Is this quality build ?

ahuang · Nov 28, 2007 4:17 pm

I have similar issue as mentioned in my blog:
http://building-our-first-house.blogspot.com/2007/11/progress069-new-issue-with-gaps-above.html

According to our supervisor it will be covered later. I will still leave it as open issue for tracking purpose until it's been fixed.

ben · Nov 28, 2007 4:45 pm

We follow your suggestion to put our concern in writing and cc a hard copy to cs department this morning as we know they are holding a meeting every Wednesday. We ended our letter by saying if they chose to ignore our concern, we will refer the matter to the BACV. The Regional Manager rang us back a couple of hours later advising they will look into the issue. This is a good sign. Will keep you guys posting and once again, thanking all for your input.

ben

ben · Nov 28, 2007 5:21 pm

melbman

davinci

it is a window and not a door right?

Are the Tolerances different for windows and doors?

They are pretty much the same visually ~60-65cm, yes just less than a brick high.

In the drawing I posted earlier, if i draw a horizontal straight line over the top of the laundry door, the bathroom window (immediate left of door) is lower than the door and the other window. What on the house now: top of the three mentioned openings are same height.

The builder argument is that the only spec is 545 (underside of window frame to floor) they have followed it. :shock:

davinci · Nov 28, 2007 7:09 pm

melbman

doors are generally diffrent heights to windows
so brick courses may not line up with windows to doors in height

as for tolerances for doors, when i looked into it i only concentrated on windows not doors if you have a look at the link posted previous it may or may not mention it
if not goto the main website and you should be able to find the answer if not call the tech section of building commision

ben · Dec 20, 2007 1:02 am

ben

We follow your suggestion to put our concern in writing and cc a hard copy to cs department this morning as we know they are holding a meeting every Wednesday. We ended our letter by saying if they chose to ignore our concern, we will refer the matter to the BACV. The Regional Manager rang us back a couple of hours later advising they will look into the issue. This is a good sign. Will keep you guys posting and once again, thanking all for your input.

ben

Sorry for being offline for so long mostly because we allowed fair and reasonable time for the builder to respond. There's a top person of the office reckons April 1st is around the corner. What happens is nothing less than a joke.

We wrote to them very clearly that the infill on our window is not what on the display home we were walked through and made our purchase decision on. We want same finish as displayed.

After playing games with us on which display home and request of photos the said display home. They produced photos of an window with an infill of one of their other display home that we have never been to. We produced a photo of the same window at the display home we went to.

The regional manager came back to say that they don't build as per display home only per contract. :roll:

Our building consultant help drafted a letter saying that as per the Domestic Building Act section 43
http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/Domino/Web_Notes/LDMS/PubLawToday.nsf/a12f6f60fbd56800ca256de500201e54/1331B500B20CD42DCA257302001ED7D0/$FILE/95-91a063.pdf
that the builder must construct as per display home unless it is specifically spelled out in the contract. (There is nothing as such in ours.) We might be misled under this Act otherwise.

We then had a on site meeting with the construction manager to discuss the issue and to provide us with a letter of response. He discussed that whilst an custom made window to fit is an option it is not economical for them to do and they won't do it. They propose to raise the bathtub and window by 60mm or so to eliminate the external infill whilst keeping the bathtub level to the window base to be the same as the display home. The letter was withheld.

He had a meeting with the regional manager then emailed us that they decided to leave it as is or replace the timber with an aluminum one. They explained they decided so based on their misquote of their discussion with our building consultant that we told him that we are happy with the aluminum infill solution.
We have repeatedly expressed in the meeting that we want the same look as per display home, no infill.
They are putting words into our mouth and then made the decision. How professional is that ? :twisted:

Called our consultant re: the conversation with them. He told us that he understood that they will raise the bathtub & window and that's pretty much the end of it. He was surprised to see the email they sent. He will give them a call to sort things out. It will be interesting to find out what's next.

Consumer Affairs ? Yes we will.

Jet79 · Dec 20, 2007 7:17 am

Oh Ben, that's horrible news. Have you had an independant inspector come and have a look at it? I would, then you have a professional backing you up that it is not good practice. With all this paperwork going back and forth, wouldn't it be easier for them to just put a new window in?? Surely it would be less hassle to them. They're making enough off the whole project I can't see how one window will break the bank.

Thanks for keeping us posted. I'm interested to see what happens next.

Jet

ahuang · Dec 20, 2007 9:39 am

In our case, we did ask our own inspector about the gap above external laundry door & window (all other windows are fine). Our inspector said that was normal and it will be covered...

ben · Feb 08, 2008 11:59 pm

Jet79

Oh Ben, that's horrible news. Have you had an independant inspector come and have a look at it? I would, then you have a professional backing you up that it is not good practice. With all this paperwork going back and forth, wouldn't it be easier for them to just put a new window in?? Surely it would be less hassle to them. They're making enough off the whole project I can't see how one window will break the bank.

Thanks for keeping us posted. I'm interested to see what happens next.

Jet

Just an update for those interested.

We have a bit of a win !! Here's a brief of events:

Lodge a formal complaint to BCAV (Consumer Affairs) just before xmas/new year break.
2 weeks later received letter of receipt from BCAV.
Few days after that we received a call from regional mgr :wink:

. They agree to lift the window to meet steel lintel and re-brick the underside. Not exactly what it should be but compromisable. That's what we settled with and moved on from this issue.

BCAV is the way to go. Cost us $0.

nzfiona · Feb 09, 2008 6:43 am

Good news, Ben. Not exactly what you wanted, but at least you're getting a solution with which you're happy, and not settling for a ** solution!

Well done for sticking to your guns.

Fiona

Jet79 · Feb 09, 2008 7:10 am

Well done, I'm glad to see there was a way around it.