Browse Forums Building A New House Re: What annoys Me 41Oct 21, 2007 9:02 am Michelle, probably better to start a whole new thread with that one, put in a vote system also for yes and no responses... Gav & Vanessa Building In Melbourne (Sth East Suburbs) http://www.arkraider.blogspot.com/ Rawdon Hill Construction - Canterbury Heritage Re: What annoys Me 42Oct 21, 2007 9:06 am No……these questions are in defence of the thestig………. Internal and External Building and Colour Consultant Online - Worldwide http://www.denovoconcepts.com Re: What annoys Me 43Oct 21, 2007 9:32 am I think TheStig's comment "I've upset some people, so what" speaks volumes. He seems more interested in being inflamatory rather than being constructive.
As hinted at/asked earlier, he's not giving those here who chose to go with larger builders anywhere near enough credit for making their decision the way they did. And after the dust settles, I think most people who went with the larger builders still love the house they end up with and fully recognise what they got vs what they paid (as they would have when initially making the decision). Coming in here and outright suggesting many of these users were/are being foolish (and, as he himself said, not giving a rat's if that actually offends anyone) for going with volume builders is about as far away from the intention of this forum as I think you can get. Stig, if you're gunna comment in here, how about trying to be constructive? You might even pick up the odd lead (it does work for some...). Re: What annoys Me 44Oct 21, 2007 9:36 am I couldn't have put it any more accurately Rod.......
or as nicely worded..... Gav & Vanessa Building In Melbourne (Sth East Suburbs) http://www.arkraider.blogspot.com/ Rawdon Hill Construction - Canterbury Heritage my builder 45Oct 21, 2007 10:13 am Michelle Who so far while building with their LARGE project builders…….has NOT had a problem, which has been dealt with on time or treated as thought you are important to them??????? Comments would be nice…. I’m asking for honest answers here. Are you happy with your builder, has he/they….been prompt at solving issues for you? Or have you been left in the dark a little too long? OR better still, do you not have issues with your builders at all? By the way I remember a LOT of post in here, so please be honest. Hello, I build with the project builder in QLD - OWNIT HOMES. I have just finished the maintenance warranty repairs and can sit and sum up our journey with them. Yes, we did think about designing our home. Our bracket was 350k for the house so we were thinking more about quality home than money. Why we have chosen this company? We could go and check their work in their home displays. The two home designers, local builders didn't impress us with anything. Why OWNIT? quality, quality, quality. They are a medium size company 25 years on the market with good reputation. they build around 100 houses a year. They spent so much time with us explaining the issues and EMPHASISING what they will do and what is wrong and they won't do. They were the ones positioning our house - not to close to the boundary because THEY REPUTATION IS IMPORTANT TO THEM. It was one year journey and at no time we felt disrespected, ignored & uninformed. Any question or request was attend within hours. example: we arranged a lot of things by ourself. We purchased hot water system and arrived one morning with panels to mount them on the roof. The were however no roof tiles there yet. Workers, put the roof tiles within 20 minutes to install the panels. This is a customer service. They incouraged us to do a lot of things by ourselves which saved us money. They said - we are builder. Do you ownfloors, aircon etc. We will help you all the time and you will save on the margin. And that was it. We could enter the site at any time. The supervisor was at 6am on site to open the garage to tiles etc. etc. Today with a perspective of finished house and fully settled I do not regret any $$$ spent on it. It was a good choice but lets be honest, I have done my homework before I made it. But not all is a fairy tail. Next door to mine a local builder offered a home and a land package. The house is standing accross the land with the back corner on the boundary. 600 m2 block is useless because of the house positioning. Even thought my house is 3 m from the boundary I am affected by the neighbourhood. I can hear the splash of the toilet, every conversation in the dining. The clothes line is just in front of my living room (what a view on the Sunday morning overlooking someones UNDERWEAR!). The heat pump is in front of my veranda and master bedroom. Last week we have just moved out from our bedroom because of the noise coming from the "imported crap" heat pump every night. Council already issued a fine and assessed that appliance as a environmental nuisance. So far, no change because the owner is disputing the builder who is responsible for that crap. And who is? Shouldn't you while building a house follow the expertise of the builder? No, at the end of the day YOU asan owner will cope the fine. The Sting, this is why I also picked the bigger builder with REPUTATION. Reputation tells you not to offer ******* appliances. Reputation tells you to position the house how it should be not because someone wants to save a couple hundreds dollars on an investment property. While finishing different things around the house, I am finding local builders very fussy and rude. It is difficult to expect anything from them, not mentioning keeping the site reasonable clean. This is a market, you want to get customer show you are the right one. Don't think that people should come to you anyway because there is shortage of skills. Yes, people are making the decision of their life by choosing the right builder and to be honest, the last thing they want is to have problems. That is why it is safer for them to pick the bigger company. Yes, sometimes it goes completely wrong but it happenes. The best thing to do about it is to pass the info to other people. The lack of business is the best penalty. chers kate Re: What annoys Me 46Oct 21, 2007 10:23 am Ooooh...well, this has turned into an interesting thread
We went with a volume builder & I, for one, don't give a rats what anyone thinks about that. It was a design that suited us, our land & our lifestyle completely. Yes, we've had one or two issues (you can search the forums if you want details) but overall, we're happy...& our friends who went with a small builder have had more problems than us, so just going with a small builder isn't a guarantee of a stress-free building experience. Why reinvent the wheel when there was something there already that was exactly what we wanted? We're the ones who have to live here & we're happy with the house (aesthetically & structurally). And at the end of the day, that's all that matters. As for clever marketing, etc...I did marketing for a living before we moved to Aussie. Marketing hype rarely works on me anymore Re: What annoys Me 47Oct 21, 2007 11:11 am We also went with a volume builder and while I agree that some of their tradies cut corners I think that most are value for money. Would I prefer to use a smaller builder which would in turn mean a smaller staff - easier/more accessible communication etc. Yes but the fact was I couldn't afford to. But what I did was be on site as much as possible and pay for independent inspections from someone I trust and it is worth noting that the problems that these inspections picked up were minor.
Our house is not a piece of C@#p. It is OUR house and we are very happy with it. After many years in the rental market this is a huge thing for us and I resent anyone criticizing this. We did the best we could with the money we had to play with and I find the original post insulting. Re: What annoys Me 48Oct 21, 2007 11:30 am I'm not willing to comment on my satisfaction until we have the keys, but so far I would say that they have been very good in responding to any minor issues we have had (wrong glass in the toilet window, and wrong sidelights), agreed that they weren't right and will correct them. If they take until handover to fix them I don't care - as long as I end up with what I have asked and paid for.
I have to give M3tr!con a big thumbs up for being willing to modify their plan to fit our block (all without charging a fee for drawing up the MANY plans we needed). Most of the other "large" builders wouldn't alter, or one said they could but would charge us a drawing fee and would not even estimate what the building cost would be. When we asked a few of the small builders about plans we liked, one said their starting price was more than what our total has come to (which would have been more than we could borrow/afford) and their inclusions were very basic. Another said that they didn't have anything to suit (and obviously weren't prepared to draw one up) - infact the sales lady asked why we had bought the block because we "won't get anything to fit it"! Yet another said that they didn't build in the area but could refer us to a larger builder that they sometimes did work for - but the plan was not exactly what we were after. In the end we chose the builder that would accomodate us - needs and price. Ray. Second Time 'Round Re: What annoys Me 49Oct 21, 2007 11:47 am I'll ask again as Stig seems reluctant to answer...
What is the name of your company Stig? Re: What annoys Me 51Oct 21, 2007 5:43 pm I applaud your efforts Stig - but as many people have mentioned - a lot of it comes down to $$
Us personally - we could most likely afford a custom built home - but then we might not be able to afford much else! Michelle made an interesting point about complaints & custom builders - my parents used a custom builder for a $1m home (that the builder originally quoted at a price of $550-600k) - they had plenty of issues - so it's not just volume builders. For the record - we will be going with a small volume builder - but a project home builder none the less. Re: What annoys Me 52Oct 21, 2007 6:31 pm People keep saying that they couldn't build with a custom/private builder as they are so much more expensive, but we didn't find it more expensive, and especially when you look at quality. I don't think you should really assume that all private builders are a lot dearer than project homes. Re: What annoys Me 54Oct 21, 2007 6:47 pm TheStig id rather remain anonymous, as my user name suggests. all i am trying to do is provoke people to look outside the box when building a home. Seems strange that a builder would be reluctant to promote their own company. Why remain anonymous? Re: What annoys Me 56Oct 21, 2007 6:53 pm Well I will give the stig this much, Quote: I'd rather remain anonymous, as my user name suggests. all i am trying to do is provoke people to look outside the box when building a home. Half way right... certanly provoked people.... I am not sure too many of us are looking outside the box though....only cause sometime we don't like the things we see Gav & Vanessa Building In Melbourne (Sth East Suburbs) http://www.arkraider.blogspot.com/ Rawdon Hill Construction - Canterbury Heritage Re: What annoys Me 57Oct 21, 2007 7:42 pm Casa2 If you guys weren't so rough on poor TheStig, he may have opened up a little I don't think people have been rough and nor are we dismissive of custom builders in general. If you look at the replies you will see people are offended by his rudeness. There is just no need in a forum such as this for patronising generalisations. I assume that the only reason you are not similarly offended is because you are building a custom home and are not one of the morons who are incapapable of making an informed decision. Re: What annoys Me 58Oct 21, 2007 8:01 pm Casa2 If you guys weren't so rough on poor TheStig, he may have opened up a little Hang on, lets look at Stigs first sentence in the thread he started.. why do people go to the big home builders and spend their life savings on a production line piece of crap!! I just want to know which builder needs to diss the competition and their clients in order to prop up their own. Surely he's proud if what he's posted here. If the Stig was running such a sterling business he wouldn't blink in telling us who his company is. Re: What annoys Me 59Oct 21, 2007 9:42 pm TheStig,
Here's your opportunity. Without putting down large project builders, let us know what we get from a small private builder. What are the benefits and how much do they cost? Cheers, Casa Demolition August 2009, Construction Started September 2009, Completed December 2010 Re: What annoys Me 60Oct 22, 2007 9:31 am I may have a similar home to hundreds of other people in Melbourne, but I for one am happy with my volume built home... both the quality of the build and the design.
I have been quite vocal in my praise for Porter Davis and will continue to be. If we ever built again, we would go with Porter Davis again. The only thing I am kicking myself about is the features I should have put in ... certainly not with the builder themselves. |