Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 23, 2009 10:58 am Hi all, Just thought I'd share my experience building with Burbank. We decided to build the forrester 4300 around July 2008. It was a new design then and they didn't have any display homes yet, but we loved the design, size, price and more importantly the 7 star energy rating. Our land wasn't going to settle till Nov 08, so we weren't in a hurry. Due to the GFC around October last year we put the house on hold, just until we knew our finances were not totally wiped out. Anyway. On 19th Dec 08 I called up Burbank to go ahead with the house. They were great enough to give me the price they quoted in July. Even though the price of the house went up $10k. Soil tests were done a couple of weeks later and site costs were quoted. Very seasonable costs $6.5K for HD modified soil with a 1m slope from front to back. We had our colour and electrical on the 21st Jan 09. It took 7 hours . I thought we were flying through it but it just took forever. lol We were happy with our improvements and we came in just under budget. The following week and half was spent emailing the colour consultant as we weren't happy with the brick choices. Hint: Ask for a brick selection list before you go to the colour selection, so you can see the categories and visit houses around your area that have the bricks you like. Bricks look different on a full wall than they do stuck to a plastic tray on the wall. We waited 4 weeks for our working drawings. After weekly email requests for status updates they came back with the drawings and a spanner. They informed us that there is 7.5m building height restriction in Geelong. The forrester is 8.4m. They gave us some options: go to town planning to get approval for the extra height, cut the ground floor ceilings from 2.74m to 2.44m and reduce the pitch of the roof. I was furious, they knew about these height restrictions as it has happened to previous clients in our area. I told them that it wasn’t acceptable as they should have told us before we spent our budget on the colour and electrical session. Anyway, we wanted to keep the 2.74m ceilings so we are digging our foundations down another 30cm and reducing the pitch of the roof. Extra $8k as we need foil sarking for the lower pitch roof. Iwas also furious that they spent 4 weeks on these drawings and they draw them around the wrong way. A total waste of a month. After another set of drawing mistakes we have our third set, that so far look ok. We were also told that we have 7.2 star energy rating. So 4 months on we’re still waiting on contracts and council approval. I can say it hasn’t been a pleasant experience so far, but I’m hoping it will get smoother. Our SS is a mate of mine, so hoping he’ll quicken things up and make sure the job is done correctly. If you are building with Burbank • Make sure you are persistent with them, ask for updates weekly, otherwise you’ll wait forever for things to move. • Ask if there are any council restrictions with the block that could conflict with the house. • Expect the unexpected. And they will cost you $$$$$ We spent $46k above the initial price. • Ensure you love your house enough to go through the pain. Re: Our experience with Burbank.......so far 2Apr 23, 2009 11:12 am Just for the other forrester builders out there. Options we chose. • fill void above kitchen • 5th bedroom in leu of study • Walk in Pantry • Sound batts to the Theatre room • Cold tap to the fridge • 900mm Oven • Essa stone bench tops 40mm • Zoned heating. 1 zone Upstairs and downstairs • double doors to the theatre • remote garage door • internal entry from the garage • more shelves in the linen closet • sliding door to the ensuite • feature tiles to all showers and splashback • mixer taps and shower head upgrades • toilet upgrades. GF hates the look of s bends lol • Double power points everywhere and down lights 1 thing we did was put a power point in the ensuite vanity. just so I can charge my shaver and tooth brush without having them ****** around the top. Re: Our experience with Burbank.......so far 3Apr 23, 2009 11:52 am No happy to hear all the troubles you have gone through, we are building with burbank as well , our is a much smaller house single storey ,25 Sq, we are at frame stage now , hoping that gets done in the next couple of days , we had issues with the final drawing , they had forgot to include 2 small feature walls, had to get that corrected took a long time to fix the drawings. Re: Our experience with Burbank.......so far 4Jul 01, 2009 8:50 pm PieMan We were also told that we have 7.2 star energy rating. Hello PieMan, We have a block of land in Mernda and we hopefully we are going to start building in a few months. We are trying to achieve a 7-star rating. I see that you have a 7.2 star rating. How did you achieve this? The builder that we are proposing to use says that he can't tell us exactly what encompasses 7-star rating without detailed working draws (i.e. pay deposit first and then we'll let you know). So far, we think that the following should help us to achieve this rating: 1. Double glazed western red cedar timber windows and doors all through (U rating of 1.9). 2. R6 insulation to ceiling (ground and first floor) 3. R2 insulation in walls 4. 5,000 litre water tank 5. All living areas north-orientated Hope to hear from you soon. J Re: Our experience with Burbank.......so far 5Jul 01, 2009 9:16 pm tanaka1 PieMan We were also told that we have 7.2 star energy rating. Hello PieMan, We have a block of land in Mernda and we hopefully we are going to start building in a few months. We are trying to achieve a 7-star rating. I see that you have a 7.2 star rating. How did you achieve this? The builder that we are proposing to use says that he can't tell us exactly what encompasses 7-star rating without detailed working draws (i.e. pay deposit first and then we'll let you know). So far, we think that the following should help us to achieve this rating: 1. Double glazed western red cedar timber windows and doors all through (U rating of 1.9). 2. R6 insulation to ceiling (ground and first floor) 3. R2 insulation in walls 4. 5,000 litre water tank 5. All living areas north-orientated Hope to hear from you soon. J They are EcoClassic double glazed windows in the Burbank Forester... Ed "ECOECO" At 'EcoEco', we design windows, we design the best windows, we do it for you, so that when you’re happy we are happy. Tel. 1800 326 326 Re: Our experience with Burbank.......so far 6Jul 07, 2009 1:16 pm tanaka1 PieMan We were also told that we have 7.2 star energy rating. ... I see that you have a 7.2 star rating. How did you achieve this? .... Hope to hear from you soon. J Hi Tanaka, I don't have the full details as burbank future range are all 7 star standed. I know they had to increase the wall insulation to R2 and have self closing exhaust fans. I don't know the ceiling insulation R rating. I might have to ask Burbank. As Ed said Ecoclassic double glazing through out. My house faces north so that didn't help. Sorry I couldn't be more of a help. P.S. Site cut happened today. After 6 1/2 months, they have finally broken ground. Re: Our experience with Burbank.......so far 8Mar 27, 2010 10:08 am Our Forrester 4300 is finished. We signed off on the final inspection on Friday. From the day they drove onto our block ( we demolished our crappy 1960's tin roof hacienda) to start the earthworks on the 9th September last year, we have had an excellent experience. There were no mistakes on our plans, as happened to the unfortunate Pieman below. Our site supervisor said that our block was a dream to work on, as it was a corner block and they had easy access from two sides, so perhaps this helped. The only issue that gave him a bit of trouble was scaffolding close to power lines. We had no height restrictions or other caveats from the council either. The house was finished to perfection as far as we were concerned. The SS showed us one or two things he was having corrected prior to settlement, but the whole thing was exactly as we had contracted. ( We had dispensed with the two voids in the original plan, and now have two upstairs areas you could hold a footy match on!) On the whole: brilliant. I'd use Burbank again without hesitation. If there are any problems in the 3 month warranty for basic structural faults, I'll come in here and let you know in June or July. Re: Our experience with Burbank.......so far 9May 29, 2010 2:01 pm wiremu Our Forrester 4300 is finished. We signed off on the final inspection on Friday. From the day they drove onto our block ( we demolished our crappy 1960's tin roof hacienda) to start the earthworks on the 9th September last year, we have had an excellent experience. There were no mistakes on our plans, as happened to the unfortunate Pieman below. Our site supervisor said that our block was a dream to work on, as it was a corner block and they had easy access from two sides, so perhaps this helped. The only issue that gave him a bit of trouble was scaffolding close to power lines. We had no height restrictions or other caveats from the council either. The house was finished to perfection as far as we were concerned. The SS showed us one or two things he was having corrected prior to settlement, but the whole thing was exactly as we had contracted. ( We had dispensed with the two voids in the original plan, and now have two upstairs areas you could hold a footy match on!) On the whole: brilliant. I'd use Burbank again without hesitation. If there are any problems in the 3 month warranty for basic structural faults, I'll come in here and let you know in June or July. Hi there. we are about to build the forrester and have a build time of 330 days from pour of slab. How long did it take to build your home??? Forrester 43sq We have our keys (3/6/11) Now it's time to decorate (that's the fun part.lol) https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=37598 Re: Our experience with Burbank.......so far 10Nov 05, 2010 10:04 am Hi all, Thanks Pieman for telling us the options you guys choose. We are currently going through the list of options for Forrester 4300 ourselves. Wife likes the Glass Staircase. We are going to Williams Landing Display Home for a second visit this Saturday. Our first visit was to the one in Mernda Display Center. Lady over there reckons the glass stairs are good. Apparently display home in Williams Landing has a glass staircase. Did anyone opted for a glass staircase? If yes, how much did it cost? Regards, Jag Re: Our experience with Burbank.......so far 11Nov 08, 2010 3:19 pm Glass stairs in Forrester 4300 will cost you a fortune. Sales consultant at WL display center reckons it is 20k. We also had a long drive to Arena Display Center in Officer on Sunday. There is BB's Attenborough 3500 with Arlington facade in display. We liked the overall house. This one has a glass stairs too.. It is small compared with Forrester 4300. Should cost less. Attenborough (AB) is smaller in size but is very bright and lets the light in where you want it most. Downside is there is not Theater room. There is an option to convert the front study into a theater. But it is quite small for home cinema.. If we go with AB, we will have the extra dinning/alfresco option and convert the existing living room into theater. Signing off! Jag The OP has gone The latch and striker are definitely not aligned but there was no point trying to help the OP understand that. Hence the reason they are no longer with us. 12 5555 Hi All, Recently we have signed a contract with Burbank and we are not aware that they have just DORSET, SURREY, HAMPSHIRE, KENT, PILBARA and REDGUM bricks from PGH are… 0 3127 I apologise for any confusion, but your understanding is correct. We approached our situation differently based on advice from… 11 53172 |