The Warwick's Henley Lexington Q1 993

Only discovered the H1 forum today. Our Henley Lexington Q1 reached Lock-Up on 23 December 2010. Will post some updates here, including after we move in.

Some Blog Posts on progress up until now are on my consulting blog at ...

Post 1 - Ready and Waiting
http://veridiansm.com/2010/10/12/house-construction-diary-p1/

Post 2 - Earth Moving Action
http://veridiansm.com/2010/11/15/homebuild2/

Post 3 - Base and Frame
http://veridiansm.com/2010/11/30/homebuildthree/

Post 4 - Roof and Bricks
http://veridiansm.com/2010/12/20/homebuildfour/

Also happy to answer any questions if I can help. So far so good with our own experience with Henley.

Congrats.
We're building the Q2 Lexington mid next year. Overall, are you happy with the communication / workmanship from Henley?
Any issues that came up during the process?

Thanks Maz78. Overall very happy with communication and workmanship.

We had some early issues with bank valuations and the whole tender to contract to final plans seemed a bit slow when you are itching to get started. I think Henley (and probably all bulk builders) should aim to communicate more during that period - we had to phone or email to get updates. My tip for anyone in the tender or contract stage, is to manage their expectations and realize that site work is likely to commence at least two-months after contracts are signed, maybe three.

Since the water tap turned up on the block (30 Oct 2010), progress has been rapid despite the poor Melbourne weather. We went from earth-works in early November to lock-up on 23 Dec 2010 with activity on the site almost every work day. Our Site Supervisor has been fantastic! Once building commences, they are by far the most important person to you. Our SS has been in contact every week or two with updates and comment on what is happening next. We are fortunate to be living nearby, so we can see what is happening on a regular basis (daily in some cases). We had one extra plumbing point (water to the fridge) missed, however this was immediately rectified and other than that everything has gone smoothly (touch-wood for the rest of the build)! We are very happy and the slab, frame, roofing, bricks and plaster have all been high-quality workmanship - better than we expected.

I hope you have the same good fortune. The Lexington is certainly a great design. Cheers!

The Lexington is a lovely design. I love most of Henley's floorplans... which is why we went ahead with them

Overall, I think we had an ok build... although we have nothing to compare it to as this is our first

We found the communication towards the end of the build was lacking somewhat. Our admin wasn't passing our messages onto our SS, it was all very frustrating. We had site start mid October '09, and received keys on June 30th this year. 8 1/2 month build. We wouldn't have minded the build time so much if they just communicated more, and provided accurate updates.

We were told we'd be in around end March, then end April, then end May. The tradesmen coming and going even after handover drove us insane. Some of the tradesmen/contracters they employed were animals. The painters continued to smoke in our house whilst painting, the smell was disgusting, even in the weeks that followed handover. The wrong appliances were installed, even after chasing our admin to make sure everything would be ok... this lead to further issues with the stone bench top having to be cut after we'd moved in as it didn't fit the correct cooktop...

They dont do a proper clean before handover They do a 'builders clean'. Which isn't a clean at all.

Just realised I've been rambling and giving you all the negatives from our build! Sorry! Well, compared to those few negatives, there were far more positives! Just keep on top of your admin, keep communicating. Organise as many walk throughs as possible to pick up on any errors they may miss.

The after handover guy was fabulous. We had a few issues and they were all attended to quickly and to our satisfaction.

Good luck with the rest of your build, you're coming up to the really fun part!

Thanks Erin,

It seems we are on a similar time-line, a year later on than you were. To save disappointment we should probably expect a mid-year finish in 2011. It would certainly be nice to be in by April though.

Thanks for the advice, I certainly aim to keep on top of any issues and expect to have to do a good clean myself. Went and mowed the lawn and moved some leftover bricks and tiles to the back of the lot yesterday (with Site Supervisors OK). Very happy to have found this forum, will enjoy getting input on DIY and decorating after we move in as well as the rest of our build.

Happy New Year.

We did the same, moved almost 2 pallets of bricks and combined them onto one big pallet in our back yard in the far corner, only to find that our plasterers loaded half of them up into their van after they finished the job We discussed keeping the bricks with our SS, and he was happy for us to do so. Luckily we were in the area and saw (as there were no boundary fences up yet) 4 men walking one end of our block to the other... We drove up and confronted them, not that they spoke any English We were so mad. They then unloaded their van, and threw the bricks back onto a pile and broke quite a few of them.

We were also left with no extra roof tiles, had to chase our SS after handover, he was good and delivered about 12 extras for us.

Our admin girl (who is no longer there) was very strict about us being on site - or not being onsite really. Our SS was fine with it. Being we had to contact him via her it made it a bit tricky. We would find issues and want to alert him, but had to go via her... and then she'd know we'd been onsite... In the end we found his direct nunber on a delivery docket floating around site and called him.

Towards handover we raised a few issues, but our SS didn't want to fix them, he simply brushed them off. I dont think he could be bothered. Luckily for the last inspection we had a different guy and not our SS, and he was immediately on top of the issues we previously raised, and agreed without arguement that they be rectified. Like the majority of our window sills were flat, and not on a an angle. The down pipes from the gutters were not silconed, so any time it rained, water would run down the outside of the pipe. This was fixed after handover.

Aaron (my husband) is a plumber, and I've grown up with a dad who's a private building inspector. Our SS and admin knew this, but still treated us like idiots part the time. We found after handover that none of our storm water pipes were glued at the joins underground. Aaron has since dug them up and repaired them all at our cost. We made our post-handover guy aware of this issue, and asked if we would be reimbursed, and we were told that if we find any issues, we're not to touch them, as they need to call the original plumbers to come out and inspect. We decided that it wasn't worth the hassel. To dig up pipes, then not be able to do anything with them other than leave them exposed while we wait for their trades to come back. I spat the dummy and refused any more disrespectful tradies through the house.

I know I'm rambling again... that wasn't the intention I promise. Just trying to point out some issues that may arise, and give you the heads up on what to check.

Hi David, How's your build progressing?

We are on holiday in S.A so not really sure what is happening internally on ours....brickies put off bricks over chrissy cos HH hadnt moved them all around the house.....appparently they started back this week, only to be put off by the rain....oh well, that's building for you...

We may be stuck here due to floods....we will have to get our spies out