Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 18301Jan 21, 2018 3:07 pm Oh wow JK, I definitely feel for you. You invest so much emotionally into these homes while they’re being built that they really do become a part of you. What are you planning to do now?IMO you’d be well within your rights to reject that or ask for significant compensation. I just can’t believe that whoever did that thought that it was acceptable... Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 18302Jan 22, 2018 9:25 am JK27 Ssssoooo, we received an email from our SS last Thursday, update on progress, book in second PCI and potential Handover for next Thursday. Stated that he had spent the whole day on site with his maintenance man, and ALL brickwork and mortar issues had been rectified (amongst other things!). Now I don't like calling people incompetent or liars, but when we stopped by on Thursday night to have a quick squiz - so many of the chipped and broken bricks we asked to have replaced, are still there!!! Secondly, they have used GREY Cement to fill holes in our Off-White Mortar, see attached pics - but it's like this all of the brickwork. Now for the life of us, either the SS is lieing about being on-site ALL day or he is that incompetent that he allowed the maintenance guy to use Grey Cement. We just can't figure it out!! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ That brickwork repair is appalling. No other words to describe it! Simeon McGovern Affordable Custom Homes, We design and build to your budget Ashington Homes www.ashingtonhomes.com.au Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 18303Jan 22, 2018 9:35 am SejaeD JK27 Ssssoooo, we received an email from our SS last Thursday, update on progress, book in second PCI and potential Handover for next Thursday. Stated that he had spent the whole day on site with his maintenance man, and ALL brickwork and mortar issues had been rectified (amongst other things!). Now I don't like calling people incompetent or liars, but when we stopped by on Thursday night to have a quick squiz - so many of the chipped and broken bricks we asked to have replaced, are still there!!! Secondly, they have used GREY Cement to fill holes in our Off-White Mortar, see attached pics - but it's like this all of the brickwork. Now for the life of us, either the SS is lieing about being on-site ALL day or he is that incompetent that he allowed the maintenance guy to use Grey Cement. We just can't figure it out!! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ That brickwork repair is appalling. No other words to describe it! on second thoughts, you should email those photos to the owner of clarendon ( peter Campbell) email pcambell@clarendon.com.au Simeon McGovern Affordable Custom Homes, We design and build to your budget Ashington Homes www.ashingtonhomes.com.au Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 18304Jan 22, 2018 12:21 pm BrisBuild nilej mattmatty Hey nilej Just a little from my experience. Will be hard to say cause everyone will get different packages etc. I'm grabbed a house and land in Box Hill. It ended up costing a fortune. Base price was already very high (much more elevated than the standards). Any deviation from the already higher prices they charged were massive. But I wanted something I'd like for years, so went ahead anyway... I'd just expect to bring your wallet if you're thinking of more "high end" upgrades. In saying that you can get a very nice house without upgrading a whole lot too! 1. Electrical. This was the best experience from mine. A transparent price list that every customer gets. They draw up what's in your tender and the add what you want. If you want down lights, expect to pay big. For me, it was around 20k extra on tender, which includes all downlights, extra power (double for every room pretty much), few bits of tv and cat 6 cabling, 7.1 sound for theatre and a few external security camera cables. 2. Kitchens. Rip off, but what are you going to do here. They do the bathroom vanities too. In total, mine was 46k. 40mm stone, two colours, createc. It includes the kitchen, butlers pantry, 2 main bathrooms, power and wc. Bulkheads are extra, think they are about 1k. Nothing in the laundry and no other cabinetry. I'd avoid them for cabinetry if you want to keep costs down. They are monsters! 3. Flooring from carpet call is actually pretty decent. They have a good range of laminates, especially parador, which are good quality (I've had these installed by carpet call before. Floor install, installation is a total mess). Carpet is reasonable I guess, consider builders margin. Tiles however, major rip off! Can't believe Tile Direct get away with being so noncompetitive. Their range is horrible. For me to upgrade my downstairs to a pretty plain 60x60 rectified tile was around $30k. Decided against getting any flooring with them and doing post handover. Can get tiles much cheaper and nicer. At least something I'll like. Having said that, some people are fine with their standard range too, so it's not necessary you need to upgrade. Just the options weren't for me taste and a reasonable price (even for clarendon). 4. Our tender included day night ducted AC. Most people will want to upgrade this in a house, especially 2 story. It's a pretty woeful system. Ended up upgrading to MyAir with 9 zones and an inverter for about $5.5k. Note there are some caviets with the zones. Beware of the AirCon guys sales technique. He will pretend to call some other dude and then say you're lucky, I've got one left blah blah. I fell for it. Was always going to upgrade it anyway - but you may be able to get it down still with techniques like this. 5. Fencing and drive way and landscaping was included for me, so not sure. Do know you're looking about 10k or so for a concrete driveway. Even clarendon sales told me to steer clear of using them for this stuff. I'd do all this post. 6. Other costs? - Stair case: if you're doing double. I spent a lot on this, cause I like glass and timber. If you want cantilevered stairs, you're looking at over 20k easily. - Cornicing: I really like P50 shadowline. About $12k for that all of downstairs and upstairs excluding bedrooms. Standard was the cove one. If you're not too fused, the default one is good too. - Bulkheads: I put a few around here and there to get some nice shapes going. They're reasonable, depending on how big. About $1-3k all up. - Doors: Can get expensive really quick. Especially if you like the wood with glass type of like. Around $750 each for those. - Bi-folders etc: Massive, couldn't do those... Can't really think of anything else... The're all definitely more expensive than outside of a project builder, but we all kind of expect that I guess... Good luck with the build! hope it all goes smoothly!! Thanks Mattmatty I think you have explained very well. @All, what are different items we can ask clarendon to remove and can be done from outside just to optimize the budget. I know this will come with some hassle but I think I have to make a balance between my budget & inconvenience. Basically, I want to get the things done with clarendon which are require structure damage etc. Few things which I can think of : 1. Flooring ..Tiles on Ground ( including alfresco& timber on stairs & first floor.. 2. Mirror Back splash in kitchen. 3. Electrical - What can I ask from clarendon to minimize the cost and remaining can be done later without any issue. Definitely, whatever Clarendon giving as standard not sufficient and need down light & extra power point, data point/ TV point. 4. Anything else ? We saved a few thousand dollars by supplying our own lighting as opposed to using the default ones they supply at the electrical consultation. They wanted $100 per downlight to supply and install. You can buy your own downlight for $13 and then just pay the install cost. Works out signifcantly cheaper across 30+ lights. We had the thought to spend the money initially downstairs where it’s much harder to upgrade at a later time. Upstairs has easy access and able to be upgraded anytime. I went to the Tiles Direct to see what's included in the standard tile range as I am looking for the rectified tiles in all areas to minimize the grout. How much will it cost from outside to laydown rectified tiles ( any size) and also to replace carpet with Vinyl flooring. Do we need to ask the nogging for fans & TV space? isn't it Clarendons use timber in the roof frame? Any tips for tender day? Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 18305Jan 22, 2018 8:07 pm BrisBuild Oh wow JK, I definitely feel for you. You invest so much emotionally into these homes while they’re being built that they really do become a part of you. What are you planning to do now?IMO you’d be well within your rights to reject that or ask for significant compensation. I just can’t believe that whoever did that thought that it was acceptable... Alittle deflated and trying really hard to not let the stress get to us, because we want the house so bad but how much compromise is healthy and acceptable!! We have PCI tomorrow morning, and hubby saw the Cleaners there this afternoon and had a quick look - none of the items that were meant to happen have, so tomorrow should make for an interesting meeting! KDRB Paddington 29 Bed 1 to Rear with Home Theatre & Grand Alfresco (Paddington 31) blog: Southern Sydney Knockdown & Rebuild Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 18306Jan 22, 2018 8:11 pm SejaeD JK27 Ssssoooo, we received an email from our SS last Thursday, update on progress, book in second PCI and potential Handover for next Thursday. Stated that he had spent the whole day on site with his maintenance man, and ALL brickwork and mortar issues had been rectified (amongst other things!). Now I don't like calling people incompetent or liars, but when we stopped by on Thursday night to have a quick squiz - so many of the chipped and broken bricks we asked to have replaced, are still there!!! Secondly, they have used GREY Cement to fill holes in our Off-White Mortar, see attached pics - but it's like this all of the brickwork. Now for the life of us, either the SS is lieing about being on-site ALL day or he is that incompetent that he allowed the maintenance guy to use Grey Cement. We just can't figure it out!! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ That brickwork repair is appalling. No other words to describe it! I know right sejaeD - we thought we might have just got it in the evening light, but when we saw it the next day, Colour-blind came to mind!! What I find more infuriating is the b@llsh!t you get told, in his own email the SS said he had been on-site ALL day with the maintenance guy and he had done ALL the brickwork and mortar repairs. Now if he was there all day, what the hell was he supervising and how could he think that was acceptable. Or the truth is he wasn't there and has no idea how bad it is! Additionally, in the pic I've posted, I can see lots more mortar repairs required, and our whole place is like that! KDRB Paddington 29 Bed 1 to Rear with Home Theatre & Grand Alfresco (Paddington 31) blog: Southern Sydney Knockdown & Rebuild Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 18307Jan 22, 2018 8:14 pm SejaeD SejaeD JK27 Ssssoooo, we received an email from our SS last Thursday, update on progress, book in second PCI and potential Handover for next Thursday. Stated that he had spent the whole day on site with his maintenance man, and ALL brickwork and mortar issues had been rectified (amongst other things!). Now I don't like calling people incompetent or liars, but when we stopped by on Thursday night to have a quick squiz - so many of the chipped and broken bricks we asked to have replaced, are still there!!! Secondly, they have used GREY Cement to fill holes in our Off-White Mortar, see attached pics - but it's like this all of the brickwork. Now for the life of us, either the SS is lieing about being on-site ALL day or he is that incompetent that he allowed the maintenance guy to use Grey Cement. We just can't figure it out!! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ That brickwork repair is appalling. No other words to describe it! on second thoughts, you should email those photos to the owner of clarendon ( peter Campbell) email pcambell@clarendon.com.au SejaeD Thank you I will definitely need that email. I'm not going to go away quietly, and I think we are going to be their nicest worst customers. We have been so patient and haven't said very much this past 12 months, but this is not on. Not for me, not for anyone else on this forum and I am sick to death of hearing that this is what this industry is like - they need to be held accountable. KDRB Paddington 29 Bed 1 to Rear with Home Theatre & Grand Alfresco (Paddington 31) blog: Southern Sydney Knockdown & Rebuild Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 18308Jan 22, 2018 8:20 pm Word of advice - Check everything, and the check, check and check again!!! We noticed our $1050 SupaScreen Security Door had a midrail through the mesh. We've had this product before, hence the reason we wanted it again, and the concept behind the mesh is that it is unobstructed. I've been calling EHI since they got back this year to query it. Last spoke to them last Wednesday, this morning I had enough of no feedback so fired of an email cc'ing CSC. Got an email back from them this afternoon advising that they had made error with our Door and that they will need to replace it. Now, our SS didn't pick up on it (no surprise there), EHI didn't realise the error, had we not noticed and persisted in querying it, it would have remained. I have no issue with EHI quality - far from it, it's great! I have an issue with overall culture of Clarendon and affiliates of extremely poor customer service and the fact that they feel it's ok to either not return calls or emails. Sorry, rant over! KDRB Paddington 29 Bed 1 to Rear with Home Theatre & Grand Alfresco (Paddington 31) blog: Southern Sydney Knockdown & Rebuild Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 18309Jan 22, 2018 8:25 pm JK, sorry to hear your issues. I guess we were just lucky! Considering I’m building like 10mins away from you and having the same SS. I had a couple of minor issues but nothing like yours. Hope yours gets sorted ASAP. Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 18310Jan 22, 2018 8:36 pm k3nnis JK, sorry to hear your issues. I guess we were just lucky! Considering I’m building like 10mins away from you and having the same SS. I had a couple of minor issues but nothing like yours. Hope yours gets sorted ASAP. I'm alittle jealous k3nnis to be perfectly honest, we thought we were on a good thing too, but it's just gone down hill in a short space of time. We are still trying to stay positive and hopeful, and if they pull their finger out and actually do the right thing, it will be fine. It's when he says things like 'you won't even notice', or 'it's ALL been done' when it hasn't, is the downer. The house is 98% ready, it's the 2% - specifically in the attention to detail - that's killing us!! KDRB Paddington 29 Bed 1 to Rear with Home Theatre & Grand Alfresco (Paddington 31) blog: Southern Sydney Knockdown & Rebuild Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 18311Jan 22, 2018 8:38 pm JK27 k3nnis JK, sorry to hear your issues. I guess we were just lucky! Considering I’m building like 10mins away from you and having the same SS. I had a couple of minor issues but nothing like yours. Hope yours gets sorted ASAP. I'm alittle jealous k3nnis to be perfectly honest, we thought we were on a good thing too, but it's just gone down hill in a short space of time. We are still trying to stay positive and hopeful, and if they pull their finger out and actually do the right thing, it will be fine. It's when he says things like 'you won't even notice', or 'it's ALL been done' when it hasn't, is the downer. The house is 98% ready, it's the 2% - specifically in the attention to detail - that's killing us!! Yep. I think mine was 99%. They had some delays with my driveway as my council changed procedures since the merge. So actually we would have moved in a month earlier if that did not happen. He wanted me to move in before driveway and promised it would be done. I said no. I wanted it to be done before handover as I still have the power if I don’t have over the cheque! Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 18312Jan 22, 2018 9:02 pm k3nnis I shudder to think if we had also got our driveway through them!!! KDRB Paddington 29 Bed 1 to Rear with Home Theatre & Grand Alfresco (Paddington 31) blog: Southern Sydney Knockdown & Rebuild Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 18313Jan 22, 2018 9:05 pm JK27 @k3nnis I shudder to think if we had also got our driveway through them!!! The driveway choice was a last minute thing at contract. Reason I went with it was I wanted to move in after handover. Did not want to move in with dirt there. Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 18314Jan 22, 2018 10:42 pm k3nnis JK27 @k3nnis I shudder to think if we had also got our driveway through them!!! The driveway choice was a last minute thing at contract. Reason I went with it was I wanted to move in after handover. Did not want to move in with dirt there. Totally understand. That's how we're feeling now - in the process of getting quotes so that we can get onto asap. Ours isn't really dirt anymore, it's more like compacted dust - so so dusty!! That and the front fences KDRB Paddington 29 Bed 1 to Rear with Home Theatre & Grand Alfresco (Paddington 31) blog: Southern Sydney Knockdown & Rebuild Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 18315Jan 23, 2018 8:56 am JK27 k3nnis JK27 @k3nnis I shudder to think if we had also got our driveway through them!!! The driveway choice was a last minute thing at contract. Reason I went with it was I wanted to move in after handover. Did not want to move in with dirt there. Totally understand. That's how we're feeling now - in the process of getting quotes so that we can get onto asap. Ours isn't really dirt anymore, it's more like compacted dust - so so dusty!! That and the front fences How did your walkthrough go today? Hope there is progress! Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 18316Jan 23, 2018 8:58 am For those who are still in pre-build, don't forget to get double glazing, we totally forgot in our build and I've spent the last few days trying to see if it's possible to retrofit in..long story short, it's hard and expensive Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 18317Jan 23, 2018 8:59 am vincent2166 For those who are still in pre-build, don't forget to get double glazing, we totally forgot in our build and I've spent the last few days trying to see if it's possible to retrofit in..long story short, it's hard and expensive What’s double glazing?? Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 18318Jan 23, 2018 9:01 am Two panes of glass in windows with an air gap inbetween. Increases the insulation of the windows to prevent heat gain/loss Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 18320Jan 23, 2018 9:04 am k3nnis Hmm I’m not sure if I have it or not..probably not as I did not ask for it? Probably. the stair balustrades? There is nothing special about these and I imagine literally every stair installer will be able to do this. 1 6906 The two 15mm holes are obviously not compliant. The Dept of Fair Trading would love to see this one! Do the gutters pool water after it stops raining? Although it's… 4 8039 |