Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jan 29, 2022 9:56 am Excavation was officially completed on the 4th of April 2021. With Slab poured on 1 May 2021.
Currently we just finished Gyprocking before Christmas break, and had the stairs installed this week (slow I know! but we did build during a period where we got unlucky with both brick, covid and timber delays!!). Re: Betterbuilt homes BBH hampton style build 3Jan 29, 2022 1:47 pm Hi There! We are also currently building a two-story and are half way through with bricking. Agree with your commends around the independent inspection - we ended up leaving it. We also picked up minor issues which they then rectified (at the framing stage). They were pretty good about it (but I'm guessing that's because they would have no choice but to fix the frame of the building! Interested to see how you build goes Re: Betterbuilt homes BBH hampton style build 4Jan 30, 2022 12:56 pm Super exciting! glad to here they rectified it. Hope things go smoothly Re: Betterbuilt homes BBH hampton style build 5Feb 03, 2022 3:56 pm Thanks for posting Happyue, i am currently trying to decide between BBH, clarendon and wisdom and noticed that next to no one had written about BBH for a couple of years which i find very odd given they build quite a few homes. What design are you building and how much above their base price have you gone with other fees and 'upgrades' and will you be doing anything post handover. I look forward to your pictures and thoughts as you continue your build. Re: Betterbuilt homes BBH hampton style build 6Feb 04, 2022 3:05 pm Sanka1 Thanks for posting Happyue, i am currently trying to decide between BBH, clarendon and wisdom and noticed that next to no one had written about BBH for a couple of years which i find very odd given they build quite a few homes. What design are you building and how much above their base price have you gone with other fees and 'upgrades' and will you be doing anything post handover. I look forward to your pictures and thoughts as you continue your build. Thank you! Re: Betterbuilt homes BBH hampton style build 7Feb 07, 2022 4:27 pm Update since last post.
Last week the main update was installation of doors and panelling of fireplace/entrance room and entrance. Re: Betterbuilt homes BBH hampton style build 9Feb 26, 2022 8:47 pm Happyue Hi we are building with Better Built and notice that there are not many threads out there as they are relatively small builder. We thought we would document our build process in this thread and give honest feedback of our journey to date, and hopefully help anyone else whose looking to build with a smaller builder such as Better Built. My husband's family built with Clarendon very recently, and therefore it was also quite easy to compare the contracts, service etc with BBH to date. Excavation was officially completed on the 4th of April 2021. With Slab poured on 1 May 2021. Currently we just finished Gyprocking before Christmas break, and had the stairs installed this week (slow I know! but we did build during a period where we got unlucky with both brick, covid and timber delays!!). PROCESS BEFORE BUILD: GENERALLY POSITIVE ~ * Neel was a great sales man and was very knowledgeable, whilst we were tempted to go with Clarendon (given my husbands family experience with them was quite positive), we decided to go with Better Built as they were able to do a few more customizations to our house (4m living room ceiling, different facade colors, sunken theatre etc). * Our color appointments, plan appointments etc all went smoothly, and Blaire was kind enough to let us make changes to our choices post signing. Overall a very pleasant experience. * Surprised to find out that Betterbuilt has very strict clause around hiring your own independent inspector which incurs an admin fee of 1250.. and delays to the build (something that some other builders dont have!) BUILD PROCESS May-July 2021: Slow due to timber delays, l waiting for our timber to arrive. July 2021: Covid shut down period! more delays August- October 2021: a slow three months to finish our bottom bricks (our top is cladding), with due to brick shortage November- December/before Christmas shutdown 2021: We had our cladding at the top finished and gyprock. Overall the house is looking good . January 2022: We started looking at instagram and saw several two storey builds (over 5+) by Betterbuilt that start in June/July 2021 being significantly more progressed than ours. Although different builds in different areas could mean many reasons for the discrepency? We did have a conversation with the construction manager . Overall a good experience talking to him on the phone, giving us a bit more confidence that our build is being taken care off and we given a bit more information on when our kitchen, etc will be installed, and hopefully knowing PCI date in March. He also assured us that our build is a priority and understandable, the delays are out of their control. At this rate not sure if we will get our house by early May, but better quality than to rush the build ! We have met with our SS twice, both times he seemed knowledgeable about our build, and has told us that things have been quite busy lately due to covid/delays etc. Hi , We are building with BBH in Sydney and are in the brick stage . The rain has been crazy over the last 3 weeks and significantly delayed the process . Our experience also has been good so far , but find the clause for the private inspection to be ridiculous($1250 for every inspection). I am still thinking of hiring a private inspector for the pre-lining and PCI. My roof has not gone up and my frames have been soaked in rain . I am concerned on any issues that may arise because of that , but BBH says they can withstand weather elements for some time. I have not met the supervisor yet , but spoken a couple of times. @Happyue how do you find the quality of the build so far ? Anything to look out for or check during the different stages ? Re: Betterbuilt homes BBH hampton style build 10Feb 28, 2022 3:09 pm Hi! Yes the independent inspector clause is ridic and unheard of! quality wise, we have not seen anything wrong... however its hard to tell since we don have an independent inspector!! our site supervisor also recently left so currently waiting for new one and construction manager is looking after our build in the meantime. in the past month weve had tiling almost completed. first coat paints, fixes here and there. Re: Betterbuilt homes BBH hampton style build 11Feb 28, 2022 3:15 pm Happyue Hi! Yes the independent inspector clause is ridic and unheard of! quality wise, we have not seen anything wrong... however its hard to tell since we don have an independent inspector!! our site supervisor also recently left so currently waiting for new one and construction manager is looking after our build in the meantime. in the past month weve had tiling almost completed. first coat paints, fixes here and there. happyue Even my site supervisor left , so I believe it was the same supervisor (jo**)I am still going ahead with private inspection for pre-lining and may be for the handover . Did you do the prelining inspection with the supervisor ? Also did the reports from tyrell have lot of issues ? I believe they only do 2 inspections with the clients . Which suburb are you building in ? Re: Betterbuilt homes BBH hampton style build 12Feb 28, 2022 3:21 pm Oh really! hm our site superviser is not JO** its P****. Didnt realise two site supervisors left recently! No, we saw the Tyrells report, there were some critical items which they fixed, otherwise didnt see anything major. We are building innerwest . Re: Betterbuilt homes BBH hampton style build 15Mar 02, 2022 7:47 am Kippers01 @happyue are you concerned that the Tyrells inspection report was commissioned by Better Built Homes? kippers01 I think so, thats why I have my own private inspector even though it's going to cost $1250, I have also spoken to some people who have already built and have had private inspectors, they did find issues after tyrell if you have issues down the line, it will cost you 5 times more to rip off stuff and fix Re: Betterbuilt homes BBH hampton style build 16Mar 02, 2022 7:59 am It would be interesting to see if your private inspection report picks up things that tyrell didn't, and would have been otherwise critical, if you had not gotten a private inspector! I would say tyrell is independent enough to be picking up critical issues (hopefully) but it is difficult to know with certainty Re: Betterbuilt homes BBH hampton style build 17Mar 02, 2022 8:06 am I don't understand why people would think a third party company, regardless of who contracts them would do a dodge on their report, especially in an industry where they could be liable for lots of money in damages. Re: Betterbuilt homes BBH hampton style build 18Mar 02, 2022 8:14 am lazyychef I don't understand why people would think a third party company, regardless of who contracts them would do a dodge on their report, especially in an industry where they could be liable for lots of money in damages. Totally agree, In an ideal scenario everybody has good intentions and they should pick up anything critical. It is just for peace of mind, some one could look again if something was missed and also help clients pick defects which otherwise could have passed Also reading from other building forums, so many people have had major structural issues like cracks even though their builders had their inspection. I believe it's worth the investment considering the money you spend for the house Re: Betterbuilt homes BBH hampton style build 19Mar 02, 2022 9:50 am lazyychef check Tyrell's terms and conditions for their reports and you will find they include multiple disclaimers with the effect they are not liable for anything! This is the same for all consultants that offer basic stage inspection services. Don't confuse this with higher level expert witness evidence that some provide for NSWDFT (fair trading) , NCAT and other defects relatated legal actions. Please explain what, you mean by "liable for lots of money in damages"? Better Built Homes actively discourages customer's private stage inspections with large financial penalties. This is a special condition in their contracts. Some customers were only advised of thiis special condition by BBH after they had paid their tender fees and were particularly angry (and poorer) after they decided not to proceed based on this. Tyrells cannot be independent because they are working for BBH. Same principle applies if they work for you. Seems quite risky for BBH customers letting the 'fox guard the chickens' particularly given the 'perfect storm' combination of their 'value' market positioning, the typical project home builders' pool of sloppy, rushed, low-end sub contract 'tradesmen', and current industry shortage of all tradies and good quality materials. What do you think? It would be valuable for a BBH representative to provide members here with some insights as to how their strict policy of deterring private stage inspections benefits their customers? Re: Betterbuilt homes BBH hampton style build 20Mar 23, 2022 9:34 am HI everyone, long time no update.
We have a new site supervisor who we are meeting on Thursday. to insert rendered moulding around our garage) but nothing major (fingers crossed) and we are seeing people on site almost every day! main updates: - painters finishing final coats - cabinets installed, stone should be installed this week - main floor tiling completing this week (we went for a industrial hampton look with grey tiles rather than the usual wood flooring) Thank you so much everyone. This all makes a lot of sense. I guess when you talk to a builder who butters up everything to look very polished, you get to start believing… 7 18298 Hi We have finally decided to complete a KDR on our corner plot in NE Melbourne suburbs. Given its a corner plot approx. 400 sqm just a standard design may not fit the… 0 8812 |