Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Sep 01, 2010 10:16 pm We are currently building a Windsor 40 with EBH. We have had heaps of issues along the way but this one tops the cake. We upgraded our bricks to dry pressed at an extra cost of about $12000, we thought money well spent being a fundamental and highly exposed component of the house. That was until we got the shonkiest bricklayer after waiting nearly 3 months... The brickwork has now been completed, I think my 2 year old could have done a better job. There are chipped bricks all over the FRONT of the house, bows in the walls easily seen pretty much the entire circumference of the house, steelwork above window frames installed crookedly ,the joints are really messy, different sizes and nowhere near professionaly finished off. It really has to be seen to be believed... While we have been told some of it will be fixed we have been told that other parts would probably meet "minimum standards" which appear very minimum indeed. Would we have built with EBH and spent over $400K if the quality of their display home just met minimum standards? NO WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! We do not have inflated expectations of 100% perfection, we just expect a decent job that looks good and not like someones first attempt at bricklaying. Experienced bricklayers that have come to have a look think its pretty much the worst job they have ever seen, making our beautiful and very expensive bricks and therefore house look cheap and nasty. Even strangers passing by on the street and delivery drivers to the site comment on the poor state of the brickwork. The Construction Manager met us on site after hubby went to EBH office to complain. He has told us that all the issues will be fixed and if we are still not happy, he will pull it down and start again.....I will believe that when I see it! A comment was also made that alot of people render the front of the house, I wonder if that will be the next bandaid fix suggestion if we still aren't happy once they have tried to fix it??? Work on the interior of the house has started but the bricks have not been fixed - I get the feeling we were just told what we wanted to hear to keep us quiet for a while. Will keep you posted and photos to come Re: Eden Brae brickwork - buyers beware!!! 2Sep 01, 2010 10:51 pm Hi, I am sorry to hear about your dramas. Have you consulted an independant inspector to view the bricks and to get the report to submit to your builders? I would also be taking photos of the damage and contacting Building Advice and Conciliation Victoria or the relevant area for your state. They will be able to give you some further advice and may suggest you log a complaint with them. I hope everything works out to your satisifaction. Michelle House - Lockup completed 23rd December 2011 - Painters are in!!! https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=37261&start=0&hilit=Blaxland Re: Eden Brae brickwork - buyers beware!!! 3Sep 02, 2010 11:42 am rawhitis We are currently building a Windsor 40 with EBH. We have had heaps of issues along the way but this one tops the cake. We upgraded our bricks to dry pressed at an extra cost of about $12000, we thought money well spent being a fundamental and highly exposed component of the house. Hi rawhitis Sorry to read of your construction drama. We have been down this track too with brickwork to which we had upgraded the bricks and the mortar. Ours though has been affected badly by the brick cleaning. We are currently locked into battle with our builder too after the Building Commission deemed our mortar defective. Stand your ground with the Implied Warranty section of your contract. Your builder cannot ignore these as they are built into every contract for consumer protection. Section 8 of the Domestic Building Contracts Act also will reveal to you what is expected under the warranties in relation to domestic building works. A builder warrants that the work will be carried out in a proper and workmanlike manner the work will be carried out with reasonable care and skill all materials to be supplied by the Builder wil be good and suitable for the purpose and that they will be NEW! If you google Domestic Building Contracts Act .... you will be able to gain more info Also rawhitis, the Statutory Conditions of the Trade Practices Act implies that goods must be of merchantable quality ...... the chipped bricks which you have ended up with in your construction are being provided to you at a cost of $12,000!!! ..... you should be expecting undamaged bricks after having paid this amount of money. Good luck with it all .... look forward to seeing some photos. Re: Eden Brae brickwork - buyers beware!!! 4Sep 02, 2010 8:42 pm Thanks for all that information buildingwest and SherWin! We obviously have to give them the opportunity to fix it up to a satisfactory level (we have serious doubts that this is even possible). Thanks for pointing us in the right direction - at least I can start investigating and making some enquiries now so should the time come when we need to take matters further we know exactly what to do. Will keep you posted Re: Eden Brae brickwork - buyers beware!!! 5Sep 03, 2010 8:05 am If it was me I would play off the management against the site supervisor. It was the site supervisor's mistake to choose that bricklayer, and it's his responsibility that the bricks are like that. But it's the management's responsibility to give you satisfactory brickwork. So you can side with the management against the site supervisor. That way you don't have to get the management to agree that they did anything wrong, you just need them to agree that the site supervisor did something wrong, which is much easier. If you don't end up with a satisfactory outcome, I can put you on to someone who LOVES taking builders to court for sub-standard work. Metricon Riva 33 - http://herlihy-riva.blogspot.com Site start 15/03/2010 - Handover 23/12/2010 9 months and 8 days (284 calendar days) from site start to handover Re: Eden Brae brickwork - buyers beware!!! 7Sep 06, 2010 7:21 am btherl, I believe it was actually the Construction Manager that allocated that bricklayer to our job and not the Site Supervisor... Will definately keep your friend in mind if we have to go down the court route. Eden Brae actually organise for Tyrells (independant Inspector) to do inspections, one was done last week but I haven't seen the report yet. We are a little sceptical, even though Tyrells is independant the builder arranges it for all their homes.... so depending on outcome of the fix up they are going to attempt, we may get our own inspection done. On a positive note, they seem to have done a good job on the internal linings (so far!) Re: Eden Brae brickwork - buyers beware!!! 8Sep 15, 2010 9:34 pm Just an update.... We have had an independant inspection done of our own which was submitted to Eden Brae, it was then forwarded by CM to SS for all issues to be rectified. He was confident that with alot of work, a good finish was achievable (to our surprise) Some of the issues have been fixed by original bricklayer such as bowed walls etc & we have been advised that the rest will be fixed up by a different crew, so I have to say so far so good, we are feeling a little more positive that we will have a satisfactory outcome in regard to the bricks which is a massive relief... looks like i can get some sleep again!! In all fairness to EBH the inspector did say that the bricks we have chosen are almost impossible to get an excellent finish on (the finish on ours was still described as sloppy) so maybe I should rename the thread "Mowbay Blue bricks - buyers beware!!!!!" We have since had an incorrect staircase installed but that was no fault of Eden Brae rather the staircase company but EBH are in the process of liaising with the staircase people to assist us with this one...... we are hoping this is the last of the nasty little surprises.... Currently the kitchen is being installed which is looking fantastic as well as the vanities.... it appears everything is looking up - yayyyyy I built with EB back on 2009. Check out this thread on this forum. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=12911&p=154061#p154061 I can't speak for recent expericience however, we had no… 1 22235 I am in the same situation, would you be able to give some insights in to this? I am in SA 8 17012 |