!!!! 242Nov 28, 2013 11:14 am My Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=62841 Re: Ben Trager - Secret Harbour 247Nov 30, 2013 9:08 pm 101 Residential in Burns Beach viewtopic.php?f=31&t=67711 Shire Approval 31.12.13 Slab Down 15.02.14 Moved in 14.10.14 Re: Ben Trager - Secret Harbour 249Dec 03, 2013 7:19 pm Hrmmm......How to not swear. This is a joke, did our housing industry start last year or have they been doing this for decades. On the bright side, apparently if I become unemployed I can get a job with Ben Trager homes as....well whatever I fell like because apparently I don't need skill, ability or in some cases (WC waste) common sense. I feel for you mate, they do not seem like a company that should have gone into double story homes. 4 Months and we can have a beer out the back of mine. lol who am I kidding....6 months Hope your build goes well Builder - Aveling Homes Type - Luxury collection 4x3 Design - Chicago My build viewtopic.php?f=31&t=64958&p=1024362#p1024362 Re: Ben Trager - Secret Harbour 252Dec 06, 2013 12:24 pm tsmith They should just pull the whole house down and restart, or even clear the whole lot and let you walk away from them and build with someone else Maybe a bit of an over-reaction??? Do you happen to work for APG? Sucks that you're having issues OWF, and agreed that it seems like a lot of trades seem to lack care (I think most of them could do a good job, they choose to take the easy route), but hopefully you'll still end up with a good finished product. Re: Ben Trager - Secret Harbour 253Dec 06, 2013 12:52 pm Sorry to see your hassles owf - I think there is a relatively high degree of inaccuracy in the "build the frame off-site" approach that companies are still learning/working through. Lining up the balcony seemed to be the primary cause of issues for us - since minor variations would have been irrelevant in the roof work otherwise. Similarly for you, the slab is pretty immovable... Edit: forgot to ask for an update on what their proposed resolution was? oncewerefurriers It's simple risk analysis. If you hire someone you know makes mistakes, mistakes are more likely to happen. If all companies didn't re-hire bad tradies they'd be out of a job and couldn't make the mistakes. Unfortunately the costs of the mistakes are often less than the costs of not doing the business in the first place... The trades aren't available - compromises are made to keep building houses. Plus you see on here how impatient people can be with their build - so imagine what it would be like if companies waited around for good trades only. People here would be screaming that about lack of progress on their build. It is the project management triangle (there are lots of similar variations): Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ You can have it fast, cheap, good - now pick two. If you want it fast and cheap, it isn't going to be good. If you want it cheap and good, it isn't going to be fast. If you want it fast and good, it isn't going to be cheap. Unfortunately for the Perth market at the moment, there is sufficient demand (and availability of other work) - that getting the "good" option can sometimes be slow and expensive. And as owners, we don't always help the situation by properly understanding the impact of our demands. My choice is always to focus on the quality and I think our build is probably a bit slower as a result but I'm willing to accept that. (ps. if it isn't obvious, I'm a project manager which maybe helps my approach too) Demo + Build in Rivervale, Western Australia Moved in June 2014 http://rivervale.tumblr.com/ Building Thread Re: Ben Trager - Secret Harbour 255Dec 06, 2013 4:52 pm Fast and good is an extremely rare combination. Cheap and slow is the one our builder is using Hope your build goes well Builder - Aveling Homes Type - Luxury collection 4x3 Design - Chicago My build viewtopic.php?f=31&t=64958&p=1024362#p1024362 Re: Ben Trager - Secret Harbour 256Dec 06, 2013 6:11 pm tsmith I don't work for them but I hope they are better than BT... I won't be building till next year, and I haven't chosen a 2 story builder yet Something to be aware of then is that BT and 101 (that I'm aware of) use the similar timber truss frame upstairs as a way of keeping costs down. BT still use a concrete slab upstairs whereas 101 have the entire upstairs manufactured off-site as a pod. There are some plus or minuses of each approach - some discussed in this thread here. Noise is usually listed as the key objection to the approach - but we lived in the UK for 4 years in flats with similar accommodation so it depends what you are used to. Plus our design has the master bedroom space upstairs, mostly over the garage space - so it would only be me or my wife heard upstairs and imho, anyone downstairs can just deal with it The benefit of the approach that 101 and BT use is that it is a lot more affordable - we had 4 quotes from WB, Broadway, Lorimer and 101 for the same basic 4x2 with master bedroom/retreat upstairs that all came in within $20k of each other ($400k+) but where the first 3 had around ~330sqm living space, we have ~400sqm with 101. Plus a guest ensuite. Plus a layout that we preferred a lot more. At a cost of someone in the theatre room having slightly more noise if we happen to be having a shower at the same time compared to the traditional build. So yeah, all factors you might want to consider if you are looking at two-storey homes. Tho we also liked the APG homes too - unfortunately they didn't have a style we liked within our budget range. SslayerR Fast and good is an extremely rare combination. It isn't rare - it is just expensive. And the majority of people will be restricted by budget in some form or other. The people with budgets high enough to afford "fast and good" are usually too busy working hard to have time to post on here SslayerR Cheap and slow is the one our builder is using And based on the triangle, that should infer that it will be good Demo + Build in Rivervale, Western Australia Moved in June 2014 http://rivervale.tumblr.com/ Building Thread Re: Ben Trager - Secret Harbour- Kissed and Made up 257Dec 06, 2013 6:28 pm I'm going to step in and add that we had a very productive on-site meeting with Ben and the construction manager. I over-reacted somewhat the other night and I'll hold my hand up. I made some allegations that, with the benefit of hindsight, were a slur on Ben Trager. At the time I wasn't aware of certain facts that I do now. The problem with the balcony was being dealt with (with the engineer) and (again with hindsight) I should have talked to Ben. I won't talk about what was said between us and Ben but we've taken a huge step towards being 100% happy with the build. I can't say I'm happy with the engineers solution but I'm happy with Ben Trager's approach to resolving it. There was a communication failing between us and BTH, which we've now sorted out and (hopefully) will make things much better. We have an approach to our build which is more hands-on than a) most other BT customers b) BT are used to We've now come to a happy medium that satisfies both of us One last point. How many times have customers had a 1 hour on-site meeting with the owner of their building companies? Who else has the personal e-mail address of the owner of their builder and an open invitation to use it? Re: Ben Trager - Secret Harbour- Kissed and Made up 258Dec 06, 2013 6:31 pm oncewerefurriers One last point. How many times have customers had a 1 hour on-site meeting with the owner of their building companies? Who else has the personal e-mail address of the owner of their builder and an open invitation to use it? Haha - gloating doesn't suit you, owf Demo + Build in Rivervale, Western Australia Moved in June 2014 http://rivervale.tumblr.com/ Building Thread Re: Ben Trager - Secret Harbour 259Dec 06, 2013 6:32 pm tsmith I don't work for them but I hope they are better than BT... I won't be building till next year, and I haven't chosen a 2 story builder yet tsmith read my point above before you jump to conclusions. Re: Ben Trager - Secret Harbour- Kissed and Made up 260Dec 06, 2013 6:35 pm zaxon oncewerefurriers One last point. How many times have customers had a 1 hour on-site meeting with the owner of their building companies? Who else has the personal e-mail address of the owner of their builder and an open invitation to use it? Haha - gloating doesn't suit you, owf I like to think I'm a big enough man to admit when I made a mistake. I'm not the only one It's only fair I, at least, give credit where it's due. Ps There's someone on-site now doing something so more photos later for the piccy-piggies Depends how much direct sun it gets. Is there any shading (eaves or trees)? If the sun hits a window directly it doesn't matter too much if it's double or single… 1 13060 9 26042 Congratulations! Nice to put that to bed before christmas, now you can relax 3 7696 |