Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Recommend builders in WA 2Oct 26, 2007 9:54 am Hi,
We built the Rural Building Co.'s Bushland Retreat in the South West this year. Outside of Perth, it is WA Country Builders that build their homes (another arm of the same company). We were very happy with the quality of workmanship, borne out by a private building inspection we had before handover. Our supervisor was superb, the contractors took a lot of pride in their work, the only issues we had were with some communication breakdown which meant that some of our upgrades didn't get passed on to the trades, so they ended up doing a couple of jobs twice to get it right. A few mistakes were made, but were rectified very quickly. We also built when things were going crazy in the South West, so it took over a year. Now that it is (just about) all finished, we are very happy with our home. There always seem to be some issues when building with a project builder, but considering that we only ever wanted a Rural Building design, we had to go that path. Yes, if I was going to build again (I don't plan to move) I would build with WA Country Builders again (but with more knowledge now!) Re: Recommend builders in WA 3Oct 26, 2007 10:45 am Something worth mentioning is that due to the BCA changes this year quite a few of the spectacular houses that WA Country Builders (or Rural building co) have in their range are a lot harder to build now particularly in zone 5/6. I guess it may be possible with a lot of additional cost.
The biggest impact seems to be on the size of the windows, and of course one of the first (although out of our budget) designs that we liked was their Rivergums Skillion, and some of their other designs with a lot of glass to take in the views of the trees. They don't seem to be able to build these affordably any more. They certainly seem to offer the styles of houses that we like, more "country" rather than suburbia oriented. I must say I'm not that exited about building, I see the whole process as being a bit of a pain rather than excitin. My husband is quite the opposite, he loves planning, and keeps changing his mind! I guess the biggest things is what you want & what you can afford! At the same time keeping in mind what is the most practical. Lots of stuff to read & think about that's for sure, particularly if we are to build and be aware of what we are doing at every step. Re: Recommend builders in WA 4Oct 26, 2007 11:47 pm That looks like a beut setting.
Far far away from suburbia. Why the move to WA? good luck!! Re: Recommend builders in WA 5Oct 30, 2007 9:05 am The property is only 15k's out of Nannup. We're not really fans of big city life. Perth is just too big, too much traffic and too suburban, as is any other city apart from Darwin which was pretty nice 3yrs ago.
We are quite used to having to drive 3hrs to get to a major regional centre at the moment (nearest BIgW etc). Most of the mining work is in WA so one of the reasons to go west, well apart from the fact that Hubby is Perth born and kind of biased anyway! At the moment with building we're tossing up between WA Country & Plunkett I reckon. Both have similar floor plans we like. Plunketts Sundowner looks quite suitable. I imagine double brick would be the most suited to the cooler climate? Re: Recommend builders in WA 6Oct 30, 2007 10:17 am Very nice place to live.
Specially if doing FIFO. What part of the mining industry do you work in? Re: Recommend builders in WA 7Oct 30, 2007 11:19 am I don't have any suggestions about builders, but I might mention that there are some lovely homes in that region made with rammed earth.
Haven't heard much on this forum about rammed earth construction, but it may be worth looking into the option. Best wishes with it all. Nannup is a beaut area! Ash. Re: Recommend builders in WA 8Oct 31, 2007 8:24 am Quote: What part of the mining industry do you work in? Surveying Quote: I don't have any suggestions about builders, but I might mention that there are some lovely homes in that region made with rammed earth. Haven't heard much on this forum about rammed earth construction, but it may be worth looking into the option. Best wishes with it all. Nannup is a beaut area! Ash. At the moment I have given it only a passing thought. The motel in a town we used to live in was made out of rammed earth, I did housekeeping and other work there and it kind of left a bad impression on me because the walls were starting to fall apart a bit (chip or flake). Not sure how old the construction was but I think they had termite problems amongst the general disrepair anyway. Now it's just hard to get the image out of my head- rammed earth being soft and falling to bits over time. I imagine there are sealing products that can be applied though. I will keep an open mind and look into possibilities once we choose a floor plan and builder that we're happy with. I'm into mountain bike riding myself and Nannup / Margaret River seems to be the stomping ground of Sam Hill, current Downhill World Champion. Certainly a bloke that West Aussies can be proud of. Unfortunately mountain biking is a sport that doesn't seem to get a great deal of mainstream media attention. I look forward to the riding possibilities the area has on offer amongst the natural beauty & general lifestyle. Re: Recommend builders in WA 9Oct 31, 2007 8:47 am "Surveying"
Hey thats what I started out doing when I entered Mining.,(actually did it for 7 yrs). Re: Recommend builders in WA 10Oct 31, 2007 9:23 am Quote: I'm into mountain bike riding myself and Nannup / Margaret River seems to be the stomping ground of Sam Hill, current Downhill World Champion. Certainly a bloke that West Aussies can be proud of. Unfortunately mountain biking is a sport that doesn't seem to get a great deal of mainstream media attention. I look forward to the riding possibilities the area has on offer amongst the natural beauty & general lifestyle. Big deal! Sam is a bit of a wuss! Get him to try it UPHILL next time! 'Going down' is soo easy. Tell that to Mr Hill! Ash. Re: Recommend builders in WA 11Oct 31, 2007 11:09 am royalblue Quote: I'm into mountain bike riding myself and Nannup / Margaret River seems to be the stomping ground of Sam Hill, current Downhill World Champion. Certainly a bloke that West Aussies can be proud of. Unfortunately mountain biking is a sport that doesn't seem to get a great deal of mainstream media attention. I look forward to the riding possibilities the area has on offer amongst the natural beauty & general lifestyle. Big deal! Sam is a bit of a wuss! Get him to try it UPHILL next time! 'Going down' is soo easy. Tell that to Mr Hill! Ash. I remember reading that he entered an Endurance event recently (on a Iron Horse Azure) and didn't do too badly, so he may beg to differ? Hmm going down may be easy, but I would tend to think that going down real fast is a bit of a different story! Just like going up is hard but going up fast is even harder. WA 12Nov 02, 2007 11:53 pm Hi Pebble
A few of the builders reviewed on BB are for the South West, though most build Metro. It will be interesting to hear how you get on given the recent shortage of trade workers, though perhaps the boom has flattened out. No doubt you would be wishing you built 5 years back given the rise in prices, but then again if you've been in NSW it might not be that different. Best regards Re: Recommend builders in WA 13Nov 03, 2007 1:07 pm Hi BB,
I've had a look through your site, I think it's a great thing and hope it really takes off with more reviews added. It's like the old way of going by "word of mouth". We did buy an investment unit in Perth almost 5 years ago and of course really need to sell that now to be able to build. growth has been about what I would expect, nothing extraordinary. It's not exactly selling like a hot cake either so in that respect I'd say the property market has slowed down. Rental prices sound like a different story over there! The NT has seen quite a lot of growth over the last 5yrs as well and seems to still be going pretty well. The mining towns like where we are now certainly have above average prices and rents, not really the kind of town I would invest in property wise though particularly with heavy reliance on mining and water availability which isn't exactly in abundance at the moment. Yeah we certainly wish that we'd looked at buying land in the south west even a year and a half ago when we last moved to NSW - I have heard that land prices in Nannup have at least doubled since then, oh well! I think it still has great potential for growth. We have traveled around a fair bit and this will be the first place we can settle in and not be renting for a change. To give you an idea over the last 5yrs since the first kid was born we have moved 4 times already, WA, NT, QLD and now NSW soon to make it full circle back to WA. I often joke that we could have had a kid in each state, first in WA, 2nd in NT and if we hadn't of stopped at that could have been on track for a Queenslander, NSW kid as well! Re: Recommend builders in WA 14Nov 03, 2007 4:59 pm Rammed earth soft and crumbly People built a large house from rammed earth in the street next to mine. I watched it closely, 'cause I was thinking about rammed earth myself then, so I trespassed on the building site couple of times to check it up close. The walls are rock hard and rock solid and look quite cool too. Rammed earth is becoming progressively more popular in WA, partly I'spose because of the brick shortage. Some sources claim that it's much easier and somewhat cheaper to build from it out of the metro area, using sand from the site. In the end I dropped rammed earth for my future house, because it's going to be a smallish one and rammed earth walls are 300mm thick, wouldn't look/feel good in such a building, also all material would have to be transported into the suburbs. My father rode a camel, I drive a car, my son flies in a jetliner, his son will ride a camel.Saudi saying Re: Recommend builders in WA 15Nov 04, 2007 9:30 am I certainly don't believe it's soft, it's merely an impression from what I've seen (in an aged? building in somewhat of a state of disrepair), even still the word "soft" was the wrong one to use, the walls were by no means soft, just had bits crumbling off. It's the picture that remains in my head, but does not mean I will automatically discount the method completely. After all just like you could make a bad brick I'm sure there could be a lot of factors involved down to what was used in the make up.
I don't know, do termites tend to have an effect on rammed earth? That would be my primary concern. At this stage I am fond of double brick construction but certainly have not ruled out alternate methods. It will be up for fair discussion when we get closer to that stage. Of course as always the first hurdle will be finance! Look at your bill from the electricity company. It should detail the charges. You will need to do some estimating and some calculations. Then charge the… 8 4253 Site works are just about to start on our build with Blueprint in Midvale. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=106894 2 3959 Hi all, We are looking to build a new two storey house in western Sydney. Can anyone recommend a smallish builder to go with? We are trying to stay away from the big… 0 12149 |