How often do you visit your site?

Im looking to build but dont know yet which builder, and the advice from friends about Contract Build Time has been one of the most useful pieces of info I have gathered so far. A friend said to start with $500 per DAY and let them negotiate no less than $250per DAY to cover rent/storage/inconvenience etc.

Sorry to read of your problems, Norfolk. The industry has political support from industry and unions through lobbying. My architect made mistakes, the builder is making mistakes and so do I and I just keep paying. I tried to be smart, got my own floor plan ($1,000, TAFE designers charge $750), soil report and contours and earthworks quote and got quotes from three builders.

The advantage of getting quotes with your own floor plan is that things are a bit more competitive; one builder dropped $10,000 once he was told he may be out of the race.

Any good building inspectors in Perth, which can be recommended? I am still hesitant using inspectors as the builder can still disregard the reports.

Hey domwild, we used BCIWA for a practical inspection after the event. Unfortunately we didn't realise that the bank didn't do any checks as part of the progress payments.
The chap they sent was very thorough, picked up on all sorts which we're still waiting for remediation/defect fix!

And in reply to the topic thread, we went to site at the weekends averaged monthly as the walls went up, then fortnightly as stuff was getting installed. We still missed things though


Cheers

NewChoice Developments (Perth) has it in the contract not to enter the building site without the manager, which is absolute rubbish as the manager has other things to do. It looks like builders try to avoid scrutiny by the owners.

As a pensioner I go there as often as possible and have found one problem with the cavity insulation and have taken photos to prove the point. Just to stop any complaints it might be best to go there after hours or on weekends, where there is no trade on site and to take photos.

domwild Its not the site supervisor's job to check workmanship is to standards. It's great you understand this and are performing this function at pre-linings stage before all these defects get covered up and hidden.

AJW

In a perfect world you are correct. This is the perception a volume builder will 'sell' you.

Unfortunately the (usual) reality is the volume builders’ low cost business model means they don’t effectively resource site supervision. Lowest cost sub contractors only do the minimum what they can get away with because they know their work is not checked – the SS has no time for this, most new home buyers don’t know, and regulatory or contractual enforcement is not viable because its too expensive, time consuming, and risky for home owners.

Here is some information I found about the SS role that has helped me to understand:

Source: https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/position-papers/143

Australian suburban house building: industry organisation, practices and constraints (RMIT 2011) Page 35

3.3.1 Supervisors role

Supervisors of detached housing construction will usually be responsible for the construction of up to 15 houses at any one time. These houses will generally be in limited geographical area so that they can move around and inspect work at a number of houses each day and initiate contracts or otherwise deal with contingencies. Their work starts when they are given a set of plans for the construction of a new house. The first step, if it is a ‘customer house’ is to contact the client who is buying the house and talk about how they will be kept informed about building progress and the way they can monitor progress. Typically, clients are given access to digital photos uploaded by the supervisor onto a web site.

The supervisor is then responsible for organising the building process leading to a completed house. A list of responsibilities typically used by volume builders is the following:

Deliver building construction projects within the agreed budget, client specification, quality and timeline.
Complete call forward documents for each job prior to site start.

Raise building variations in conjunction with the construction manager and client.

Manage and effectively assign construction projects to completion.

Coordinate the order and delivery of construction materials to the building.

Coordinate the attendance of required trades persons, subcontractors etc. to the building site.

Liaise with internal and external stakeholders to resolve issues or conflict should it arise.

Ensure that all workers on site comply with legislative requirements and follow company specifications.

Contribute to a safe working environment by ensuring the OH&S policy is adhered to at all times.

The process used by the supervisor to complete ‘call forward’ documents is different for each of the three different types of contracts, supply contracts, supply and install contracts and subcontracts. Supervisors arrange subcontracts directly with tradespeople.

Typically, supervisors will have a well-established network of tradespeople that they use as subcontractors. They are constantly in touch with these tradespeople allocating them new jobs by issuing ‘call forward’ orders and keeping them informed about upcoming work.

Supervisors constantly seek to maintain a network of subcontractors who they draw on to work on sites. Based on past experience, they try to ensure that this network only includes tradespeople who they can rely on to complete work on time and meet quality standards.

Most supervisors will have previously been tradesperson, most likely a carpenter.

Supply and supply and install contracts are ‘called forward’ by the supervisor but are routed through head office. In other words, there is no direct contact between supervisors and supply and supply and install contractors. For example, a supply order for concrete that will go into a floor slab will be ‘called forward’ by the supervisor using the Framework or ClickHome workflow software. The supply order will become a part of a stream of concrete call forwards going through the head office to a concrete supply company. The supervisor will have directly engaged the concreter as a subcontractor who will lay out the slab and be ready at the appointed time with a gang to pour the concrete and complete the slab.

Following the issuing of call forwards the supervisor follows up to ensure that the work is done and that it meets quality standards. These standards are of two types:

First, construction work has to meet the requirements of the building regulations and associated Australian standards (eg. Victorian Building Commission 2007). At key stages in the building process a registered building surveyor will check off adherence to building regulations and standards. If the building survey finds faults, then improvement notices will be issued.

Second, the supervisors are responsible for ensuring that work meets the quality standards that the volume builders set themselves. These standards relate primarily to the ultimate presentation of the house to the purchaser and market reputation for high quality work.

Safer to take the view Norfolk has described and assume volume builders SS won’t check.
Sounds like we all had similar experiences and were let down by the amount of ‘supervision’ vs simply coordinating trades at the early crucial stages.

Agreed should be the SS‘s/builder’s responsibility in ideal world.