Building the McLaren by Dechellis

Before you read through our thread I'd like to warn everyone who is thinking of having polished porcelain tiles to check the packaging to ensure you have first quality tiles......

In May 2012 we wrote to our builder after moving in and discovering that our 600 x 600 polished porcelain floor tiles have “optical haze” which gives a cloudy/dirty appearance to the tiles resulting in an unacceptable floor surface. It's difficult to photograph but I think you will see the problem here ...

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The tile supplier arranged to send a couple of representatives from the Australian Tile Council to inspect the tiles (approx 80 square metres). Their report concluded “that the tiles as inspected are suitable for the purpose and have been particularly well installed. Also the report advised that “optical hazing” is inherent in polished porcelain tiles and is exaggerated under down lights. In the Inspectors opinion and in the Industry generally this effect is not regarded as a defect”.

In the meantime, we had been in contact with another representative from the Australian Tile Council who advised that the tiles are NOT 1st quality product as the packaging does not have:

a manufacturer's name or trade mark,
a work size,
the country of origin,
whether they are glazed or unglazed,
rectified or whether they are modular or non modular,
the mark of 1st quality,
or the type of tile and reference to the conforming Standard.

According to our expert the problem is a manufacturing defect where defect tiles have been culled out of the general production stream and packed together into cartons and pallets and sold off at a lower cost than 1st quality products. This is virtually the only way that cartons (and pallets) have every tile that has the same or very similar concern. That's also why the carton marking does not comply with the requirements for 1st quality whereas the production stream will go through selection and be packed into cartons adequately marked with all requirements.

He also advised that generally these defective tiles originate from China – there is little evidence of affected tiles coming from Europe.

As the builder and tile supplier have denied there is a fault as far as they are concerned, we have written to the ACCC and Business and Consumer Services. We told them that:-

Optical Hazing was NOT explained to us at the time of selection. (If it was we probably wouldn’t have spent so much money on faulty tiles.)

The Australian Tile Standards clearly state under ISO 10545-2-7 Specks or Spots: any unintentional visually contrasting areas are classed as a “defect”. (In our case every tile is defective.)

The indisputable fact that the tile/carton marking does not comply with the mandatory requirements of Standard first quality, proves that the tiles were not first quality product.

Now back to the beginning of our build ....

After learning so much from reading everyone else's building threads it's time for me to take the plunge and hopefully share experiences that will benefit others. We had been living in Old Noarlunga for almost 17 years when all of a sudden last May my hubby decides it's time to move - which was fine with me. Although we loved living there and had done all the renovations there were little things that were starting to irk us so after looking at the quality of houses that were for sale in our price range we decided to build. Finding land was really hard and we never thought we would be living at Aldinga but when we saw the Sunday Estate we loved it. So we sold our house and are currently renting not far from the block. We were looking for a change of lifestyle and we have found it. I am now walking on the weekends - it's a 10 minute walk to the block and then only another 10 minutes to the esplanade. We looked at a whole range of house designs from Scott Salisbury to Sterling Homes and always finished up at Dechellis. We started the process in June and have our selections appointment next week and the slab is booked in for the 18th February all being well. You probably won't hear from me for a while until the house starts to take shape. I have uploaded a picture of the display home but can't add the plan as it's in PDF format. We didn't change anything apart from having a double panel lift door to the garage and adding loads of power points. I wanted to also say that I have enjoyed Deemaree's thread and her "green" obsession - I have never known anyone so passionate about anything

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