Building with Plunkett Homes Perth

Hi all

Anyone building with Plunkett Homes in Perth? We just signed prelim contract with them , and so far are happy with the progress.
Will appreciate any information and feedback about them.

We are getting our flooring, painting, windows treatment, and lighting ourselves after the handover to save cost.
Had a look at flooring in Trevors Carpet and we might get blackbutt engineered timber flooring and solution dyed nylon carpet with them as the prices are a bit lower than other shops.
Can anyone suggest any painter, windows treatment, lighting shop, & electrician in Perth? We will be putting downlights in most areas.

We are building in the Perth suburb of Riverton, with Plunkett homes.

We signed the contract in November 2009, council approval was around christmas time, and our construction has literally just started in the last couple of days.

So far we have been happy with plunkett: Their upgrades were reasonable and not way over priced, we made several changes and additions to the original plans, each time they only took a few weeks to re-draw the plans and have them back to us.

we were hoping the build would have started a little sooner, but our block is a rear one, and has had some issues, so to be expected.

We are just hioping that now it has started, it will progress quickly.

Hi alexjohn
Nice to hear you are building with plunkett too! I'm assuming that you are building one of the city living range? we are building the crawley from the city living range.
wow your council approval was quick.. we have just submitted the plan to the council last friday, so finger cross it will be quick too.
we are going to meet with the interior designer (free service from plunkett) next monday for color selections etc and then book a prestart (at first I thought color selections meeting is the same as prestart meeting).

If you don't mind me asking, how much did you spend at prestart approximately and what items did you upgrade? just so that we are prepared.
All the best for your build!

Yeah, or council approval was very quick. It only took 3 working days to get approval, with the city of Canning's online application process !

As for upgrades..We spent about $10'000 at prestart. Of that about $5000 was on the kitchen, $2000 electrical and the rest was bathrooms and laundry.

However, before pre-start we spend a bit of time with the sales consultant at the show home specing upu the base model house. From about $178k to about $200k..with big changes lke high ceilings, moving walls etc.

So i guess you could say, the base house was $178k and we specked it up to about $210K,,,thats without site work costs

HI all

We signed our preliminary in february. We are just waiting for our working drawings. Our soil test is being done this Thursday. We are building on a rural block. We also have been very pleased up to now but I also am unsure of what is ahead. I will be pleased once we know what our site fees are so we know how much we have got left in our budget for upgrades. I am apprehensive about how much will be added on for tiles as I have already started looking at tiles and I will not be choosing from the builders range. We have made lots of changes up to this stage and the price has already gone up $38,000 from the display home price. It is very reasuring to read such positive threads about them.

alexjohn:
wish my council does online application too! i've heard city of stirling takes 8-10 weeks for council approval >.<
thanks for the information, now we know roughly how much to spend at prestart. We have done upgrades to the kitchen at the prelim, such as overhead cupboard and stone benchtop so we are hoping no more upgrades for kitchen at prestart. With the bathrooms, did you upgrade the tiles to size bigger than 20x20cm (builder's standard range)? We are thinking to upgrade, but depending on the cost.

toby:
we signed our prelim at the start of february too.. have just received the working drawings & specs list last week. We were quite shocked by the site cost allowance - it is $4k more than what we were told at the beginning. The reason for that i think because we are building on a narrow block.
We have been looking at tiles too! which tiles shop did you go to? We went to European Ceramics and Tiles Expo, and we like Tiles Expo in North Perth better. We are thinking about upgrading the tiles as well (to 30x30 tiles), however I have been informed there will be extra charge of $5.50/m2 even if we choose the same price tiles (up to $44/sqm).
We have made a lot of upgrades and changes at prelim, so really have to be selective on what we spend at prestart..

We didnt upgrade the size of our wet area tiles. When we visited the showroom we were really happy with their standard range, nothing too flashy.

As for kitchen upgrades we did:
1/ higher bench tops (i am 6'4")
2/ drawers in lieu of cupboards
3/ microwave recess under bench
4/ overheads with bulkheads
5/ glass splashbacks
6/ concealed rangehood
7/ diamond gloss bench tops
8/ upgraded drawer/cupboard handles

Rest of the house we did
1/ higher 31c celiings
2/ thicker glass on windows + solid master door ( I am shift worker)
3/ 4 panel sliding door, extra high as well
4/ lots of extra power points / TV points / taps etc...
5/ semi-frameless showers
6/ feature internal doors
7/ drawers in bathrooms + higher benches

Theres a lot of other upgrades, i just cant remember them at the moment....
any queries just ask me

Alex/John

HOw much did it cost to upgrade to kitchen drawers instead of cupboards? Also how much did they charge for the glass splashback?
I am thinking about having no tiles or splashback in the kitchen and installing a zenolite splashback later on ourselves.

We have also not been given any estimate for site costs so I have no idea what it will come in at.

We are paying ourselves to have the electricity and phone line up to the house, est. $7000 - $8000. We are having a 150,000Litre water tank - est $11,000. We also need septic tanks, est. $6000 - $7000.

Cheers.

mrslin

We are probably going to get our tiles through european ceramics. I have seen a 30x30 tile which I like for the floor in all wet areas and I am thinking of plain white 20x40 for the walls. No border tiles and no feature tiles. I am unsure about keeping the oval in set sinks or upgrading to round above counter sink. I definitely am changing the taps to a single mixer. Also the shower heads and to a shower mixer and bath mixer.
I would like to have some downlights but these seem expensive at around $120. Do you have any idea how much they would cost to get downlights later.?

Cheers.

Cheers.[/quote]


Signed up for Domain Home with Plunkett after seeing show home in Lakelands.
Just cleared land...footings/slab next.....too early days to comment but already issues with safety over downlights after initial selection and recently told our essa stone woektop selection was now "replaced by new stock" ,so we have to go to Euro Ceramics in Mandurah to pick another one ! Never wanted to build, but established madly overpriced, stamp duty and need refurbing anyway.

Must be mad to give up my mortgage free Uk semi ?


Dave

I was at european ceramics in mandurah last week and they did not have new samples of essa stone. The laminex show room in osborne park has them in and they are large samples displayed on the wall. Check with mandurah so you don't have a wasted journey.

to swap one cupboard, to a set of 3 900mm wide drawers cost about $200
the glass splashback costs about $450 per square metre from the supplier, then add the builders 25%

toby
we upgraded our ensuite sink to semi recessed square one, i think its called Leda and it costs around $450 each.
To get downlights afterwards, it costs around $25 each for CFL downlight, and electrician normally charges $40-$60/downlight. It still works out cheaper than the builder's charge.

We had our colour selection today and were shown the new range of Essa Stone. We chose 'new basmati' which is very similar as the old basmati.

basmati look realy lovely mrslin, we picked crystal salt which is very simalier, have got in contact with essa stone to get them to send out a new sample incase we have to change to see if the new version is much differant. I would if I was you, I would get a sample of your color too as by the time you start to build its hard to remember what it looks like

thanks camyperth! crystal salt looks great too! that's a good idea I will ask for a sample from essa. Will they post a sample for free?

Our color selections:
Kitchen: benchtop - essa stone basmati, cupboards- laminex pearl grey.
Ensuite: benchtop - Laminex Chamois, cupboards - Formica Iron Ore
Bathroom & Laundry: benchtop - Laminex Stipple Seal , cupboards - Laminex Alabaster
Roof: Shale Grey
Gutter: Woodland Grey
Fascia: Surfmist

Yep, they do post them for free. I just went the the laminex group site and sent an email throught that site and you more than likely have your sample the next day. thats www.laminexgroup.com.au

Also signed up with Plunkett - In one word "slow".

Signed prelim at the end of Sept 09.
First plans at the start of Dec 09.
Pre-start mid-Dec 09.
Backwards & forwards with prices, etc from pre-start in Jan 2010
Not much activity in Feb 2010 - Still waiting thru Mar 2010. The holdup seems to be drafting & estimating departments.

Doing my own earthworks as Plunkett's pricing was excessive (Building in the hills) - Put my earthworks applications into shire in mid Feb 2010 and had all my approvals by mid Mar 2010. Now waiting on Plunkett to give me a start date.

Drafting Dept seems to be quite slow. Still have quite a few unanswered questions on prices for various things from my construction coordinator.

Pricing on some items is ridiculously expensive and other pricing seems OK. Know your prices or do some ringing around to make sure.

Almost had my final plans this week, but was quoted $8300 for a 2 course brick wall & footing for a buildup across the front & side verandahs (approx 40m long) - Told Plunkett that their pricing was over the top and they said the plans would have to go back to drafting to take it out...!

Overall, the sales process was quite good, answered all the questions, got things happening quickly - but since then it hasn't been smooth sailing. Disappointment is now turning to frustration. We want to be in by Christmas 2010, but have been messing about for 6 months now on just getting plans and pricing right!

I can only hope that the build goes a lot smoother.

Regards,

Wrexy.

It's not just Plunkett who are slow...we're building with Scott Park and have been drowning in paperwork for six months with still a good few weeks to go before we get a start date.

There are four Plunketts being built near me and the build quality looks pretty good if that's any consolation. Two are nearly completed and two are at the bricking stage.

Thanks Zircon for the info. It is definitely into the stage of frustration now instead of disappointment!

There are also quite a few Plunkett signs in my area and builds underway in a nearby subdivision. If it is any consolation, all the ones around my stage of the subdivision haven't had pads put down yet so I guess we are all in the same boat.

What area are you building in Zircon as I would also like to take a look at build quality if possible and they aren't too far away.

Regards,

Wrexy...

We're in Lesmurdie.