Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jul 02, 2010 12:52 pm In recent weeks, I have been scouring this wonderful website reading all the great advice. And now, I am one of those who needs some advice. Allow me to introduce myself. My partner and I are building a Porter Davis Regent 23 and have purchased a gorgeous albeit slightly sloping block in Rose Grange, Tarneit. It overlooks Skeleton Creek and we adore the outlook as my partner is an ex acreage person and needs space around him. Yesterday, our wonderful block settled but now I am thinking I have bought the wrong block, big time. We have had our colour and tile selection with PD and are due to have our Contract Appointment on 19th July. Yesterday, jokingly I emailed my administrator nudging her for site costs. I knew we would at least double that of what was included in the PD quote and was prepared for at least $20k. Hold your horses guys - it is a freaking $35,000!! Am I crazy or is that totally excessive. And to boot, she even said it could potentially go up. I knew there was rock there but that is absolutely rediculous. Naturally, we are heartbroken as we may not be able to build AND we are stock with the block now. We would love to hear from anyone who may have had a similar experience or who may be able to provide some advice on what course of action we should take or what heavy words I should use. Thank you all and I look forward to hearing from you Re: OMG!! Heartbroken due to excessive Porter Davis Site Co 2Jul 02, 2010 1:03 pm I'm building in the hills in Perth, also on rock and at least $35,000 is pretty much expected around here for site costs, more if you need retaining walls. Re: OMG!! Heartbroken due to excessive Porter Davis Site Co 4Jul 02, 2010 1:14 pm Hmm we are in Parkside on Hogans Rd in Tarneit and we are paying over $14k to fix our site costs with Henley. Re: OMG!! Heartbroken due to excessive Porter Davis Site Co 5Jul 02, 2010 1:29 pm ask the CSC to give you the breakdown of 35K such as slab upgrade, retaining wall, rock removal, cut/ fill, local government & OH&S requirement, services upgrade, estate covenant requirement etc etc tec..... PD gave me cost of all the above items. then you will able to check which is on high side and question during tender. PD will ask you to sign the tender quote and pay 3% on same time. Get ready early with all the cost and issues.. Good luck Re: OMG!! Heartbroken due to excessive Porter Davis Site Co 6Jul 02, 2010 2:43 pm Do not despair just yet. When we went to tender there were quite a few errors. We only needed temp fencing at the front, they had tendered for 4 sides even though the site survey showed we had fencing on three sides already. For some reason they wanted to connect the electricity to a further away electrical pit rather than the closer one. Have you had the tender appointment? Re: OMG!! Heartbroken due to excessive Porter Davis Site Co 7Jul 02, 2010 4:37 pm Think with you head and not your heart, if the extra 15k blows the budget then you might be better off waiting another 6-12mths before building or perhaps shop around some more We are also building with PD (lifestyle) and our costs have risen by around $27k since our 'over estimated' quote Re: OMG!! Heartbroken due to excessive Porter Davis Site Co 8Jul 02, 2010 5:44 pm Thanks to all for replying! Rellie we don't have any of that as they are still finalising. I will certainly take your advice Mervyn and mdzzj on sifting though every detail. I have this feeling that perhaps PD are a little expensive with regard to site costs. I was certainly expecting more than your average block but this just seems too much. I think I may have to also do loads of homework and perhaps even look into another builder to see what result I achieve. I really do love the quality of PD though so I think my first step is looking through the itemised detail. It was just so lovely last night, toasting to champagne and listing to the crickets!! Big smile to you all. Re: OMG!! Heartbroken due to excessive Porter Davis Site Co 9Feb 08, 2011 11:37 pm HI, we are thinking of building at Rose Grange near the Clearwater Rise and Tilwinda Place. Anybody can assist with the possible site cost and excation cost? We noticed rocks are everywhere near the creek/wetland area. Any comments are greatly appreciated! Re: OMG!! Heartbroken due to excessive Porter Davis Site Co 10Feb 09, 2011 3:46 pm stac2109 My partner and I are building a Porter Davis Regent 23 and have purchased a gorgeous albeit slightly sloping block in Rose Grange, Tarneit. Slightly sloping can mean a lot of things. Do you know how many metres of fall you have over the building envelope? Are they quoting you $35k or estimating $35k? Have you had a soil test and survey yet? How good is Simeon?! Always taking time to help others out! Wish we were building in NSW and could work together. Thanks for all that you do! 7 6571 Three options 1 Ask the liquidator 2 Find another PD customer and ask the source of their report 3 Pay for new report 3 12338 I am not sure whether Perth has its own way of doing things in regards to this. Most of Perth has class A (sandy soil), except for some areas near rivers or hills. 2 13099 |