Just started building in perth

Glint-Bladesong · Feb 14, 2006 7:11 pm

Hi all!

My new (first) home has just entered the construction phase in Perth so I figured I would come on here and introduce myself and see if anyone from Perth is building at the moment (well ok I'm sure there are hundreds of people in perth building at the moment, but are there any of those people on here?)

Introduction:
This is my first home, and its just had its earth works done on the site. Its in Innaloo on a very narrow block, the block is only 9.59 metres wide, but it is 36m deep and its location far outweighs the narrowness.

However with some clever planning (and a lot of boundry walls) we have designed a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom home that fits, is fairly spacious and that we are very very excited about.

We are building through Ventura Homes and so far (fingers crossed!) it all seems to be going smoothly. Has anyone else built with Ventura? Anything I should be aware of?

If anyone is even vaguely interested in how the building is progressing on our house they are more then welcome to follow the progress of (and comment on) my block and the house at my blog called The Blades are Singing http://glint-bladesong.blogspot.com/ (pictures added soon!).

I am looking forward to hearing from all the Perth people building at the moment (and all the non-perth people too of course!).

Cheers and Enjoy!

Lloyd · Feb 14, 2006 7:38 pm

Hey

I'm also building my first house in Bertram. The earthworks were done last week and am hoping the slab will be done by next week. I'm building with Scott Park. Tell me, is ure builder giving you dates as to when this and that are being done?? Cos i dont get any of that, they just rang me and said that work on the house 'should' be starting this week.

Lloyd

Glint-Bladesong · Feb 15, 2006 10:37 am

At the moment its not going too badly. The earthworks were booked in for a friday, and were done on the Saturday, the retaining wall was booked on the Friday after and done on the sunday (sunday!?).

I am waiting for a call back as to when excately the slab has been booked in for. It would seem that the builder isnt going to volunteer any dates, but if you ring up and pester them enough you might get a result (works for me anyway

).

Good luck with it all mate

Glint-Bladesong · Feb 16, 2006 11:04 am

Well, we have just been told that the footings will go down on the 21/02 and the slab will be poured on the 22/02.

Quite exciting.

anchorage · Feb 24, 2006 9:32 pm

Hi there
i just came across this site as i was looking for info on plastering. This is my 4th house. Building in Rockingham. First was little 3 bed house 12 years ago with Dale Alcock, 2nd was with Ventura (were good but had problem with plaster falling out). 3rd was with * (made a few mistakes but liked the house). We are now building with Scott Park. Each stage has been delayed. They can't seem to get schedule going properly, Keep getting told different stories & how long it will be. Don't believe what they say anymore. Pad went down end of August. Timber went on roof 23rd Dec. Brickie did sloppy job at front of garage where top 2 rows slope on an angle not matching level of gutter. We were told finished in March but not at lock up yet so still a couple of months or more away. Its not easy building but just keep checking out work & make sure its okay & being done. Told 2 supervisors about brickwork & neither noticed it. It is exciting when you finally move in. Hope everything goes as smooth as possible for you all.

Glint-Bladesong · Mar 07, 2006 5:14 pm

Hi anchorage,

Sorry bout the late reply. I hope all goes well for you in the end. Can I ask how long it took for you to get your house build (or how long you think its going to take), from the time you signed the contract to completion.

Quote:

had problem with plaster falling out

That is NOT what I need right now

Enjoy!

Glint-Bladesong · Mar 17, 2006 1:19 pm

Well, finally the slab is down!!

mike · Apr 03, 2006 4:36 pm

Hi

Can you please tell me who you used for the building inspections

Cheers

Mike

Glint-Bladesong · Apr 04, 2006 5:18 pm

Hiya Mike.

The guys we are going with are Houspect (http://www.houspect.com.au).

We had our first inspection last week (slab down stage) and it was pain free. They invited me to come out and meet the inspector on-site if I wanted (and I did), he measured up the slab, checked for the concrete levels and tolerances, check fence clearences, plumbing and a whole pile of stuff down to whether or not the builder had a builder sign out the front (he didn't).

Our inspection was at 8am Saturday morning and by 9:30 Monday morning I had a emailed copy of the inspection report that I couse use to terrorise my building company with (there were a few defects :evil:

) and by wednesday they had mailed a hard copy of the report out to me.

I am definately employing them again at further building stages.

(PS If you have an RAC card mention it to them, there is a 10% discount for you).

If you want to know what defects where found you I put them up on my blog here http://glint-bladesong.blogspot.com/ (its the March 28th entry titled "Building Inspection #1)

mike · Apr 06, 2006 7:41 pm

Thank you very much for that.

Paul · Apr 13, 2006 12:35 am

Hi

We are in Perth and thinking of building soon. Can you give me an idea of what your progress payment schedule is / will be as a percentage of the total cost.

eg

Deposit 10%
Slab 15%
Walls 20%
Lockup 50%
Handover 100%

Hope that makes sence. I'm trying to work out how much money I will need and when assuming that the project will take about 18months.

Glint-Bladesong · Apr 13, 2006 7:12 pm

the deposit was $1000 and I think i read some where that it cannot be more the 2.5%
The slab down is around the 12.5% mark for me. I'm not sure about the rest at the moment

Glint-Bladesong · May 15, 2006 11:47 am

Oops, its been nearly a month since I posted here to say where the house is up to.

If any one was reading this SORRY! Things just keep cropping up.

So on to a quick summary

1) We now have about 3/4 of the external double brick walls built.
2) The only reason I havent changed builders is because it would cost me more then it would cost them
3) We are still holding out for a october completion date.

Problems
1) The soakwells still have not been installed. The guy installing the soakwells recommended to me and the builder that they needed to go in before the house was built due to site access issues, but the building company thought that they knew better. Now they will have to remove and replace 2 fences to get the soakwells in, at their cost.

2) I have a ** suspicion that the brick supervisor that I have been assigned is the guy that they give all the 'trouble' clients too (ie the clients that research what is meant to be happening and questions and queries every step of the way). At rhe meeting where we met him all he did was to explain to me how busy they were and that I should not expect my queries and questions to get answered, and that even if nothing looks like it is being done, it is being handled in the back ground. I spent the entire meeting trying to get him to understand that I dont care if I cant see the work being done, just reply to my queries with more then a "we are looking into it" and let me know what is happening and when. He told me he was too busy to do that..... Oh boy, just wait until I get to fill out the customer satisfaction survey at the end of all this....

3) To highlight the above, bout 2 weeks ago I emailed the company a letter because I had a couple of issues with the brick work so far (they had not put a wall vent in where the plan showed there was one, and they had not capped an external window sill with the correct bricks). Minor issues but I emailed him about them any way. 9 days later (NINE!) I emailed him again asking if he recieved my eariler email, he called me up and told me that he had recieved my email and everything was fine, goodbye. Everything may indeed be fine, but it would be nice if he could damn well let me know! or even just reply to my email say he has read it. (I now attach read reciepts to all my email so I can see instantly when he has read it).

On the other hand the actual guys doing the brick work seem very competent. I had my windows measured yesterday for external window shutters to be installed and every window is within 2mm of the stated size on the plan. This is encourgaing.

So all in all things are progressing just about on time, the company seems to be either ignorant or purposely rude, but the brickies are good at their job which is far more important.

By the way, the company is Ventura Homes, if any one is interested (oh I hope they read this!). Would I recommend them.... tough. On the whole I would have to say maybe, and then only just, because:
1) They provide a free service where they sit down and help you customise any of their plans to suit your block/lifestyle
2) Their contractors are good (so far)
3) they are fairly priced.
But I would only recommend them if you have the time and the stubborness to keep on their tails and bring them to task about everything they do. And I do mean keep on their tail, I would recommend no less then 3 or so contacts a week asking where they are up to. They act like a stubborn pig-head, but talented teenager, they can do the work well but boy do you have to work at them to get it done.

:-)

Take care.

Petrified Pom · May 15, 2006 4:44 pm

Thanks for that update. Actually I do click on your blog once in a while to see how things are going with your house.

Visting Perth in June to look at a few more homes and make a decision, Likely to be Atrium, possibly Perceptions, not Ventura after your experience... :shock:

Glint-Bladesong · May 17, 2006 11:49 am

Perceptions is a two storey specialist, so if that is what you are after then you should be good.

It also depends on where you are going to be building. If you are building south of Perth (Fremantle to Mandurah) except huge delays and long build times, there are simply too many house being built and not enough builders (or bricks for that matter - bricks are currently being shipped in from the Eastern States to meet demand). If you are building north of Perth things are a little better, until you get up to Yanchep and all the new developments up there, an then it is the same as down south. And with the way prices are currently going I dont think it will get better any time soon, only worse.

Good luck mate.

Blog updated also.

(PS. "Likely to be Atrium, possibly Perceptions, not Ventura after your experience" I am so quoting you in my customer satisfaction survey if your dont mind

)

Petrified Pom · May 17, 2006 6:20 pm

Feel free to quote me, but just make sure you don't land YOURSELF in any legal trouble, as they could claim that by slagging them off in your blog you're defaming them and me saying that I won't use them is proof that they've lost money.

(Not a lawyer though! Bad enought being a Pom!)

Glint-Bladesong · May 18, 2006 11:01 am

Hey my dad is (was) a pom so all is good.

Anyway if they say that by slagging them off lost them money I will counter with the fact that their poor customer relations lost them money.

Good luck in June.

Glint-Bladesong · Jun 20, 2006 11:55 am

Long time no update. Oops. I keep updating my blog (occasionally) and I visit here often, I just keep forgetting to update this thread.

So, a quick summary then
What we have done:
Walls are up, roof timber is up, smart wiring is in.

What is next:
Colorbond roof (and sisalation blanket) to be installed, electrician to install fittings.

Satisfaction Rating of projct so far:
65%
Why:
Ventura is still a pain in the *** (kind of like how a needle in your eyeball would be a pain). We have made some progress, but there are still defects outstanding from 3 months ago that they havent bothered to fix (or even bothered to communicate to me about).
I'm not happy with some of the brickwork, but it is structurally sound and built to the right size (no room is more the 10mm out according to my private building inspector).

Ventura is like a communicative black hole. All emails and phone calls are recieved and sucked up by Ventura without hesitation, but getting anything out of them requires a degree in Astrophysics and a starship with warp engines... seriously...

The end date we have been given is the end of October, which I put as much faith in as I would if someone here told me that the world as going to end in two days time by way of a giant gerbil eating it. But we can live in naive hope can't we.... I like gerbils.

On the bright side, the community newspaper group here in WA was holding a huge online auction just recently, lots of companies around WA were offering up items for auction (from things such as cars, to computers, to gym memberships, just about anything you could think of) and I ended up buying a $1000 voucher for Lighting International for $700, valid until the end of september, so that will help with the expenses a little.

Take care people and remember if in doubt about the home you are building, nag the builder to death to get a result :-)

Rod1949 · Jun 22, 2006 4:05 pm

We are in the same boat except I'm an Owner Builder and enjoying every bit of it. I demolished our existisg house and salvaged 1000's of $ worth of 50yr old seasoned Jarrah timber, then got Capital Demolition in to remove the brick shell they did this in 4 hours, cost $4,400.
I have formed and poured the concrete slab and in approx 3 weeks should be erecting the steel framed walls and roof trusses and roof sheeting.
A couple of days ago I delivered copies of the plan to lots of aluminium window/door manufacturers. Dowell Aluminium said they cannot supply for 8mths and Jason said 6mths, hopefully some of the smaller mobs will be able to supply a lot sooner.

Cheers
Rod

Glint-Bladesong · Jul 11, 2006 11:48 am

Update number: whatever

The gyprock ceilings went in yesterday AND the plumbing and gas lines. Quite a busy time. On the whole it looks good, all the tap outlets in seemingly the right place, gas pipes where they should be and the house looks a bit brighter too with the white(ish) gyprock ceilings.

I have two problems at the moment (I'm sure there are more, but these are the prevelent ones).
1) The external hot water unit... I am very dubious that this is being installed properly. In fact I am basically convinced that they have forgetton that it is a recessed unit and are planing to install it as a wall mounted unit. I have a seperate thread on this in the forums if any one has any experiance with continuous flow hot water systems and wants to put their 2 cents in.

2) I think I am being summoned by my builder to be told off for being a naughty boy.... I cant wait :twisted:

After a number of months trying to communicate with the builder and get some sort of information flow happening I get a phone call from my Client Liason(HA!) Officer telling me that my brick supervisor insists on a meeting this week on site... Ok... So I have to take a day off work... Ok... When I asked what is was about she mumbles a few things along the lines of "A lot of emails recently from me" (true - few of them ever got a reply though), and the fact that the supervisor was annoyed that I had organised an independent inspection of the roof work just before the roof work was fully completed (all that was left unfinished was a few colorbond sheets that hadn't been properly fastened down). The rant on this is in my blog (see signature).

Considering that the inspection was the most glowing and positive inspection of the 3 inspections so far (the roof work was excellent I am glad to say) I'm not sure what his problem is here, but its going to be fun to find out.