Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Nov 07, 2008 6:47 pm Hi,
im new here, ive seen so many good info in this forum.Thumbs up for the Forum. We are planning to build a 2 storey house with at least 5 bedrooms in DONCASTER, we've been to National Builders Group display homes in Narre Warren, we are happy with the Buckingham 460E it offers 308 thou for all ensuite, and 280 thou for standards, but for me its abit squarish design. it has 1 bedroom with ensuite which suitable for our old parents. Now im quite interested to visit the homes from PORTER DAVIS specially BROOKVALE 45, the website is amazing, tomorrow will go to cranbourne to see their displays. I see theres a mix opinion for PORTER DAVIS, and not many info on NBG, but the sales there is nice and willing to wait until late to talk to us. The sales talk about how their building structure is better than others, especiall PORTER DAVIS since he mentioned 3-4 times Timing is also important for us, we need to complete in 6-8 months time. Anyone have opinion? Cheers Re: New member, Want to build the house in 6months 2Nov 07, 2008 7:24 pm Wouldn't we all ??
Sorry henry 218 but in my opinion, 6 months is unrealistic - even if you are lucky enough to find a top notch volume builder ! If you read through some of the threads, it will be quite obvious that you will be looking at a minimum of 18 months from when you walk into the sales office to handover. What do other forum members think ? Re: New member, Want to build the house in 6months 3Nov 07, 2008 7:27 pm Welcome to the forum, Henry!
You would like to have the house FINISHED and ready to live in in 6 - 8 months time?? You're dreaming!! As a rough 'guestimate' a double storey usually takes about 8 months to build...this is from the very first day they begin construction, until they hand over the keys. There is so much to organise before you can even get started. Have you land? Is there already a house on it that needs to be demolished? You will need to organise finance, building permits, colours, flooring plans, added extras etc, etc....and then wait for the chosen company to draw up your plans, go to tender, then contract etc, etc. The whole process can take well over a year to complete! There is also whether your chosen builder will build in Doncaster. We started the ball rolling with Henley in May, and still we haven't even got a start date. That was 6 months ago! It has taken us almost a year of solid planning to get where we are today (still no house!), and it is not something to be entered into lightly. There is lots to think about and plan! I wish you all the luck in the world, but it most likely wont happen in 6-8 months. Henley - Wilshire Mk 3 ... I love my house!! Site start: 4th Feb 09 Handover: 10th Sep 09 Blog: http://stormygirlscastle.blogspot.com/ Build Thread: viewtopic.php?t=7166 Re: New member, Want to build the house in 6months 5Nov 07, 2008 8:25 pm Our construction period was almost exactly 6 months Henry, but we're out in the sticks, and the total time from when we put the deposit on the land was still 16 months.
Our house is a single story home from the basic range of a volume builder. Geoff - Decophile. Re: New member, Want to build the house in 6months 8Nov 07, 2008 9:10 pm it took us almost 2 years from quote to this stage... just the building stage takes at least 8 months for double storey...
btw, you're building in doncaster? are you from manila? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Built the Nevada 42 Next project - landscaping! Re: New member, Want to build the house in 6months 9Nov 07, 2008 9:30 pm And then there's the Christmas delay... Although I wouldn't have thought you'd even be on site until February at the earliest. Maybe Christmas 2009 will delay you by another 4 weeks!
We're coming up to 12 months since the first sod was turned on our double story house in Carnegie, but we will be in just before 1 year anniversary of starting building (and 18 months after house was knocked down - and about 2 & 2/3 years since we first walked into the sales office...). 6 months? Good luck! I guess God didn't use subbies... Re: New member, Want to build the house in 6months 10Nov 07, 2008 9:45 pm hmmmm, we all want that!!
we're building with NBG and have had a really good experience. We handed our deposit over at the start of the year and should be in by Christmas. There were a couple of delays such as the builder was a bit slow to get the council permit so we lost about 6 weeks there. From scraping the site to lock up took 3 months- not bad. I know what you mean about the NBG diplays, but they have been VERY accommodating for all our requests and there are no charges post-signing of the contract so for all those things that you forget (ie gas point outside, extra TV point, lights under kitchen cabinet, laundry changes) we got all those in without dramas and the builder was happy to oblige. If you want to change things, you can. NBG sell themselves as a 'what you see is what you get' rather than finding the display you love is an extra $100K which really annoyed me with other builders. I understand double storey brickies are a bit hard to come by. Our neighbours are building with AV and there is 1 guy doing all the brick. It is taking him MONTHS! Whereas we got our brick done in 8 days. Its all down to what you really want, but NBG has worked for us. anthea Re: New member, Want to build the house in 6months 11Nov 07, 2008 10:45 pm thanks for your warm welcome and comments.
i appreciate it, this is our first experience building a house in australia. so we really need more advice from people who had experience in this. vj, im from indonesia btw. cheers Re: New member, Want to build the house in 6months 12Nov 07, 2008 10:48 pm btw anyone use their old house timber flooring to the new one?
we are thinking about that, since its pretty old and can give the natural and antique feel and looks, and we dont have termites problem, so i think still can be use. just dont know if can take out properly and put back in the new house nicely. cheers Re: New member, Want to build the house in 6months 14Nov 08, 2008 7:36 am henry218 btw anyone use their old house timber flooring to the new one? we are thinking about that, since its pretty old and can give the natural and antique feel and looks, and we dont have termites problem, so i think still can be use. just dont know if can take out properly and put back in the new house nicely. cheers Are you demolishing an existing house and then re-building on the same land? You can add at least another 3 months to the equation then! (demo quotes, demo permit, 20 days to cut off gas and electricity, and then about 3 weeks to complete the job after you have moved out). Trust me...nothing happens quickly! We were told by our demolishes that they won't salvage any timber flooring that has already been polished, not sure if yours is, or has carpet on it. It could be done, but are you wanting the floor boards to be the actual structural flooring (on stumps) or direct stick to the concrete slab? Most volume builders these days will only build a house with a concrete slab. Another question...being in Doncaster, there are LOTS of hills in some areas. Most volume builders will not build on any land that has much of a slope at all. This may also pose a few problems... Good Luck!!! Not giving you much confidence, are we!....sorry Henley - Wilshire Mk 3 ... I love my house!! Site start: 4th Feb 09 Handover: 10th Sep 09 Blog: http://stormygirlscastle.blogspot.com/ Build Thread: viewtopic.php?t=7166 Re: New member, Want to build the house in 6months 15Nov 08, 2008 7:39 am Henry Doncaster is around the corner from where i'm building. Expect to pay extra for any project builder to build there as it is a well established area and is no where near the new estates. Re: New member, Want to build the house in 6months 16Nov 08, 2008 7:45 am Re using the old timber - it can be done, but I'd suggest that most volume builders would not be interested as it will take more skill to install it into the new house and they would not be familiar with what is required.
As for 6 months to build and and living in Manila and Doncaster, (migrating I assume) the I think your objectives are way to optomistic. Steve Re: New member, Want to build the house in 6months 17Nov 09, 2008 9:15 am I was really keen on using the old timber from the house we demolished but was talked out of it by lots of people in the industry - not especially cost effective, lots of work involved in removing the old nails etc etc...
In WA, the quickest time I have heard at the moment for building a 2 storey is 11 months (and that's from getting the slab poured). Our allocated contract time is 18 months!! We also were held up in a major way with the demo company, lots of angry phone calls, then my husband and I started tag teaming the phone calls and eventually we got it knocked down (10 weeks after they had the permit to do it - we were initially told 6-8 weeks all up from the time of applying for the permit). Sorry to be so negative about the time frames! Re: New member, Want to build the house in 6months 18Nov 09, 2008 11:58 pm Thank you for sharing guys.
i know its hard to achieve, maybe we are looking at 9-12 months. stormy, luckily our land is pretty flat, we are on the flat side of the road, but still on the high side of the road also. we want to put the flooring on the concrete floor. Minx, PORTER DAVIS ask for additional $10,000 We like their BROOKVALE 50 or 45, but we are thinking to open a VOID in the middle to give some air flow, but the sales said its probably add 15-22K more. Any opinions for the VOID? cheers Re: New member, Want to build the house in 6months 19Nov 10, 2008 8:55 am Hi Henry
We're with NBG (Buckingham 36E). Signed up in Nov07, didn't start the build until Aug08 and expecting it to be complete in May 09. The standard build time on our house is 305 days. All up we are due for about 19 months from committing. There is absolutely NO WAY you will build the house in under a year. If you had all your plans and permits you would get it done, but that stage takes another 4-6 months as well. Good luck anyway. Em Re: New member, Want to build the house in 6months 20Nov 10, 2008 11:04 am henry218 i know its hard to achieve, maybe we are looking at 9-12 months. Still dreamin'!!! Quote: stormy, luckily our land is pretty flat, we are on the flat side of the road, but still on the high side of the road also. we want to put the flooring on the concrete floor. You still haven't said whether there is an existing house on your land to be demolished. This will add about 3 months once you have moved out, then expect to take about 8 months to build (roughly). I honestly don't think you will get it done before a year, particually since there is the Christmas break looming ( about 5 weeks holiday), and you still haven't chosen your house, had a quote done, colour appointment, tender and contract. We had our first soil test done in May, and we are still waiting for a slab. If we are in before Christmas 2009, I'll be very happy! It is not a simple proceedure, and it takes many months of careful planning and stuffing about by the building company. If you do get the whole lot done in 9 - 12 months it will be an absolute miracle. There will be rain delays, there may be trouble getting tradies, or supplies of your chosen products. Something may go terribly wrong with one part of it which will need to be fixed before proceeding to the next step. It does not happen in 6 months!! Especially in suburban Melbourne and with a Volume builder, and double storey and (possibly) an existing house in the way!! I know I have repeated myself, but 9 - 12 months IMHO is still unrealistic. Sorry! Henley - Wilshire Mk 3 ... I love my house!! Site start: 4th Feb 09 Handover: 10th Sep 09 Blog: http://stormygirlscastle.blogspot.com/ Build Thread: viewtopic.php?t=7166 I would be wary. Is you site demilished but nothing else done? Sounds like liquidity problems to me. Our builder did the same. Got hundreds of thousands of dollars of… 2 15393 Sounds like rubbish to me. Ask for the contamination report which I doubt they have. If it's part of a normal subdivision it would have had a contamination report done… 9 5645 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 17591 |