Who's building with Clarendon??

Thanks for your reply. I asked Clarendon how we get it and in response they sent us back the certificate which they have already done. We got ours today. Also got interim Occupation Certificate today.
Pre handover walkthrough is early next week.

You NSW or QLD?

NSW

NSW[/quote]That's definitely different then! We got original peg out plan and then got an amended one at handover...it showed where the house was actually sitting in comparison to the boundaries

Hi all. Did anyone attempt to flip just 1/2 the floor plan - the house we have chosen would work so much better if the back 1/2 of the house was reversed! Is this something I can ask for at tender or am I wasting my time - what sort of costs would be involved??

I've seen people do it for sure - works particularly easily if the boundaries of the flip against the rest of the house are a straight line. Not sure of the price, but definitely ask. I can't remember which blogs have done it, but they were definitely with Clarendon. I'm thinking maybe Madison, Wentworth or Crestmead designs were involved?

thanks
think i will ask - no harm in trying. Will try to find the blogs too

Rain delays can only be claimed for work that is in the critical path. So no, once the roof is on you cant claim for rain for internal works

I made the assumption that we do our colours appointment before paying the 5% so that we have a firm price of the build before paying any significant amount of money. Is that not the case? I have to say paying over 25k when I frankly have no real idea how much i'm up for at colours is enough to put me off building.

That's correct - you don't know the price until you get to colours. I've heard some people spend a bomb, whereas others don't spend anything. But you're right, very hard to get a firm price unless you're going basic.

I realize it's not just Clarendon who do this and they need to cover their costs but I find it really crappy. They have offered to do a split payment but at that point i'm still too invested into it so I would be forced to continue because they push the colours appt too far back into the schedule.

For Colour Studio, just prepare about 50K for Mid range finishing and about 100K for Top range, but minimum will be spending about 10K.

Hi,


Is there anyone ever go to legal action with Clarendon ?

I have talked to Solicitor, Lawyer and Fair Trading, but I need further advise before proceeding to legal 100% full-on.

Cheerz..

Hi wentworth33, we went the Fair Trading route and managed to have a favorable outcome for our case.

Hi wingzee,

Do you mind if I asked what was your case? How.much does it cost you?

Thanks.

I absolutely understand this. We are building the Fairmont 35 and the fujitsu aircon was 19k for 18kw inverter with 6 zones.

It's just me and my wife at the moment and I having an aircon that still pumps out 6kw in its lowest mode is too much power for two people.

I ended going ducted only option which was abit of a sting but I won't regret it if we change our mind.

19k is a pretty nice boat haha.

Hey everyone,

Stumbled across this thread at the right time it seems.

I'm looking at building the Madison 35 and just wanted to know what I'm in for.

Do Clarendon charge much for internal modifications if you aren't increasing the square metres of the house (staying within outer walls) and how much can I expect to be from my estimate if I've told them my land is h1 with bal 12.5 and they have included that in estimate.

Their current promotion is amazing....what's the catch? What else would I have to take into account at colours when all that is included?

I've added the following to estimate:
- saphire inclusions (which has 75% of upgrades we wanted)
- 2.75m ceiling height to ground floor
- 2.59m ceiling height to first floor
- double cavity slider for home theatre with coffered ceiling
- coffered ceiling to entry
- 6.8m stacker door to alfresco recessed into slab
- repositioned upstairs main bedroom to swap with kids lounge and add a bath to main en-suite
- terracotta tiles promotion ($3k)
- third garage added .5m offset to double with double garage depth extended to 6m
- upgraded cornices
- depth of kitchen bench to 900mm for breakfast bar
- BAL 12.5 site costs added
- extra 8k for site costs added (h1 slab included in promo)
-grand alfresco

Total square metre of house with alfresco and third garage is 380 square metres with an estimate coming back at $450k.

We will be doing landscaping and circular driveway ourself post handover.

We are also contemplating hiring an independent inspector for each stage. (Thoughts on this)

Would love some opinions from the floor on what we have missed or other variables to consider.

Thanks in advance.

Hemz

There is a Facebook page you can join building with Clarendon homes

You'll probably want the ducted upgraded, or run prewire and install a decent unit after handover. The standard unit is not great in terms of efficiency and noise.

We upgraded the stairs (balustrade) past sapphire which was roughly 5k.

What have you got re: electrical? You'll find it'll add up pretty quick. Average upgrade is $15k based on led swap outs and extra light points.

I would recommend upgrading your power to three phase. For me that was an extra $800

We used a private inspector. It was awesome. I highly recommend it.

Hey there,
We built the Meriden 30 with Clarendon in 2019 and made quite a few changes. I couldn’t tell you a cost but it really wasn’t anything crazy and we added size as well.

As for the BAL rating, we built on 1.4 acres and had a BAL 40 rating. It worked out the be around $14,000
extra for us. That included double glazed windows,
aluminium door and window frames, bal 40 doors,
all fly screens upgraded to aluminium, I’m pretty certain the extra cost to have a massive water tank, and I’m sure there were quite a few other smaller extras.

We had been told bal40 we would have to add around $40,000 + by people before speaking to Clarendon so we were really pleased with our price.

All your upgrades sound great, my only suggestion would be to pay the extra for the extra cost of paint. We didn’t in our attempt to save money and regret this. The paint pretty much wipes off our walls and
we already have SO many marks everywhere which don’t wipe away.

As for an independent builder, personally I wouldn’t bother. My father is a builder by trade and was so pedantic at every stage of the build and really couldn’t fault much at all. Clarendon are amazing with their inspections at every stage. If you’re really worried maybe just do one before your walls are sheeted to ensure everything is straight, correct to measure, and nothing is missing and it can be hard to correct these things later.

Good luck!