Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Nov 09, 2023 7:32 am Hi Everyone, Something really bad happened to us last week, and I thought it might be an interesting learning exercise for all of us. We are building a gorgeous duplex for a fabulous client. The build had been going extremely smoothly and and we were on track to have frames finished last week and the roof on by the end of the month. That was until last Monday night. Late Monday afternoon, our bricklaying crew finished building the upper double brick party wall. This was a 3600mm high wall, 25m long consisting of over 10,000 bricks. The very next morning our carpentry crew were due to head to site and finish the upper frames. Tuesday morning I get a call from our client saying that the neighbour had been in contact and the wall had collapsed. At 3am a massive storm had come through with winds in excess of 100km/h and blown it down. The mortar was still wet. The resulting damage was all of the upper frames were destroyed, the lower frames and structural steel on the side where it fell were destroyed. Approximately $160,000 in damage. Basically 75% of the work needs to be rebuilt. Thankfully, we take out contract works insurance on all our jobs. We have never had to make a claim before. Our premiums are around $3,000 per job, a minor amount in the scheme of things I know a lot of builders who don't take out contract works insurance to save costs, and clients who rarely build are probably unaware that this is an actual thing to ask about. We all know about HBCF, workers comp and public liability, but often don't think about what would happen if a storm hit, or some other catastrophe. So the lesson to learn is when you are assessing which builder to use, make sure you ask them if they take out contract works insurance. Here are some photos of the damage Cheers Simeon Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Re: Contract Works Insurance - Why your builder should have 3Nov 09, 2023 8:02 am ![]() Glad you have insurance, but that must be stressful for the poor client. Hope the cleanup goes well and you get it back on track Thanks! We got permission to do the clean up to make the site safe and that work finished yesterday, now just waiting on the insurance assessor to come to site. Hopefully that goes well Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Re: Contract Works Insurance - Why your builder should have 5Nov 09, 2023 9:20 pm ![]() damn. So will bricks be cleaned and reused, or will new bricks be delivered? In Victoria all materials must be new, as part of builders’ warranty unless there is prior agreement. Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: Contract Works Insurance - Why your builder should have 6Nov 10, 2023 6:40 am ![]() damn. So will bricks be cleaned and reused, or will new bricks be delivered? I'm not 100% sure yet. We might be able to reuse some of the undamaged ones and get new ones for the balance. As it's a party wall they are commons. Have to see what insurance says. Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Re: Contract Works Insurance - Why your builder should have 7Nov 28, 2023 3:43 am Hi Everyone, Quick update on this one. We finally got the meeting with the assessor yesterday. From the correspondence I have seen it would seem that for claims of this size an independent company is appointed to do the assessment. I could be wrong on this trigger point, but it was definitely an independent company. I wasn't able to attend the meeting, but my partner said the assessor was an old school builder type gentlemen, who was incredibly switched on and was very thorough, professional and probing with his questions ( sounds like he was very good at his job). Rightly so, he has asked us to provide evidence ( receipts) of the work to date to make sure we are not over claiming for the rebuild v the original build. We will do that today. So the bottom line is it looks like we have lost 3/4 of the duplex. We should have the engineer's report in the next few days confirming what we can and can't keep and then we can start the repairs. The good news is that our carpentry crew are working through Christmas so can hopefully catch up on some lost time. Till next time Simeon Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Re: Contract Works Insurance - Why your builder should have 9Mar 14, 2024 4:26 pm Hi All, I just wanted to close this topic out with an update. So we ended up agreeing to a number with the insurance company, and after an extensive amount of hand demolition, clearing and rebuilding, this week we finally got the party wall rebuilt! Basically one whole side of the duplex was so extensively damaged it required a full rebuild. It is hard to explain just how bad the damage was! Major steel beams were bent like bananas from the force of the bricks collapsing. Anyway, back on track now and check out the props which we did as the wall was being constructed.....just to be sure! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Unless there is something in special conditions the builder does not have to give you timeline. If your demolition contractor has not removed Asbestos and it was found… 12 31207 ![]() I've decided, after a period of confusion (my building broker told me it's probably not worth it to use a lawyer, but others have said it is a must) that I definitely will… 7 29369 ![]() Yes, the builder is required to finish the wall. What else have you missed? 1 4373 ![]() |