Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Sep 14, 2010 10:58 am We are struggling to find a custom home builder for our knock down rebuild at Five Dock (inner west of Sydney) and frustrated with constant dead ends. The builders we have spoken to date (over 6 month time frame) have either been significantly (blatant) expensive or just loose interest when you mention the new build is a custom design which also includes a basement garage. We have approached numerous project home builders as well and we have had no luck even with those that say they do custom work, however this was anticipated as the build is a bit out of their norm. Briefly the new home is two storey (double brick construction on ground floor / brick veneer construction on first floor, suspended ground floor slab and struct. timber floor to first floor) plus basement double garage and we have approved council DA and completed arch. / structure design documentation. We would appreciate any recommendations and or suggestions and thanking you in advance. Re: Struggling to Find Custom Home Builder - Inner West Subu 3Sep 16, 2010 10:58 am Hi nn_4142, I know what you are going through. We have a sloping block and many of the project home builders didn't want to touch us. We originally talked to Binet homes about a custom design as we heard they were pretty good but they were a little pricey for us. We end up going with Huxley homes and are building a split-level home on bearers and joists with parts using suspended slabs. The whole ground floor as a suspended slab added an extra cost that we couldn't really justify. Basement garage. Is your place a side split with a 3 storey section including the garage? Five Dock is a nice area. I used to live at Drummoyne and enjoyed the Bayrun. Mick Re: Struggling to Find Custom Home Builder - Inner West Subu 4Sep 16, 2010 2:28 pm Thanks for the reply Mick. Our design is not split level and more of a true 3 storey design where the garage is situated to one side of the overall floor plan. The garage footprint is approximately 40% of the ground floor footprint. How are you finding Huxley and are they open to custom design? Nick Re: Struggling to Find Custom Home Builder - Inner West Subu 5Sep 16, 2010 3:33 pm Sounds like your top floor will be up nice and high. Any chance of water views then? I know of a few doing custom designs with Huxley. For us the build is moving slowly now as we are waiting for things to get finished off. Other than the slow progress at the moment things have been pretty good. Maybe ask me again in a month or two when hopefully everything is done. Re: Struggling to Find Custom Home Builder - Inner West Subu 6Sep 16, 2010 6:01 pm There are CBD skyline and water views however we have to contend with a massive gum tree which could block part of the view from the front facing veranda. What's the suburb you're located in? We will approach Huxley to test the waters and would like to hear your dealings with them in terms of acquiring a fixed price quote (quick and painless or drawn out and painful?), ability to accommodate changes, level of design service offered etc? Re: Struggling to Find Custom Home Builder - Inner West Subu 7Sep 17, 2010 9:00 am We bought a knockdown in Gladesville. We liked the inner west but wanted a bigger yard and less aircraft noise than we had before at Drummoyne. Site costs are not fixed but other than that we haven't had any price increases other than additional council requirements. It should all be spelled out in the Tender they give you. The Tender stage was pretty painful for us as we had to go through having custom sketches drawn up first and then going back and forth deciding what we did or didn't want included and yes they are pretty accommodating. I'm assuming it would be a lot easier for you as you already have your plans drawn and approved. Re: Struggling to Find Custom Home Builder - Inner West Subu 8Oct 26, 2010 7:23 am How did you go with Huxley? I liked the way the Carrara presents... Other builders that might be interesting: DM Carr Constructions Sarpel Homes Buildcraft Constructions Horizon Homes Roselea Homes Merit Homes Alkira Homes Urban Style Homes Grantleigh Homes Corrion Homes Benchmark Homes Chateau Homes Kastoni Homes Charleston Homes Young Homes Walter Homes Binet Homes If anyone has feedback on these builders - please share Cheers, Razer Re: Struggling to Find Custom Home Builder - Inner West Subu 9Jul 14, 2014 9:10 pm Dear nn_4142 & Razer May I ask who you ended up building with? If you had to build again, would you use the same builder? We are at the beginning of our search for a custom builder and feeling tendering pain. 10 15767 Hi I live in a 100yr old semi and my neighbour added an additional floor last yr and our architect has advised that we can knock down our semi and build a free-standing… 0 37728 Hi Mofflepop, I would recommend finding a building designer to prepare plans, they should design to your specified budget. The benefit is you can tender the project out… 9 20448 |