Browse Forums Building A New House 1 May 21, 2009 11:02 am We have been in our house for 7 months and all issues now fixed, except 3 and I am concerned about how these will go. They have a new maintenance manager and he came to visit us yesterday, see where we are up to. Builder has been rather slack about maitenance issues but slowly attended to all but the following: 1. some self-closing doors in bathroom and kitchen do not self close. Kitchen installer is suppossed to get in touch with us to rectify - this should be straight-forward. 2. Floating floor in kitchen has small crack, can tell it is because pebble or such underneath and floor has buckled where the underneath is not even. We noticed this within a week of moving in and duly notified them, crack has now extended about 1 cm both ways. They did not leave us any spare planks. Maitenence manager is chasing up with flooring installer - should be easy to lift and replace affected plank, removing pebble underneath. But will the plank look the same as the others, given rest is now 7 months old and has been washed and polished several times Also what if this floor is no longer available??? Will they have to replace whole floating floor in something similar - is a large open space area: kitchen, family,dining, front hallway, back hallway, all connected to each other, would look stupid if part was done differently but expensive to re-do the lot??? 3. this one I am not sure what to do with. Laundry exterior door (hinged) is out of square with the tiles. At first we thought the tiles hadn't been laid straight but on closer examination the door frame is not level with them, maitenance man says it is actually the house frame which is not square and back corner is about 20cm out from other corner. Forcing everything else to be out of alignment. Does this make sense? You can only see it when you open the laundry door, not visible from the inside. Maitnenance man says only option is to unbrick that section and infill inside of wall between brick and gyprock to bring it to level - BIG job. We would be within our rights to demand this but is it really worth it - front door might be a different matter but this is only the laundry, it is an aesthetic problem only, not affecting function To be honest, I can live with it as is but I dont want them thinking it's ok to do this or to 'get away with it'. Is it possible to negotiate some sort of 'bribery' compensation - house is finished and paid for, so cant ask for freebies from builder but would a cash reimbursement be reasonable or even a voucher for something, say weekend at luxury hotel , fixing it would cost them thousands so win-win if we accept a compensation worth hundreds, but would this be the 'done thing'?? Sorry for long post, I do tend to ramble on Re: Helyn's house: Outstanding issues (sorry, long ramble) 2May 21, 2009 11:12 am [quote="Helyn"]To be honest, I can live with it as is but I dont want them thinking it's ok to do this or to 'get away with it'. Is it possible to negotiate some sort of 'bribery' compensation - house is finished and paid for, so cant ask for freebies from builder but would a cash reimbursement be reasonable or even a voucher for something, say weekend at luxury hotel , fixing it would cost them thousands so win-win if we accept a compensation worth hundreds, but would this be the 'done thing'?? quote] Personally, i would make them fix it. It may be something you can live with, but what if you have to sell the property down the line? Would it be noticeable enough to be a deal-breaker for potential buyers? Re: Helyn's house: Outstanding issues (sorry, long ramble) 3May 21, 2009 11:18 am Hmm I think you are on to something The other two things seem pretty straightforward. The kitchen will be an easy fix - probably should have been done by now. The floors should also be relatively easy if as you say the boards are readily available. What sort of colour is it, given it is only a small section would a similar colour still fit in and not be noticeably. Like a Tassie Oak and Blackbutt would...or if it has alot of color variation you might be ok It might look 'new' at the start but it will catch up with the other boards quickly I'd say.... As for the laundry frame/door, I wouldn't bother getting it rebricked and redone - too much hassle for something that like you say isn't noticeable to most. I would, however, demand compensation! I would just say that your husband (blame him ) wants it re-done, but you are willing to compromise for some cash or weekend away I'm sure they will come to the party Good luck and let us know how you go My karma ran over your dogma Re: Helyn's house: Outstanding issues (sorry, long ramble) 4May 21, 2009 3:02 pm 7 months is a long time to wait for these issues to be resolved Helyn! You are very patient I agree the first one should be straight-forward, though why it has taken 7 months to get around to is beyond me The cash for a weekend away for the laundry problem sounds good to me have you got a pic of it for us? "Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions." — Elizabeth Gilbert Living in our new house. Currently scaping the land. Re: Helyn's house: Outstanding issues (sorry, long ramble) 5May 21, 2009 3:35 pm Helyn, You have been very patient. We expected all our defects in the last house to be dealt with within 6 months. The self closing doors and floor will be easily fixed I would turn these 2 things around on the builder and give him 2-3 dates that you need these jobs finished by. The 3rd problem as you said is only a problem because you know about it and know it needs rectifying. Can I ask if a real estate agent came over to value your property would they notice this defect and would it devalue your property? I am asking as this could be a way of putting value to this issue. Then with this information you can go back to the builder and suggest the $$ that they will save by not doing the job and the amount of money that you could lose by not fixing it would be better used to be spent on landscaping or any electrical things you would like done. I am suggesting the things that are easy for builders to accomodate and if they need to redo brickwork you can request vouchers to stay in a hotel while they are fixing your house anyway, so keep this one up your sleeve. I would ask straight out what they think are your options with the out of line brickwork if you don't get them to fix it. Re: Helyn's house: Outstanding issues (sorry, long ramble) 6May 21, 2009 11:04 pm Quote: The 3rd problem as you said is only a problem because you know about it and know it needs rectifying. Can I ask if a real estate agent came over to value your property would they notice this defect and would it devalue your property? Yes, it is noticeable, back door frame strip is about 1cm out from tiles at one corner - doesnt sound much but looks quite obvious as soon as door is opened - I will try to take pic tomorrow so you know what I mean. Very much doubt if it would be enough of an issue to affect re-sale though - especially if we live in house, as planned, for many years before selling. Yes, follow up on most things was done ok but these last ones have dragged on - in case of kitchen and flooring, partly because we live in the country and contractors have to come up from Adelaide, also I think previous maitenance manager was a bit slack and has been moved on, hopefully this new fellow will get things moving for us. Re: Helyn's house: Outstanding issues (sorry, long ramble) 7May 22, 2009 12:12 am It's ridiculous how long the first two matters are taking to fix, and I would be worried about the replacement section of floor not matching. They should be worried about that too, and should have dealt with it promptly. What Haywgl said about the appearance catching up kinda makes sense, so hopefully all will be well. I can't picture the third problem so I'm looking forward to seeing the photos. I do know it's amazing how many crooked things there are in a house, some are kinda obvious but not a problem in a practical sense, others you suddenly notice much later and wonder how you missed it all that time, some are barely noticeable but rather important (our builder obviously didn't use a spirit level when installing the shampoo shelf in the shower, it LOOKS fine but it doesn't drain towards the drainage hole ). Anyway, I'm looking forward to the pics, and in view of the fact that two other matters have also been left outstanding for seven months I'd want something from the builder! Re: Helyn's house: Outstanding issues (sorry, long ramble) 8May 23, 2009 12:51 am Camera is on the blink, took this with my phone, apologise for poor quality. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Can you see the differential between tiles and strip on floor which is on the outside of the door frame ? Its about 1cm from one end of the strip to the other. (because the wall frame is not straight) Re: Helyn's house: Outstanding issues (sorry, long ramble) 9May 23, 2009 8:55 am Well, maybe if you didnt mention it to anyone and they do notice it themselves, they would probably just think it was from the house shifting lol It's a bit hard to tell but just from looking at that pic, I dont think it would bother me too much, if it truely does end up being an issue, maybe there's some kind of strip you can put there. Something similar to a threshold strip maybe? I know this is a bit big but maybe theres something similar out there thats narrower. http://www.improvementscatalog.com/home ... seals.html Bunnings might have something like that. -S Re: Helyn's house: Outstanding issues (sorry, long ramble) 10May 30, 2009 11:40 am sorry for delay, here is better pic taken with proper camera, you can see how the door strip or the tiles appear to be crooked but in fact the wall is out of alignment by about 20cm (over whole length) Excuse all the red dust, the bloody stuff is everywhere here Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ and front on view Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I am pleased to say this maitenance supervisor seems much more on the ball - kitchen company has contacted me and is comeing next week with drawer runner replacements and floor layer has come to look at floor and is organising replacement boards. Of course remains to be seen if this actually happens but this supervisor returns my calls and rings back to update me and has got further already in week or so tha previous one did in several months of hassling Issue with back door has been passed further up the food chain, waiting to hear from head office about that one, will update u when I know. Thanks for your reply. I will just wait and see I guess. Trying to get some more information from our builder. 9 30235 I am looking at building a house. Has anyone used Construkt Homes (based in Adelaide)? Does anyone have experience with this builder? 0 6446 12 5318 |