Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 24, 2011 9:27 am Building a new home is, for the vast majority of people, the most expensive thing you will ever do. It is also stressful and you want to get it right. Therefore it concerns me that there is no real, objective way of finding out which builders are the most reliable and which ones will let you down and cost yoy time and money. I contacted Choice, the consumer organisation, and they agree that while they test and rate everything from toasters to tv's they , nor anyone else, rates houses. I also contacted Fair Trading but they were unable to help. This seems crazy to me. Building a home is, as I said, the most expensive thing most of us will do - and we want to get it right. I know there is a sort of rating website where people can write comments, but that seems to me to be very prone to either cranks or to companies themselves writing favourable revues of their own product! Can we set up some sort of way of objectively rating the numerous home building companies? Could this forum be a start? I know there are individual topics on specific builders but is there any way of coordinating this and also getting some expert independent comments? Perhaps if everone who has had a home built could write in and summarise their experience and it could be collated under the various company names alphabetically? I throw these ideas out for any suggestions. I am hoping to build a home soon and I am really woried as to which companies I can trust. I would appreciate any help and ideas. Re: Rating of Home Building Companies 2Apr 24, 2011 9:40 am domus Can we set up some sort of way of objectively rating the numerous home building companies? Personally, Home Building is very "subjective"... each family's experience is individual, expectations are unique and stresses are relative to the coping capacity of the person involved. This forum has a plethora of posts, opinions and experiences. The most educated way to make in informed decision on which builder to choose is to arm yourself with as much common sense and information as you can cope with and most importantly - trust your gut instinct! Good Luck and happy building! Re: Rating of Home Building Companies 3Apr 24, 2011 10:33 am A lot of the bigger companies these days watch social networking sites for any reviews positive/negative and react. Need each big builder to have a rep here and provide references for people wanting to build. Also could be another avenue to discuss concerns about building. Building with Jandson Homes - Eclipse 18. http://adgnetworks.blogspot.com/ Re: Rating of Home Building Companies 4Apr 24, 2011 10:36 am Hi, As the previous poster said everyone will have a different experience with the same building company. The main difference between good jobs and bad jobs seems to come down to the site supervisor you are assigned. If you get a good one, then your build should progress without too much trouble. You could also look to call a couple of independent inspectors who are constantly inspecting new builds to ask them if they have trouble with any specific builders more than others. Good luck, Michelle House - Lockup completed 23rd December 2011 - Painters are in!!! https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=37261&start=0&hilit=Blaxland Re: Rating of Home Building Companies 5Apr 24, 2011 11:39 am Hi, we are currently building a house with a smaller building company who only builds about 50 houses a year. They have been wonderful so far to date and nothing seems to hard for them. Is this to good to be true? The owners are hands on with every job and actually come to site and physically work with the trades they employ. They even let us design our house with no extra cost at all. They amended the plans about 7 times till we were totally happy with how we wanted the house to be. The company we are building with is called Zen Homes, they are based in Sydney. Im not sure were you are situated but give these guys a shot. I am sure you will be very impressed just as we are! Hope that helps a little in your search. Re: Rating of Home Building Companies 6Apr 24, 2011 12:45 pm There is a product review site you can have a look, I am not sure how objective the views of reviewers are http://www.productreview.com.au/c/home-builders.html What I found is you get what you paid for, there are some members here who built with Young homes, the finish is just top class, I am sure they paid more than $100K for the similar house built by an “average” builder. Re: Rating of Home Building Companies 7Apr 24, 2011 12:48 pm Thanks people for your replies. This might be a start. snoofie, you said that "...Personally, Home Building is very "subjective"... each family's experience is individual, expectations are unique and stresses are relative to the coping capacity of the person involved..." That is true, however, we need to know which companies "let you down" with: - massive cost overuns, long delays and poor standard of workmanship - these are the three areas that cause me most concern. Re: Rating of Home Building Companies 8Apr 24, 2011 5:56 pm Agreed Domus, as they are of concern to anyone who is investing huge sums of money, time and effort into their future and family life. We all share your concerns. I still believe however that regardless of which builder someone chooses there are so many variables as to the resulting build process. All you need is one less than professional Site Supervisor for example and whammo - one traumatic build! On the other side of the coin - there are plenty of instances here on the Forum where someone has built with a builder with many negative reviews and they have had a faultless build. I'm just not sure if there can actually be a "definitive guide"... Just my opinion Re: Rating of Home Building Companies 9Apr 24, 2011 7:11 pm snoofie Personally, Home Building is very "subjective"... So is wine and cuisine, yet everyone from Michelin to the Herald Sun offer objective rating systems that are widely accepted. I agree with Domus, there is a need to be met here! An annual list of H1 "Hardhatted" building contractors, complete with reviews. Although, I guess with cuisine the incognito Michelin inspectors only need to fork out the cost of a meal, not a quarter million dollar house. Matt's Brando: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=46340 Started March 30th 2011 PCI July 15th Re: Rating of Home Building Companies 11Apr 25, 2011 11:04 am Hi Domus, It would be great to have 1 'go to' area to to choose a builder based on experience, that would be fabulous! However I tend to agree with snoofie about varying building experiences. For example, I had 3 family members build with the same volume builder at around the same time all with the same supervisor. Two of the builds went perfectly fine with minimal concern, but one of them had problem right from the start from bricking right through to fixing stage. Contractors and trade quality of work is a big issue and reading the contract and plans properly to really understand what you are getting is paramount, especially for those building for the first time. A lot of money is invested but it is also a bit of a gamble as to how smooth or difficult the building process will be. I have been in homes where the people have had no problems what so ever, however I can see bowed walls and gaps in cornices that don't seem to faze them, so really depends also on what you can tolerate and what you just can't. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ All new built homes look like display homes... until the furniture goes in. Re: Rating of Home Building Companies 12Apr 25, 2011 1:00 pm Hi Domus, Agree 100%, even though there are so many factors involved in constructing a house, and there is no pleasing some people no matter what you do, like you said if the major benchmarks and standards are being met during construction then that builder should rank well. Sarah Re: Rating of Home Building Companies 13Apr 25, 2011 7:10 pm Hi Domus, I share your same concerns as I expect to start building towards year end and can feel butterflies in my stomach as I engross myself more and more into this megaproject. After screening through all the blogs/experiences posted regarding the big builders, I have come to the conclusion that a good site supervisor holds the key to a good build, not so much the building company per say. The initial stage with the sales consultant is also important as we can do a quick assessment of our comfort level with regards to ease of plan changes/special requests/promptness in handling queries etc. If you have a bad start here, chances are the rest of the journey will be turbulent. Also, I make sure I ask the close estimate "shift-in" cost based on my requirements as I don't like nasty surprises. Starting with the base house price, adding another 50k would be about right depending on extras/frills/upgrades. Cheers Mee2 Re: Rating of Home Building Companies 14Apr 26, 2011 9:24 pm As long as we continue to build houses to australian standards- there will never be such a thing as a good house, because our aus standards are so crap. If you want a job done properly... Do it yourself! Re: Rating of Home Building Companies 15Apr 27, 2011 10:18 am Bawon, as long as you know what you are doing...Lol. Those DIY shows can sometimes be missleading.....liquid nails, craft wood, and some acylic paint and vola new timber floors! Re: Rating of Home Building Companies 16Apr 27, 2011 9:38 pm In this industry, they should make it standard that prior to every stage being completed, the house should be fully inspected and signed off, prior to next stage starting. There are so many *** and unprofessional tradies in this industry, that it amazes me how they even get work... If you want a job done properly... Do it yourself! Re: Rating of Home Building Companies 17Apr 28, 2011 10:18 am Barwon, it's no use having inspectors chosen and paid for by the builder. They won't bite the hand that feeds them. And if they do, the builder will blacklist them and choose another one. It's like the Sampoong mall that collapsed in south korea - the architect wouldn't approve a structurally unsound building, so he was fired and replaced by someone who would. Metricon Riva 33 - http://herlihy-riva.blogspot.com Site start 15/03/2010 - Handover 23/12/2010 9 months and 8 days (284 calendar days) from site start to handover Re: Rating of Home Building Companies 18Apr 28, 2011 10:51 am It's also hard to gauge an overall performance from a building company given how many different "stages" there are. From sales, to plans, to engineering, to contracts, to selections, to the build and the finish. Alot of these stages rely on the performance of outside contractors, which your builder is responsible for, but obviously can't 100% guarantee they'll do the right thing first time. If you were going to try to find a rating system you'd probably have to split up the stages and rate each one with a percentage of satisfaction. It's all too hard! Homestead Homes SA: The Lamont Bayswood Estate; Aldinga Beach Preliminary Signing: April 2010 Floorplans: 13 June 2010 Building Contract: 19 June 2010 Selections: 28 Sept 2010 Scraped; Trenching: 21 Jan 2011 Slab Poured: 28 Jan 2011 Framing: 17 Feb 2011 | Completed 24 Feb 2011 Roof & Gutters: 02 Mar 2011 Bricks: 03 Mar 2011 Wire-up: 12 Mar 2011 Re: Rating of Home Building Companies 19May 03, 2011 12:11 pm Barwon374 In this industry, they should make it standard that prior to every stage being completed, the house should be fully inspected and signed off, prior to next stage starting. There are so many *** and unprofessional tradies in this industry, that it amazes me how they even get work... I wish something like that would be standard. Nip bad work in the bud before further works are done. Sarah 10 years ago was a different software than we use now. it has had a lot of changes over the past years. Improvments to the software and changes to how Nathers models need… 8 1514 We already paid for somfy motors for the blinds. The quote above was purely for “pre-wiring” so the blinds company can install the motors and blinds. That’s why we… 5 16288 go upvc window frames ensure insulation under colorbond. not just sarking, lighter color roof also not sure if you have seen this viewtopic.php?t=5823 last couple of pages… 4 110585 |