Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Feb 17, 2022 7:08 pm Hi, on the lookout for a smaller builder to partner with for a custom build. Wondering whether anyone has built to completion with either Semore Homes or Oak Living and your experience overall, either good or bad? - limited info online as both appear to be relatively new (few yrs) thanks in advance Re: Anyone built with Semore Homes or Oak Living (VIC) ? 2Mar 10, 2022 4:00 pm Hi wfh. We where thinking of building with inspired at the same time with friends. We got a bad feeling and backed out of the deal as they were parting ways with their builder Como Homes. Long storey short the inspired team tried to convince us to pay another 30k to build with Oak living who where also offering less…… 😒 Further to that out friends continued with inspired and Oak living but have since cancelled as it was just a mess. On another note we are building with Como Homes who have just been fantastic and really care about our home. They even redesigned a new home for us which is just so much better then what I originally had with inspired who really turned out to be terrible in the end. Avoid them if you can. Anyway good luck with your home. Re: Anyone built with Semore Homes or Oak Living (VIC) ? 3Mar 10, 2022 7:55 pm AandNnewhome Hi wfh. We where thinking of building with inspired at the same time with friends. We got a bad feeling and backed out of the deal as they were parting ways with their builder Como Homes. Long storey short the inspired team tried to convince us to pay another 30k to build with Oak living who where also offering less…… 😒 Further to that out friends continued with inspired and Oak living but have since cancelled as it was just a mess. On another note we are building with Como Homes who have just been fantastic and really care about our home. They even redesigned a new home for us which is just so much better then what I originally had with inspired who really turned out to be terrible in the end. Avoid them if you can. Anyway good luck with your home. Thanks for sharing AandNnewhome, we can and will. Our initial few discussions with Semore Homes have left very positive first impressions. Great to hear you're happy with Como Homes and will also look into. Re: Anyone built with Semore Homes or Oak Living (VIC) ? 4Jul 13, 2022 3:15 pm wfh AandNnewhome Hi wfh. We where thinking of building with inspired at the same time with friends. We got a bad feeling and backed out of the deal as they were parting ways with their builder Como Homes. Long storey short the inspired team tried to convince us to pay another 30k to build with Oak living who where also offering less…… 😒 Further to that out friends continued with inspired and Oak living but have since cancelled as it was just a mess. On another note we are building with Como Homes who have just been fantastic and really care about our home. They even redesigned a new home for us which is just so much better then what I originally had with inspired who really turned out to be terrible in the end. Avoid them if you can. Anyway good luck with your home. Thanks for sharing AandNnewhome, we can and will. Our initial few discussions with Semore Homes have left very positive first impressions. Great to hear you're happy with Como Homes and will also look into. I am currently building with SEMORE and in final stages. I would recommend them over many others. The admin process would take some time longer than usual. But is again a good thing if you are not in a hurry to start the site. Build quality , inclusion level, value for money is quite good. Hope this helps Re: Anyone built with Semore Homes or Oak Living (VIC) ? 5Aug 05, 2022 10:55 pm AandNnewhome Hi wfh. We where thinking of building with inspired at the same time with friends. We got a bad feeling and backed out of the deal as they were parting ways with their builder Como Homes. Long storey short the inspired team tried to convince us to pay another 30k to build with Oak living who where also offering less…… 😒 Further to that out friends continued with inspired and Oak living but have since cancelled as it was just a mess. On another note we are building with Como Homes who have just been fantastic and really care about our home. They even redesigned a new home for us which is just so much better then what I originally had with inspired who really turned out to be terrible in the end. Avoid them if you can. Anyway good luck with your home. How is your build going with Como? Re: Anyone built with Semore Homes or Oak Living (VIC) ? 6Sep 19, 2022 8:02 am Tess78 AandNnewhome Hi wfh. We where thinking of building with inspired at the same time with friends. We got a bad feeling and backed out of the deal as they were parting ways with their builder Como Homes. Long storey short the inspired team tried to convince us to pay another 30k to build with Oak living who where also offering less…… 😒 Further to that out friends continued with inspired and Oak living but have since cancelled as it was just a mess. On another note we are building with Como Homes who have just been fantastic and really care about our home. They even redesigned a new home for us which is just so much better then what I originally had with inspired who really turned out to be terrible in the end. Avoid them if you can. Anyway good luck with your home. How is your build going with Como? We are not building with Como, went with Semore homes as were happy with them Re: Anyone built with Semore Homes or Oak Living (VIC) ? 7Jan 27, 2023 11:00 am wfh Tess78 AandNnewhome Hi wfh. We where thinking of building with inspired at the same time with friends. We got a bad feeling and backed out of the deal as they were parting ways with their builder Como Homes. Long storey short the inspired team tried to convince us to pay another 30k to build with Oak living who where also offering less…… 😒 Further to that out friends continued with inspired and Oak living but have since cancelled as it was just a mess. On another note we are building with Como Homes who have just been fantastic and really care about our home. They even redesigned a new home for us which is just so much better then what I originally had with inspired who really turned out to be terrible in the end. Avoid them if you can. Anyway good luck with your home. How is your build going with Como? We are not building with Como, went with Semore homes as were happy with them The happiness will soon turn to despair. Use independent inspectors, find your own don't go with any recommendation from anyone at Semore. I can put you onto one, brace yourself. Re: Anyone built with Semore Homes or Oak Living (VIC) ? 8Jan 27, 2023 12:12 pm SidVicious what are your main issues and concerns with your home? Please provide some details Re: Anyone built with Semore Homes or Oak Living (VIC) ? 9Jan 28, 2023 6:32 am Hi Kippers, The list is extremely long, we have gone many months beyond contract date, 2 years on and we are not at lock up, we are lucky if we see 30 hrs of labour a week. The defects report provided to Semore was over 60 pages it included code violations and extremely poor workmanship, a substantial amount of the issues in the report were raised previously, some up to a year ago and were completely ignored. The site looks like a tip, bins are full and debris left laying everywhere, walls are out of plumb and not square, widows are out of square, sheeting has gone up then ripped back off to straighten walls, we still have water coming in when it rains. Brick walls have to come down as bricks installed incorrectly and damp course wrong. Thresholds are damaged beyond repair as trades use them as boot scrapers (no protection ever provided), flashing are awful visually they are twisted with copious amounts of silicone used to try and seal them, capping's pool water. There is simply no site supervision, one of the directors of the company has stated twice I don't give a f@#k anymore. I have only listed a sample of the issues they go back as far as the slab. Beware, this company only progresses quickly when they want to hide something. Re: Anyone built with Semore Homes or Oak Living (VIC) ? 10Jan 28, 2023 11:41 am SidVicious Hi Kippers, The list is extremely long, we have gone many months beyond contract date, 2 years on and we are not at lock up, we are lucky if we see 30 hrs of labour a week. The defects report provided to Semore was over 60 pages it included code violations and extremely poor workmanship, a substantial amount of the issues in the report were raised previously, some up to a year ago and were completely ignored. The site looks like a tip, bins are full and debris left laying everywhere, walls are out of plumb and not square, widows are out of square, sheeting has gone up then ripped back off to straighten walls, we still have water coming in when it rains. Brick walls have to come down as bricks installed incorrectly and damp course wrong. Thresholds are damaged beyond repair as trades use them as boot scrapers (no protection ever provided), flashing are awful visually they are twisted with copious amounts of silicone used to try and seal them, capping's pool water. There is simply no site supervision, one of the directors of the company has stated twice I don't give a f@#k anymore. I have only listed a sample of the issues they go back as far as the slab. Beware, this company only progresses quickly when they want to hide something. I have been following this thread, and was thinking of using Semore homes, but this has turned me off them. I hope you get everything sorted, it’s heartbreaking to see builders doing this with peoples life savings. If anyone has a had a good experience with a custom builder in the SE please let me know, I am finding it near impossible to find any building groups that have any integrity. Re: Anyone built with Semore Homes or Oak Living (VIC) ? 11Jan 30, 2023 12:04 pm It looks like Seamore homes operates like most volume builders with "supervision" limited just to materials and labour scheduling activity. Its good you are on to them. After you have called them out for bluff, BS and attempted cover ups expect them to use delay tactics to squeeze you financially and emotionallly hoping you will roll over snd accept their defective work like most others do, paticularly if your contractual liquidated damages provision is low. Re: Anyone built with Semore Homes or Oak Living (VIC) ? 12Mar 17, 2023 11:03 am wfh Hi, on the lookout for a smaller builder to partner with for a custom build. Wondering whether anyone has built to completion with either Semore Homes or Oak Living and your experience overall, either good or bad? - limited info online as both appear to be relatively new (few yrs) thanks in advance We "finished" with Semore in December and it was a rush to get us in before Christmas but were happy for this to save on rental money. They promised to get things done in the new year but this is proving to be harder in reality. They are great with the talk but lacking with action unfortunately. Lots of things that they said would be fixed later in the build were never done so its on the PCI list. Windows, doors scratched. Just poor trades and they don't care despite them saying the way they work with trades is different and there is more care and control. All crap. We do have a great home and we love it, but I'm wary to recommend after our experience. Re: Anyone built with Semore Homes or Oak Living (VIC) ? 13Mar 17, 2023 3:09 pm Hi Davos, we've just completed the frame stage with Semore, and I think I can already see what you mean: there are a few things that they assure me "haven't been forgotten", but are still on the to-do list. Do you have any advice or things you would do differently you can share? Re: Anyone built with Semore Homes or Oak Living (VIC) ? 14Mar 21, 2023 3:08 pm SJT76 Hi Davos, we've just completed the frame stage with Semore, and I think I can already see what you mean: there are a few things that they assure me "haven't been forgotten", but are still on the to-do list. Do you have any advice or things you would do differently you can share? Hi SJT76, yes, just keep on top of things as they say they will fix them, some get fixed and some don't. lol Make sure you have all things you want done on email or text, not just a conversation as they are so busy that I think they forget. Don't move in until everything on your PCI list is done and you are happy. Get a building inspector, we did, and they don't have an issue with it and they worked well with the inspector. Anything you think may be wrong or not in the right place, let them know. Especially with the sparky! Feel free to PM me if you have anything else. Overall we are happy with the house but you need to be on top of it. Re: Anyone built with Semore Homes or Oak Living (VIC) ? 15Apr 28, 2023 12:37 pm Davos SJT76 Hi Davos, we've just completed the frame stage with Semore, and I think I can already see what you mean: there are a few things that they assure me "haven't been forgotten", but are still on the to-do list. Do you have any advice or things you would do differently you can share? Hi SJT76, yes, just keep on top of things as they say they will fix them, some get fixed and some don't. lol Make sure you have all things you want done on email or text, not just a conversation as they are so busy that I think they forget. Don't move in until everything on your PCI list is done and you are happy. Get a building inspector, we did, and they don't have an issue with it and they worked well with the inspector. Anything you think may be wrong or not in the right place, let them know. Especially with the sparky! Feel free to PM me if you have anything else. Overall we are happy with the house but you need to be on top of it. Very sound advice. My home was in parallel to be finished in December just before the Christmas. But they ran dry on the tradies. The renderer was on the job last few days and did not go well with fixing work. Finally the supervisor sort of tried to convince me to take it as is and then finish the the to-do list. I said no way . I basically sat on the list until each of the major finishing issues get ticked. It cost me extra two months of rent but saved me a lifetime of high blood pressure seeing poor quality work. At this time we are passing, pretty much every builder would have the same attitude. So us the customers must be on top of things. My advice to any future Semore customers is to have a proper independant middle man ( inspector ) and get things done that way. Re: Anyone built with Semore Homes or Oak Living (VIC) ? 16Apr 28, 2023 12:39 pm SJT76 Hi Davos, we've just completed the frame stage with Semore, and I think I can already see what you mean: there are a few things that they assure me "haven't been forgotten", but are still on the to-do list. Do you have any advice or things you would do differently you can share? If the things are not fixed before the pre-plaster, hold you payment on the lock-up stage until all the issues get fixed. Unfortunately there is no other way. Re: Anyone built with Semore Homes or Oak Living (VIC) ? 17Sep 19, 2023 10:33 pm We are building with oak living ans they have been really good. Ours is a conplex detailed orientated large custom home. Whilst Oak living are only a few years old, one of the owners has been in the industry a long time and he was also the builder who built our current home 8 years ago. The workman ship and quality is very high. There standard inclusions are usually extra with other builders which means they start at a mid level and then you upgrade based on your needs. They cost up things well and there are no nasty surprises with extra costs. They are open and transparent. I would recommend them I haven’t. But have a Lowe Design home. Not only did I find Matt Lowe patronising and a bully, but the home is NOT TO CODE. I have water coming through the bricks… 1 15149 Hi we are looking to talk to people who have built with them recently. We have signed mid range built contract but identified that a lot of things are not included.… 0 1215 Hi All, we are starting to think of building with Masterpiece Builders in Victoria, has anyone had any feedback or experience with them 0 14119 |