Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Provincial Homes 662Sep 04, 2021 12:54 pm Duke145 We built in the last boom, so for us it was very slow. You would think that they would be quicker with less building going on although I'm sure covid will be slowing things down at the moment. Thanks heaps ! How’s your build and quality of build going ? Which home did u build ? Re: Provincial Homes 663Apr 11, 2022 4:53 pm Hi, we are doing a KRB with Provincial in Hornsby council. Building the Woollhara, just signed the commencement fee, waiting on final plans to review. Would love to hear from anyone who is going through a build with them currently and what your experience has been so far? Any advice to make the process more smooth would be greatly appreciated. Re: Provincial Homes 664Apr 16, 2022 3:29 pm We are in the middle of our knockdown - rebuild (KDR) at the moment - building the Brookfield 38. It was significantly delayed because of COVID (including being in one of the "hot suburbs"), supply shortage and the ridiculous amount of rain we've had. We've had a serious misfortune of bad luck with delays almost all out of Provincial's control. Currently they are doing the bricks (which already look amazing) and hopefully the roof will follow shortly after. If you take away the pandemic and the rain (neither of which is a builders fault) causing significant build delays our experience with Provincial so far has been excellent. The sales team were incredibly accommodating and the design team were able to move things around on the plans to give us the slightly bespoke layout we wanted and the selection process was good although we didn't want too many out of the ordinary fixture requests as we were happy with most of the selection options. We found the choices both from Provincial and the tiling company had good options we could choose from. They gave us realistic expectations about the extra build requirements for our land once the survey inspection had been done and made it very clear where potential additional costs would pop up (eg piers at slab stage) before signing the contract. Since signing our contract and starting the build there have been no hidden costs and the only variation coming from upgrading the tile selection because we wanted rectangular tiles in the bathroom. We haven't had any unexpected surprises so far (other than the covid and weather related delays) and the site supervisor has been updating my husband on the situation on the site regularly. My husband drives by on an almost daily basis to see what has happened on site and seeing the bricks finally going on is amazing. When we did our frame inspection I was pleasantly surprised when the site supervisor took us up to the second floor (despite no stairs yet) to look around and he spent as much time as we needed walking through and answering our questions and didn't rush us at all. We've been told once the roof is on the build should speed up as the weather won't be a huge factor anymore and I can't wait to see how it all comes together. I have my fingers crossed the rain can stay away a few more weeks until the roof is on. I think the best advice I can give anyone doing a build (and this would be regardless of builder) is know the costs and put serious thought into what you need eg. in terms of light fittings and cabling, so that you understand where your additional costs are going to be. We negotiated our expected fittings into our initial contract and it ended up so close that our electrical variations were negligible. We used the cost of the show home as our baseline figure (as opposed to the book price) upon which we then understood where additional costs (and reductions) could be made. The other advice I would give, especially if you are KDR, is expect the demo to cost more than you are quoted if the house is an older house. Our demo company found asbestos hidden in the old house concrete slab from previous renovations which added to the costs by several thousand. As much as the cost was unexpected it has given us piece of mind that doing a rebuild has been the right decision. With Provincial specifically we have found the communication good so far and that it has been a smooth process. Even with all the delays, which have been frustrating, they have kept us informed at every stage of the build whether something is happening on site or not. We have been patient as the delays have for the most part been out of their control. Obviously we still have a way to go but I have my fingers crossed the rain will stay away, the build will be able to stay on it's current track and the progress will pick up so we can be in the house as soon as possible. Re: Provincial Homes 665Apr 16, 2022 4:33 pm We have previously build with provincal and have friends who are currently building. They told me its has been slow due to covid and the weather.
Our experience is similiar to the people who have posted both positive and negatives. Highly recommend you read all 34 pages in this thread. Re: Provincial Homes 666Apr 16, 2022 5:27 pm kiwiinoz We are in the middle of our knockdown - rebuild (KDR) at the moment - building the Brookfield 38. It was significantly delayed because of COVID (including being in one of the "hot suburbs"), supply shortage and the ridiculous amount of rain we've had. We've had a serious misfortune of bad luck with delays almost all out of Provincial's control. Currently they are doing the bricks (which already look amazing) and hopefully the roof will follow shortly after. If you take away the pandemic and the rain (neither of which is a builders fault) causing significant build delays our experience with Provincial so far has been excellent. The sales team were incredibly accommodating and the design team were able to move things around on the plans to give us the slightly bespoke layout we wanted and the selection process was good although we didn't want too many out of the ordinary fixture requests as we were happy with most of the selection options. We found the choices both from Provincial and the tiling company had good options we could choose from. They gave us realistic expectations about the extra build requirements for our land once the survey inspection had been done and made it very clear where potential additional costs would pop up (eg piers at slab stage) before signing the contract. Since signing our contract and starting the build there have been no hidden costs and the only variation coming from upgrading the tile selection because we wanted rectangular tiles in the bathroom. We haven't had any unexpected surprises so far (other than the covid and weather related delays) and the site supervisor has been updating my husband on the situation on the site regularly. My husband drives by on an almost daily basis to see what has happened on site and seeing the bricks finally going on is amazing. When we did our frame inspection I was pleasantly surprised when the site supervisor took us up to the second floor (despite no stairs yet) to look around and he spent as much time as we needed walking through and answering our questions and didn't rush us at all. We've been told once the roof is on the build should speed up as the weather won't be a huge factor anymore and I can't wait to see how it all comes together. I have my fingers crossed the rain can stay away a few more weeks until the roof is on. I think the best advice I can give anyone doing a build (and this would be regardless of builder) is know the costs and put serious thought into what you need eg. in terms of light fittings and cabling, so that you understand where your additional costs are going to be. We negotiated our expected fittings into our initial contract and it ended up so close that our electrical variations were negligible. We used the cost of the show home as our baseline figure (as opposed to the book price) upon which we then understood where additional costs (and reductions) could be made. The other advice I would give, especially if you are KDR, is expect the demo to cost more than you are quoted if the house is an older house. Our demo company found asbestos hidden in the old house concrete slab from previous renovations which added to the costs by several thousand. As much as the cost was unexpected it has given us piece of mind that doing a rebuild has been the right decision. With Provincial specifically we have found the communication good so far and that it has been a smooth process. Even with all the delays, which have been frustrating, they have kept us informed at every stage of the build whether something is happening on site or not. We have been patient as the delays have for the most part been out of their control. Obviously we still have a way to go but I have my fingers crossed the rain will stay away, the build will be able to stay on it's current track and the progress will pick up so we can be in the house as soon as possible. Thanks for taking the time for providing your response. Its gold dust to really understand what to keep tabs on and look out for. Its understanding that there are factors that Provincial cannot control in Covid and the rain. I am trying to ensure we are within oout budget when we get to selection as I am concerned it may cost creep then. Thanks again! Re: Provincial Homes 667Apr 16, 2022 8:03 pm FireAnt We have previously build with provincal and have friends who are currently building. They told me its has been slow due to covid and the weather. Our experience is similiar to the people who have posted both positive and negatives. Highly recommend you read all 34 pages in this thread. Like with all project home builders, the provisional allowaces is only a guide and may/maybe be enough depending on your council and your personal preferences. Be prepared for variations for the following items 1) Stormwater: This is maybe a blank cheque that no one can determine the final price until the hydraulic designs are completed. Extra costs could come from requirements such as extra rainwater tanks or a larger one, burying the rainwater tank or OSD. You will need to do research what your local council requirements and personal preferences. Costs could be anywhere $1-$30k. 2) Basix: This is one of those annoying requirements that is really dependent on the person doing the calculations correctly, its an online calculator that you can use yourself and be familiar with it, i encourage everyone to learn and play with it. 99.99% of the time variations are unavoidable so be prepared to for upgrades such wall insulation, roof insulation and windows to low e or double glazed. Be prepared to spend $4k-$10K or more. 3) Studio appointment: Be prepared to spend extra for stone, stairs and other items (add $5-$20K). 4) Electrical is through clipsal and depending on your needs it could be an extra $5-$15k. 5) Bricks and external colouring: This is done through Austral and depending on the brick, tiles or paint colours it could be anywhere from $200 - $15k. Upgrading bricks from the standard range to the metallix range is about $10K. Just what ever number you see at the first tender signiture just mentally prepare yourself and add another 10-20% buffer ontop of the figure. Fireant's advice applies regardless of which builder you go with. A couple of other things to be aware of are if you are bush fire prone or flood prone as this will add additional costs and building requirements to your build which are generally outside the scope of a builder to know at the early stages. Our build is neither so no additional costs from those applied, although we did choose to do gutter guards (which provide ember protection and reduce leaf fuel buildup) as we live in a leafy suburb. Storm water: Provincial have their own storm water engineers who did all of this assessment and design work. I do agree you should do your homework yourself as well but we found what Provincial came up with to be required, reasonable, and wasn't too much additional (we were on the high side of the street and no easement access required, etc so it was basically the tank under the driveway requirements where the cost came in). The sales team had also pre-warned us this was one of the biggest variables before and after the first tender signing. Basix is an additional cost found with every builder. There are standard requirements such as rainwater tanks, etc. Studio: If you are unprepared the studio appointment could set you back +++$$$, however Provincial did provide us a huge suite of brochures with a lot of the products early on so we came up with an included and upgraded option for each thing and got the studio consultant to price out the 'upgraded' versions for us with our preferred 'included' option as the fallback. We chose to upgrade some things and not others during the studio consultation based on seeing the physical products and/or cost. Eg we upgraded the internal doors and some of the tap fittings, and we preferred a more expensive caesarstone throughout the house. Same applies to the tiles. Go to the tile showroom and have a look at the builders range for the house you are building before your tile appointment. This will give you the baseline from which to consider if you want to upgrade. We went as soon as we had signed the tender to browse ourselves and set our expectations of what was available in the range. The tile consultation is the last consultation as styles, etc can run out of stock and it is separate from your studio consultation. Electrical: look on the Clipsal website. Figure out what you need now vs what may be more effective to do later on after the build. Our Clipsal consultant was really good at telling us what could easily be added or changed after vs what was necessary at the build stage. Think about your lighting needs and try and negotiate some additional lights into your build contract if you have the opportunity. Remember all show homes have way more lights than a regular house would ever want or need so walk through the home and figure out where you would strategically place lights, whether you'd go for downlights or not, and count how many you realistically think you need and potential costs involved. Think about putting in basic lighting in some places and replacing with feature lights after the build; we've been told it will work out cheaper if we buy our own feature lights and get an electrician in to install them in one hit afterwards. Bricks: Provincial gave us the option of 2 brick companies (one was Austral) and there was a wide selection in a number of shades. We ended up finding something we loved out of the builders range and didn't pay anything additional for the bricks. We also chose to remove the render from the final façade as I hate render which also brought the cost down slightly. When you do bricks you'll also be choosing roofing, gutters, window frames, etc. Again, you can go and look at the selections yourself before your consultation so you know what to expect and can pre-decide on whether you want to look at the additional cost for the fancier bricks. For us, when we put our favourite from the builders range up against our favourite from the Metallix range we actually preferred the one from the builders range - go figure! I agree that you should expect the price after your first tender to go up a bit once the proper site inspections, etc are done as there are site specific numbers they don't know until just before you sign the final contract when they have all their plans finalised and detailed site surveys for the new design. I'll also add we met someone recently who built with Provincial 20 years ago and are still in the home they built. I asked them if they had any regrets and their response was "not at all, best decision they ever made and that the house is still as good as new 20 years on unlike others from other builders on their street of the same vintage". Amazingly they even had one of the same sales guys as we did! This was reassuring to us as when you do read back through threads for every builder you see a lot of complaints and negatives. I think that's because people always want to speak up when things go wrong but rarely speak up when things go right. I can assure you whichever way things go with our build we'll comment so others know what our experience is like. We also watched a Provincial build (Woollahra 44) go up in the next suburb over from us when we were in the deciding/early tender process and we were impressed with what we saw and the quality of the build. Good luck with your build! Re: Provincial Homes 668Apr 18, 2022 7:29 am kiwiinoz FireAnt We have previously build with provincal and have friends who are currently building. They told me its has been slow due to covid and the weather. Our experience is similiar to the people who have posted both positive and negatives. Highly recommend you read all 34 pages in this thread. Like with all project home builders, the provisional allowaces is only a guide and may/maybe be enough depending on your council and your personal preferences. Be prepared for variations for the following items 1) Stormwater: This is maybe a blank cheque that no one can determine the final price until the hydraulic designs are completed. Extra costs could come from requirements such as extra rainwater tanks or a larger one, burying the rainwater tank or OSD. You will need to do research what your local council requirements and personal preferences. Costs could be anywhere $1-$30k. 2) Basix: This is one of those annoying requirements that is really dependent on the person doing the calculations correctly, its an online calculator that you can use yourself and be familiar with it, i encourage everyone to learn and play with it. 99.99% of the time variations are unavoidable so be prepared to for upgrades such wall insulation, roof insulation and windows to low e or double glazed. Be prepared to spend $4k-$10K or more. 3) Studio appointment: Be prepared to spend extra for stone, stairs and other items (add $5-$20K). 4) Electrical is through clipsal and depending on your needs it could be an extra $5-$15k. 5) Bricks and external colouring: This is done through Austral and depending on the brick, tiles or paint colours it could be anywhere from $200 - $15k. Upgrading bricks from the standard range to the metallix range is about $10K. Just what ever number you see at the first tender signiture just mentally prepare yourself and add another 10-20% buffer ontop of the figure. Fireant's advice applies regardless of which builder you go with. A couple of other things to be aware of are if you are bush fire prone or flood prone as this will add additional costs and building requirements to your build which are generally outside the scope of a builder to know at the early stages. Our build is neither so no additional costs from those applied, although we did choose to do gutter guards (which provide ember protection and reduce leaf fuel buildup) as we live in a leafy suburb. Storm water: Provincial have their own storm water engineers who did all of this assessment and design work. I do agree you should do your homework yourself as well but we found what Provincial came up with to be required, reasonable, and wasn't too much additional (we were on the high side of the street and no easement access required, etc so it was basically the tank under the driveway requirements where the cost came in). The sales team had also pre-warned us this was one of the biggest variables before and after the first tender signing. Basix is an additional cost found with every builder. There are standard requirements such as rainwater tanks, etc. Studio: If you are unprepared the studio appointment could set you back +++$$$, however Provincial did provide us a huge suite of brochures with a lot of the products early on so we came up with an included and upgraded option for each thing and got the studio consultant to price out the 'upgraded' versions for us with our preferred 'included' option as the fallback. We chose to upgrade some things and not others during the studio consultation based on seeing the physical products and/or cost. Eg we upgraded the internal doors and some of the tap fittings, and we preferred a more expensive caesarstone throughout the house. Same applies to the tiles. Go to the tile showroom and have a look at the builders range for the house you are building before your tile appointment. This will give you the baseline from which to consider if you want to upgrade. We went as soon as we had signed the tender to browse ourselves and set our expectations of what was available in the range. The tile consultation is the last consultation as styles, etc can run out of stock and it is separate from your studio consultation. Electrical: look on the Clipsal website. Figure out what you need now vs what may be more effective to do later on after the build. Our Clipsal consultant was really good at telling us what could easily be added or changed after vs what was necessary at the build stage. Think about your lighting needs and try and negotiate some additional lights into your build contract if you have the opportunity. Remember all show homes have way more lights than a regular house would ever want or need so walk through the home and figure out where you would strategically place lights, whether you'd go for downlights or not, and count how many you realistically think you need and potential costs involved. Think about putting in basic lighting in some places and replacing with feature lights after the build; we've been told it will work out cheaper if we buy our own feature lights and get an electrician in to install them in one hit afterwards. Bricks: Provincial gave us the option of 2 brick companies (one was Austral) and there was a wide selection in a number of shades. We ended up finding something we loved out of the builders range and didn't pay anything additional for the bricks. We also chose to remove the render from the final façade as I hate render which also brought the cost down slightly. When you do bricks you'll also be choosing roofing, gutters, window frames, etc. Again, you can go and look at the selections yourself before your consultation so you know what to expect and can pre-decide on whether you want to look at the additional cost for the fancier bricks. For us, when we put our favourite from the builders range up against our favourite from the Metallix range we actually preferred the one from the builders range - go figure! I agree that you should expect the price after your first tender to go up a bit once the proper site inspections, etc are done as there are site specific numbers they don't know until just before you sign the final contract when they have all their plans finalised and detailed site surveys for the new design. I'll also add we met someone recently who built with Provincial 20 years ago and are still in the home they built. I asked them if they had any regrets and their response was "not at all, best decision they ever made and that the house is still as good as new 20 years on unlike others from other builders on their street of the same vintage". Amazingly they even had one of the same sales guys as we did! This was reassuring to us as when you do read back through threads for every builder you see a lot of complaints and negatives. I think that's because people always want to speak up when things go wrong but rarely speak up when things go right. I can assure you whichever way things go with our build we'll comment so others know what our experience is like. We also watched a Provincial build (Woollahra 44) go up in the next suburb over from us when we were in the deciding/early tender process and we were impressed with what we saw and the quality of the build. Good luck with your build! Thank you FireAnt for taking the time for your reply. I will take this feedback on as we havent signed our final contract yet so will ensure we get what we know we need upfront into the contract. Should I also get any kitchen design elements into the contract as often i ask about certain things (oven tower design or appliances) and the sales team tell me to cover this at the selection and colours stage? I did inform the sales team that I want to avoid any major cost creep at selections stage. Also I will check we included provision for lights via bayonet capped fittings where we will put in our own lights after the build is complete. Selecting bricks is quite a process and we think we like what is in the available selection options but we are checking out houses that are already built with those bricks so we can really see what they look like. One thing I was set on but am reconsidering is double glazed windows- the cost goes up a lot. What are the provincial windows like and should i upgrade my thickness of glass or anything like that? Thanks again! Re: Provincial Homes 669Apr 18, 2022 6:12 pm Mivars kiwiinoz FireAnt We have previously build with provincal and have friends who are currently building. They told me its has been slow due to covid and the weather. Our experience is similiar to the people who have posted both positive and negatives. Highly recommend you read all 34 pages in this thread. Like with all project home builders, the provisional allowaces is only a guide and may/maybe be enough depending on your council and your personal preferences. Be prepared for variations for the following items 1) Stormwater: This is maybe a blank cheque that no one can determine the final price until the hydraulic designs are completed. Extra costs could come from requirements such as extra rainwater tanks or a larger one, burying the rainwater tank or OSD. You will need to do research what your local council requirements and personal preferences. Costs could be anywhere $1-$30k. 2) Basix: This is one of those annoying requirements that is really dependent on the person doing the calculations correctly, its an online calculator that you can use yourself and be familiar with it, i encourage everyone to learn and play with it. 99.99% of the time variations are unavoidable so be prepared to for upgrades such wall insulation, roof insulation and windows to low e or double glazed. Be prepared to spend $4k-$10K or more. 3) Studio appointment: Be prepared to spend extra for stone, stairs and other items (add $5-$20K). 4) Electrical is through clipsal and depending on your needs it could be an extra $5-$15k. 5) Bricks and external colouring: This is done through Austral and depending on the brick, tiles or paint colours it could be anywhere from $200 - $15k. Upgrading bricks from the standard range to the metallix range is about $10K. Just what ever number you see at the first tender signiture just mentally prepare yourself and add another 10-20% buffer ontop of the figure. Fireant's advice applies regardless of which builder you go with. A couple of other things to be aware of are if you are bush fire prone or flood prone as this will add additional costs and building requirements to your build which are generally outside the scope of a builder to know at the early stages. Our build is neither so no additional costs from those applied, although we did choose to do gutter guards (which provide ember protection and reduce leaf fuel buildup) as we live in a leafy suburb. Storm water: Provincial have their own storm water engineers who did all of this assessment and design work. I do agree you should do your homework yourself as well but we found what Provincial came up with to be required, reasonable, and wasn't too much additional (we were on the high side of the street and no easement access required, etc so it was basically the tank under the driveway requirements where the cost came in). The sales team had also pre-warned us this was one of the biggest variables before and after the first tender signing. Basix is an additional cost found with every builder. There are standard requirements such as rainwater tanks, etc. Studio: If you are unprepared the studio appointment could set you back +++$$$, however Provincial did provide us a huge suite of brochures with a lot of the products early on so we came up with an included and upgraded option for each thing and got the studio consultant to price out the 'upgraded' versions for us with our preferred 'included' option as the fallback. We chose to upgrade some things and not others during the studio consultation based on seeing the physical products and/or cost. Eg we upgraded the internal doors and some of the tap fittings, and we preferred a more expensive caesarstone throughout the house. Same applies to the tiles. Go to the tile showroom and have a look at the builders range for the house you are building before your tile appointment. This will give you the baseline from which to consider if you want to upgrade. We went as soon as we had signed the tender to browse ourselves and set our expectations of what was available in the range. The tile consultation is the last consultation as styles, etc can run out of stock and it is separate from your studio consultation. Electrical: look on the Clipsal website. Figure out what you need now vs what may be more effective to do later on after the build. Our Clipsal consultant was really good at telling us what could easily be added or changed after vs what was necessary at the build stage. Think about your lighting needs and try and negotiate some additional lights into your build contract if you have the opportunity. Remember all show homes have way more lights than a regular house would ever want or need so walk through the home and figure out where you would strategically place lights, whether you'd go for downlights or not, and count how many you realistically think you need and potential costs involved. Think about putting in basic lighting in some places and replacing with feature lights after the build; we've been told it will work out cheaper if we buy our own feature lights and get an electrician in to install them in one hit afterwards. Bricks: Provincial gave us the option of 2 brick companies (one was Austral) and there was a wide selection in a number of shades. We ended up finding something we loved out of the builders range and didn't pay anything additional for the bricks. We also chose to remove the render from the final façade as I hate render which also brought the cost down slightly. When you do bricks you'll also be choosing roofing, gutters, window frames, etc. Again, you can go and look at the selections yourself before your consultation so you know what to expect and can pre-decide on whether you want to look at the additional cost for the fancier bricks. For us, when we put our favourite from the builders range up against our favourite from the Metallix range we actually preferred the one from the builders range - go figure! I agree that you should expect the price after your first tender to go up a bit once the proper site inspections, etc are done as there are site specific numbers they don't know until just before you sign the final contract when they have all their plans finalised and detailed site surveys for the new design. I'll also add we met someone recently who built with Provincial 20 years ago and are still in the home they built. I asked them if they had any regrets and their response was "not at all, best decision they ever made and that the house is still as good as new 20 years on unlike others from other builders on their street of the same vintage". Amazingly they even had one of the same sales guys as we did! This was reassuring to us as when you do read back through threads for every builder you see a lot of complaints and negatives. I think that's because people always want to speak up when things go wrong but rarely speak up when things go right. I can assure you whichever way things go with our build we'll comment so others know what our experience is like. We also watched a Provincial build (Woollahra 44) go up in the next suburb over from us when we were in the deciding/early tender process and we were impressed with what we saw and the quality of the build. Good luck with your build! Thank you FireAnt for taking the time for your reply. I will take this feedback on as we havent signed our final contract yet so will ensure we get what we know we need upfront into the contract. Should I also get any kitchen design elements into the contract as often i ask about certain things (oven tower design or appliances) and the sales team tell me to cover this at the selection and colours stage? I did inform the sales team that I want to avoid any major cost creep at selections stage. Also I will check we included provision for lights via bayonet capped fittings where we will put in our own lights after the build is complete. Selecting bricks is quite a process and we think we like what is in the available selection options but we are checking out houses that are already built with those bricks so we can really see what they look like. One thing I was set on but am reconsidering is double glazed windows- the cost goes up a lot. What are the provincial windows like and should i upgrade my thickness of glass or anything like that? Thanks again! You should always to get everything priced prior to signing the tender (because its cheaper) but since you have signed the tender it makes absolutely no difference. Just get all your changes done prior to contract signing. \ Re: Provincial Homes 670Apr 19, 2022 10:13 am Mivars kiwiinoz FireAnt We have previously build with provincal and have friends who are currently building. They told me its has been slow due to covid and the weather. Our experience is similiar to the people who have posted both positive and negatives. Highly recommend you read all 34 pages in this thread. Like with all project home builders, the provisional allowaces is only a guide and may/maybe be enough depending on your council and your personal preferences. Be prepared for variations for the following items 1) Stormwater: This is maybe a blank cheque that no one can determine the final price until the hydraulic designs are completed. Extra costs could come from requirements such as extra rainwater tanks or a larger one, burying the rainwater tank or OSD. You will need to do research what your local council requirements and personal preferences. Costs could be anywhere $1-$30k. 2) Basix: This is one of those annoying requirements that is really dependent on the person doing the calculations correctly, its an online calculator that you can use yourself and be familiar with it, i encourage everyone to learn and play with it. 99.99% of the time variations are unavoidable so be prepared to for upgrades such wall insulation, roof insulation and windows to low e or double glazed. Be prepared to spend $4k-$10K or more. 3) Studio appointment: Be prepared to spend extra for stone, stairs and other items (add $5-$20K). 4) Electrical is through clipsal and depending on your needs it could be an extra $5-$15k. 5) Bricks and external colouring: This is done through Austral and depending on the brick, tiles or paint colours it could be anywhere from $200 - $15k. Upgrading bricks from the standard range to the metallix range is about $10K. Just what ever number you see at the first tender signiture just mentally prepare yourself and add another 10-20% buffer ontop of the figure. Fireant's advice applies regardless of which builder you go with. A couple of other things to be aware of are if you are bush fire prone or flood prone as this will add additional costs and building requirements to your build which are generally outside the scope of a builder to know at the early stages. Our build is neither so no additional costs from those applied, although we did choose to do gutter guards (which provide ember protection and reduce leaf fuel buildup) as we live in a leafy suburb. Storm water: Provincial have their own storm water engineers who did all of this assessment and design work. I do agree you should do your homework yourself as well but we found what Provincial came up with to be required, reasonable, and wasn't too much additional (we were on the high side of the street and no easement access required, etc so it was basically the tank under the driveway requirements where the cost came in). The sales team had also pre-warned us this was one of the biggest variables before and after the first tender signing. Basix is an additional cost found with every builder. There are standard requirements such as rainwater tanks, etc. Studio: If you are unprepared the studio appointment could set you back +++$$$, however Provincial did provide us a huge suite of brochures with a lot of the products early on so we came up with an included and upgraded option for each thing and got the studio consultant to price out the 'upgraded' versions for us with our preferred 'included' option as the fallback. We chose to upgrade some things and not others during the studio consultation based on seeing the physical products and/or cost. Eg we upgraded the internal doors and some of the tap fittings, and we preferred a more expensive caesarstone throughout the house. Same applies to the tiles. Go to the tile showroom and have a look at the builders range for the house you are building before your tile appointment. This will give you the baseline from which to consider if you want to upgrade. We went as soon as we had signed the tender to browse ourselves and set our expectations of what was available in the range. The tile consultation is the last consultation as styles, etc can run out of stock and it is separate from your studio consultation. Electrical: look on the Clipsal website. Figure out what you need now vs what may be more effective to do later on after the build. Our Clipsal consultant was really good at telling us what could easily be added or changed after vs what was necessary at the build stage. Think about your lighting needs and try and negotiate some additional lights into your build contract if you have the opportunity. Remember all show homes have way more lights than a regular house would ever want or need so walk through the home and figure out where you would strategically place lights, whether you'd go for downlights or not, and count how many you realistically think you need and potential costs involved. Think about putting in basic lighting in some places and replacing with feature lights after the build; we've been told it will work out cheaper if we buy our own feature lights and get an electrician in to install them in one hit afterwards. Bricks: Provincial gave us the option of 2 brick companies (one was Austral) and there was a wide selection in a number of shades. We ended up finding something we loved out of the builders range and didn't pay anything additional for the bricks. We also chose to remove the render from the final façade as I hate render which also brought the cost down slightly. When you do bricks you'll also be choosing roofing, gutters, window frames, etc. Again, you can go and look at the selections yourself before your consultation so you know what to expect and can pre-decide on whether you want to look at the additional cost for the fancier bricks. For us, when we put our favourite from the builders range up against our favourite from the Metallix range we actually preferred the one from the builders range - go figure! I agree that you should expect the price after your first tender to go up a bit once the proper site inspections, etc are done as there are site specific numbers they don't know until just before you sign the final contract when they have all their plans finalised and detailed site surveys for the new design. I'll also add we met someone recently who built with Provincial 20 years ago and are still in the home they built. I asked them if they had any regrets and their response was "not at all, best decision they ever made and that the house is still as good as new 20 years on unlike others from other builders on their street of the same vintage". Amazingly they even had one of the same sales guys as we did! This was reassuring to us as when you do read back through threads for every builder you see a lot of complaints and negatives. I think that's because people always want to speak up when things go wrong but rarely speak up when things go right. I can assure you whichever way things go with our build we'll comment so others know what our experience is like. We also watched a Provincial build (Woollahra 44) go up in the next suburb over from us when we were in the deciding/early tender process and we were impressed with what we saw and the quality of the build. Good luck with your build! Thank you FireAnt for taking the time for your reply. I will take this feedback on as we havent signed our final contract yet so will ensure we get what we know we need upfront into the contract. Should I also get any kitchen design elements into the contract as often i ask about certain things (oven tower design or appliances) and the sales team tell me to cover this at the selection and colours stage? I did inform the sales team that I want to avoid any major cost creep at selections stage. Also I will check we included provision for lights via bayonet capped fittings where we will put in our own lights after the build is complete. Selecting bricks is quite a process and we think we like what is in the available selection options but we are checking out houses that are already built with those bricks so we can really see what they look like. One thing I was set on but am reconsidering is double glazed windows- the cost goes up a lot. What are the provincial windows like and should i upgrade my thickness of glass or anything like that? Thanks again! Thank you kiwiinoz, appreciate your tips on the selection stage, and things to consider when trying to stay in budget. Also really great to hear the positive feedback from provincial home owners 20 years ago, promising to hear they had good things to share. Hope the rain stays at bay for you and your build continues to go well, let us know how everything progresses, and ill do the same too. Thanks again Re: Provincial Homes 671Apr 20, 2022 5:35 am kiwiinoz FireAnt We have previously build with provincal and have friends who are currently building. They told me its has been slow due to covid and the weather. Our experience is similiar to the people who have posted both positive and negatives. Highly recommend you read all 34 pages in this thread. Like with all project home builders, the provisional allowaces is only a guide and may/maybe be enough depending on your council and your personal preferences. Be prepared for variations for the following items 1) Stormwater: This is maybe a blank cheque that no one can determine the final price until the hydraulic designs are completed. Extra costs could come from requirements such as extra rainwater tanks or a larger one, burying the rainwater tank or OSD. You will need to do research what your local council requirements and personal preferences. Costs could be anywhere $1-$30k. 2) Basix: This is one of those annoying requirements that is really dependent on the person doing the calculations correctly, its an online calculator that you can use yourself and be familiar with it, i encourage everyone to learn and play with it. 99.99% of the time variations are unavoidable so be prepared to for upgrades such wall insulation, roof insulation and windows to low e or double glazed. Be prepared to spend $4k-$10K or more. 3) Studio appointment: Be prepared to spend extra for stone, stairs and other items (add $5-$20K). 4) Electrical is through clipsal and depending on your needs it could be an extra $5-$15k. 5) Bricks and external colouring: This is done through Austral and depending on the brick, tiles or paint colours it could be anywhere from $200 - $15k. Upgrading bricks from the standard range to the metallix range is about $10K. Just what ever number you see at the first tender signiture just mentally prepare yourself and add another 10-20% buffer ontop of the figure. Fireant's advice applies regardless of which builder you go with. A couple of other things to be aware of are if you are bush fire prone or flood prone as this will add additional costs and building requirements to your build which are generally outside the scope of a builder to know at the early stages. Our build is neither so no additional costs from those applied, although we did choose to do gutter guards (which provide ember protection and reduce leaf fuel buildup) as we live in a leafy suburb. Storm water: Provincial have their own storm water engineers who did all of this assessment and design work. I do agree you should do your homework yourself as well but we found what Provincial came up with to be required, reasonable, and wasn't too much additional (we were on the high side of the street and no easement access required, etc so it was basically the tank under the driveway requirements where the cost came in). The sales team had also pre-warned us this was one of the biggest variables before and after the first tender signing. Basix is an additional cost found with every builder. There are standard requirements such as rainwater tanks, etc. Studio: If you are unprepared the studio appointment could set you back +++$$$, however Provincial did provide us a huge suite of brochures with a lot of the products early on so we came up with an included and upgraded option for each thing and got the studio consultant to price out the 'upgraded' versions for us with our preferred 'included' option as the fallback. We chose to upgrade some things and not others during the studio consultation based on seeing the physical products and/or cost. Eg we upgraded the internal doors and some of the tap fittings, and we preferred a more expensive caesarstone throughout the house. Same applies to the tiles. Go to the tile showroom and have a look at the builders range for the house you are building before your tile appointment. This will give you the baseline from which to consider if you want to upgrade. We went as soon as we had signed the tender to browse ourselves and set our expectations of what was available in the range. The tile consultation is the last consultation as styles, etc can run out of stock and it is separate from your studio consultation. Electrical: look on the Clipsal website. Figure out what you need now vs what may be more effective to do later on after the build. Our Clipsal consultant was really good at telling us what could easily be added or changed after vs what was necessary at the build stage. Think about your lighting needs and try and negotiate some additional lights into your build contract if you have the opportunity. Remember all show homes have way more lights than a regular house would ever want or need so walk through the home and figure out where you would strategically place lights, whether you'd go for downlights or not, and count how many you realistically think you need and potential costs involved. Think about putting in basic lighting in some places and replacing with feature lights after the build; we've been told it will work out cheaper if we buy our own feature lights and get an electrician in to install them in one hit afterwards. Bricks: Provincial gave us the option of 2 brick companies (one was Austral) and there was a wide selection in a number of shades. We ended up finding something we loved out of the builders range and didn't pay anything additional for the bricks. We also chose to remove the render from the final façade as I hate render which also brought the cost down slightly. When you do bricks you'll also be choosing roofing, gutters, window frames, etc. Again, you can go and look at the selections yourself before your consultation so you know what to expect and can pre-decide on whether you want to look at the additional cost for the fancier bricks. For us, when we put our favourite from the builders range up against our favourite from the Metallix range we actually preferred the one from the builders range - go figure! I agree that you should expect the price after your first tender to go up a bit once the proper site inspections, etc are done as there are site specific numbers they don't know until just before you sign the final contract when they have all their plans finalised and detailed site surveys for the new design. I'll also add we met someone recently who built with Provincial 20 years ago and are still in the home they built. I asked them if they had any regrets and their response was "not at all, best decision they ever made and that the house is still as good as new 20 years on unlike others from other builders on their street of the same vintage". Amazingly they even had one of the same sales guys as we did! This was reassuring to us as when you do read back through threads for every builder you see a lot of complaints and negatives. I think that's because people always want to speak up when things go wrong but rarely speak up when things go right. I can assure you whichever way things go with our build we'll comment so others know what our experience is like. We also watched a Provincial build (Woollahra 44) go up in the next suburb over from us when we were in the deciding/early tender process and we were impressed with what we saw and the quality of the build. Good luck with your build! Hi kiwiinoz how did you go with choosing the bricks, we took a trip to Austral and PHG and most of the selection that provincial provide us in the platinum range are discontinued. We liked a brick from the bowral range not much else to choose from when most of the good selections are discontinued and not updated in the provincial section guide. Then I get a call from provincial letting me know about the selection stage and to be ready to choose my external colours, i asked for a quote on the bowral brick and they said they cant quote me as i dont have my final plans...hmmmm.im a bit worried that we wont make the Sept deadline to be ready to build, we have done our very best to stay ready and prepared with choices and floor plans etc. Im not prepared for a price increase, any guidance or advice here? Re: Provincial Homes 672Apr 20, 2022 9:01 pm Mivars kiwiinoz FireAnt We have previously build with provincal and have friends who are currently building. They told me its has been slow due to covid and the weather. Our experience is similiar to the people who have posted both positive and negatives. Highly recommend you read all 34 pages in this thread. Like with all project home builders, the provisional allowaces is only a guide and may/maybe be enough depending on your council and your personal preferences. Be prepared for variations for the following items 1) Stormwater: This is maybe a blank cheque that no one can determine the final price until the hydraulic designs are completed. Extra costs could come from requirements such as extra rainwater tanks or a larger one, burying the rainwater tank or OSD. You will need to do research what your local council requirements and personal preferences. Costs could be anywhere $1-$30k. 2) Basix: This is one of those annoying requirements that is really dependent on the person doing the calculations correctly, its an online calculator that you can use yourself and be familiar with it, i encourage everyone to learn and play with it. 99.99% of the time variations are unavoidable so be prepared to for upgrades such wall insulation, roof insulation and windows to low e or double glazed. Be prepared to spend $4k-$10K or more. 3) Studio appointment: Be prepared to spend extra for stone, stairs and other items (add $5-$20K). 4) Electrical is through clipsal and depending on your needs it could be an extra $5-$15k. 5) Bricks and external colouring: This is done through Austral and depending on the brick, tiles or paint colours it could be anywhere from $200 - $15k. Upgrading bricks from the standard range to the metallix range is about $10K. Just what ever number you see at the first tender signiture just mentally prepare yourself and add another 10-20% buffer ontop of the figure. Fireant's advice applies regardless of which builder you go with. A couple of other things to be aware of are if you are bush fire prone or flood prone as this will add additional costs and building requirements to your build which are generally outside the scope of a builder to know at the early stages. Our build is neither so no additional costs from those applied, although we did choose to do gutter guards (which provide ember protection and reduce leaf fuel buildup) as we live in a leafy suburb. Storm water: Provincial have their own storm water engineers who did all of this assessment and design work. I do agree you should do your homework yourself as well but we found what Provincial came up with to be required, reasonable, and wasn't too much additional (we were on the high side of the street and no easement access required, etc so it was basically the tank under the driveway requirements where the cost came in). The sales team had also pre-warned us this was one of the biggest variables before and after the first tender signing. Basix is an additional cost found with every builder. There are standard requirements such as rainwater tanks, etc. Studio: If you are unprepared the studio appointment could set you back +++$$$, however Provincial did provide us a huge suite of brochures with a lot of the products early on so we came up with an included and upgraded option for each thing and got the studio consultant to price out the 'upgraded' versions for us with our preferred 'included' option as the fallback. We chose to upgrade some things and not others during the studio consultation based on seeing the physical products and/or cost. Eg we upgraded the internal doors and some of the tap fittings, and we preferred a more expensive caesarstone throughout the house. Same applies to the tiles. Go to the tile showroom and have a look at the builders range for the house you are building before your tile appointment. This will give you the baseline from which to consider if you want to upgrade. We went as soon as we had signed the tender to browse ourselves and set our expectations of what was available in the range. The tile consultation is the last consultation as styles, etc can run out of stock and it is separate from your studio consultation. Electrical: look on the Clipsal website. Figure out what you need now vs what may be more effective to do later on after the build. Our Clipsal consultant was really good at telling us what could easily be added or changed after vs what was necessary at the build stage. Think about your lighting needs and try and negotiate some additional lights into your build contract if you have the opportunity. Remember all show homes have way more lights than a regular house would ever want or need so walk through the home and figure out where you would strategically place lights, whether you'd go for downlights or not, and count how many you realistically think you need and potential costs involved. Think about putting in basic lighting in some places and replacing with feature lights after the build; we've been told it will work out cheaper if we buy our own feature lights and get an electrician in to install them in one hit afterwards. Bricks: Provincial gave us the option of 2 brick companies (one was Austral) and there was a wide selection in a number of shades. We ended up finding something we loved out of the builders range and didn't pay anything additional for the bricks. We also chose to remove the render from the final façade as I hate render which also brought the cost down slightly. When you do bricks you'll also be choosing roofing, gutters, window frames, etc. Again, you can go and look at the selections yourself before your consultation so you know what to expect and can pre-decide on whether you want to look at the additional cost for the fancier bricks. For us, when we put our favourite from the builders range up against our favourite from the Metallix range we actually preferred the one from the builders range - go figure! I agree that you should expect the price after your first tender to go up a bit once the proper site inspections, etc are done as there are site specific numbers they don't know until just before you sign the final contract when they have all their plans finalised and detailed site surveys for the new design. I'll also add we met someone recently who built with Provincial 20 years ago and are still in the home they built. I asked them if they had any regrets and their response was "not at all, best decision they ever made and that the house is still as good as new 20 years on unlike others from other builders on their street of the same vintage". Amazingly they even had one of the same sales guys as we did! This was reassuring to us as when you do read back through threads for every builder you see a lot of complaints and negatives. I think that's because people always want to speak up when things go wrong but rarely speak up when things go right. I can assure you whichever way things go with our build we'll comment so others know what our experience is like. We also watched a Provincial build (Woollahra 44) go up in the next suburb over from us when we were in the deciding/early tender process and we were impressed with what we saw and the quality of the build. Good luck with your build! Hi kiwiinoz how did you go with choosing the bricks, we took a trip to Austral and PHG and most of the selection that provincial provide us in the platinum range are discontinued. We liked a brick from the bowral range not much else to choose from when most of the good selections are discontinued and not updated in the provincial section guide. Then I get a call from provincial letting me know about the selection stage and to be ready to choose my external colours, i asked for a quote on the bowral brick and they said they cant quote me as i dont have my final plans...hmmmm.im a bit worried that we wont make the Sept deadline to be ready to build, we have done our very best to stay ready and prepared with choices and floor plans etc. Im not prepared for a price increase, any guidance or advice here? Hi My advice is walk away from Provincial Homes before all the price increases start. Best decision we made was walking away from Provincial Homes everything is an upgrade, Tender full of provisional allowances, note only & their office staff delayed everything and don't respond. After researching, build quality is questionable as well. Re: Provincial Homes 673Jun 04, 2022 10:14 pm Mivars Hi kiwiinoz how did you go with choosing the bricks, we took a trip to Austral and PHG and most of the selection that provincial provide us in the platinum range are discontinued. We liked a brick from the bowral range not much else to choose from when most of the good selections are discontinued and not updated in the provincial section guide. Then I get a call from provincial letting me know about the selection stage and to be ready to choose my external colours, i asked for a quote on the bowral brick and they said they cant quote me as i dont have my final plans...hmmmm.im a bit worried that we wont make the Sept deadline to be ready to build, we have done our very best to stay ready and prepared with choices and floor plans etc. Im not prepared for a price increase, any guidance or advice here? Did you sort out your bricks? When we went to Austral to look before our appointment the front desk there looked up the options available for Provincial for us as some of the roof tile colours had changed names and they mapped out which areas of their display complex were included in our builder range. The rains have held up our build but the bricks are FINALLY done and the roof is on so I am hoping it will be less disrupted from here on. Even without the bricks cleaned yet it is looking amazing and I can't wait to be in the home when it is complete and back in our street. Re: Provincial Homes 675Nov 23, 2022 8:38 pm We are (almost) at the end of our build with them. The house itself is amazing so far. Even a retired builder on our street had commented on the quality of the tradies and the build as he has been keeping an eagle eye on it (as he does everything on our street). The build has been a lot slower than we expected although as I've mentioned in posts previously a lot of the delays have not been the fault of Provincial themselves (ie COVID, excessive rain, supply shortages) and all builders seem to have had the same issues. We've not had much in the way of variations once we had locked everything in and we found the choices available to us in fixtures, tiles etc pretty good within the package we chose. Our site supervisors have been accommodating and patient, taking us through our site and answering all our questions when needed. I have my fingers tightly crossed we are only a week or 2 away from getting our house as there are only a few things left to do (that we can see). So other than the frustratingly slow build time we think we are going to get a pretty amazing home. I'll post photos once we have the keys if anyone is interested. Re: Provincial Homes 676Nov 23, 2022 9:43 pm kiwiinoz We are (almost) at the end of our build with them. The house itself is amazing so far. Even a retired builder on our street had commented on the quality of the tradies and the build as he has been keeping an eagle eye on it (as he does everything on our street). The build has been a lot slower than we expected although as I've mentioned in posts previously a lot of the delays have not been the fault of Provincial themselves (ie COVID, excessive rain, supply shortages) and all builders seem to have had the same issues. We've not had much in the way of variations once we had locked everything in and we found the choices available to us in fixtures, tiles etc pretty good within the package we chose. Our site supervisors have been accommodating and patient, taking us through our site and answering all our questions when needed. I have my fingers tightly crossed we are only a week or 2 away from getting our house as there are only a few things left to do (that we can see). So other than the frustratingly slow build time we think we are going to get a pretty amazing home. I'll post photos once we have the keys if anyone is interested. Really appreciate it. I dm'd you personally Re: Provincial Homes 677Nov 24, 2022 11:45 am Hi All, We are building with Provincial Homes and just signed a contract recently still. But now wanted to have some changes on the plan before DA lodgement. Provincial has advised of $500 amendment fee and additional cost of having basix, stormwater reports to be redone. Have anyone had this experience with this before? As it seems those reports they are getting will be delay our DA lodgement. Otherwise we are looking at to request the change during the building commencement stage... Re: Provincial Homes 678Nov 24, 2022 12:32 pm Yes that seems reasonable. When you change something it means they need to amend their reports especially if the changes external. I recommend whenever you have changes as the build progresses really contemplate if it’s worth having because every change you make is at least $500 which is the amendment fee. I’ve had a lot of amendment fees as the build has gone on due to me wanting different stuff internally. If you don’t mind me asking, what is the change that you wanted to put through? Wottsup Hi All, We are building with Provincial Homes and just signed a contract recently still. But now wanted to have some changes on the plan before DA lodgement. Provincial has advised of $500 amendment fee and additional cost of having basix, stormwater reports to be redone. Have anyone had this experience with this before? As it seems those reports they are getting will be delay our DA lodgement. Otherwise we are looking at to request the change during the building commencement stage... Re: Provincial Homes 679Nov 25, 2022 8:43 pm Wottsup Hi All, We are building with Provincial Homes and just signed a contract recently still. But now wanted to have some changes on the plan before DA lodgement. Provincial has advised of $500 amendment fee and additional cost of having basix, stormwater reports to be redone. Have anyone had this experience with this before? As it seems those reports they are getting will be delay our DA lodgement. Otherwise we are looking at to request the change during the building commencement stage... Yes. We were clearly told any changes to the plan after signed plan and contract would incur additional charges. Anything done before the contract is signed had no charge as long as it was not an external or weight bearing wall change. This seems to be standard for builders. In fact, one of the other builders we were considering charged for any alterations to their standard plan regardless so we found Provincial to be reasonable. As we did all our modifications prior to signing the contract we didn't have an additional charge. Re: Provincial Homes 680May 19, 2023 5:41 pm kiwiinoz Wottsup Hi All, We are building with Provincial Homes and just signed a contract recently still. But now wanted to have some changes on the plan before DA lodgement. Provincial has advised of $500 amendment fee and additional cost of having basix, stormwater reports to be redone. Have anyone had this experience with this before? As it seems those reports they are getting will be delay our DA lodgement. Otherwise we are looking at to request the change during the building commencement stage... Yes. We were clearly told any changes to the plan after signed plan and contract would incur additional charges. Anything done before the contract is signed had no charge as long as it was not an external or weight bearing wall change. This seems to be standard for builders. In fact, one of the other builders we were considering charged for any alterations to their standard plan regardless so we found Provincial to be reasonable. As we did all our modifications prior to signing the contract we didn't have an additional charge. The Dulux colour consultants are awesome. If you show them the photos they should be able to figure it out for you straight away 1 1763 Ask for references and speak to them. If they are defensive or try to avoid the request, walk. 1 77798 I would never build with Fowler homes. I built with them in 2021 and till date maintenance issues are pending. All their existing trades and businesses don't work with… 14 108454 |