Porter Davis homes

sammo79 · Aug 15, 2018 5:11 pm

I am with you @Waldorf_Grange_Build

If the Site Supervisor is doing their job and making sure subbies are building to the code (and the plans in our case) there shouldn't be any items that need to be rectified and therefore no delays.

lilbza · Aug 15, 2018 6:17 pm

In a perfect world building inspectors wouldn't need to exist, but that's not the world we live in unfortunately.

The site supervisors are managing far too many builds to be held accountable for every mistake/shortcut taken by their contractors. I fully get it, as customers we want what we paid for, and we expect our homes to be built to standard/code.

Tradies have a license, like people that drive a car have a license. We are taught to do things by the rule book, we do some prac, we take our tests and are handed a license if we pass, but that doesn't mean people follow the rules once they get out on the road..... same goes for tradesmen. People also make mistakes, we are human.

Currently on my build, all my architraves and skirting boards have been nailed directly on the slab instead of being nailed 10mm above floor level - this was put in our building contract as we are doing our flooring after handover.

On top of this, our entire upstairs weatherboards of our house has been painted the wrong colour, and all our scaffolding has since been removed. One of the painters off-siders put the wrong drums of paint in the back of the van. We ended up with shale grey instead of Grey Pebble 3/4 strength. They aren't even close to the same colour - see below.

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These are two fairly large f-ups, but neither are the fault of our SS. We are in the process of coming up with a resolution for both of these at the moment. It's frustrating, but these things happen and we need to more forward. Building is a stressful time and I think people tend to act on emotion and become a bit crazy.

I've had a number of people message me directly on our instagram blog asking what I think of PD so far and my answer is: So far the experience has been pretty good all round. There's been a few little issues with some of their processes, few mistakes here and there, but I came into this build with the expectation that things weren't going to be 100% perfect.

Give them the benefit of the doubt and the opportunity to resolve these issues. Also be respectful, I feel like that goes a long way. The way some people carry on, it's no wonder they get radio silence from their SS.

Waldorf_Grange_Build · Aug 15, 2018 7:07 pm

lilbza

In a perfect world building inspectors wouldn't need to exist, but that's not the world we live in unfortunately.

The site supervisors are managing far too many builds to be held accountable for every mistake/shortcut taken by their contractors. I fully get it, as customers we want what we paid for, and we expect our homes to be built to standard/code.

Tradies have a license, like people that drive a car have a license. We are taught to do things by the rule book, we do some prac, we take our tests and are handed a license if we pass, but that doesn't mean people follow the rules once they get out on the road..... same goes for tradesmen. People also make mistakes, we are human.

Currently on my build, all my architraves and skirting boards have been nailed directly on the slab instead of being nailed 10mm above floor level - this was put in our building contract as we are doing our flooring after handover.

On top of this, our entire upstairs weatherboards of our house has been painted the wrong colour, and all our scaffolding has since been removed. One of the painters off-siders put the wrong drums of paint in the back of the van. We ended up with shale grey instead of Grey Pebble 3/4 strength. They aren't even close to the same colour - see below.

Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅

These are two fairly large f-ups, but neither are the fault of our SS. We are in the process of coming up with a resolution for both of these at the moment. It's frustrating, but these things happen and we need to more forward. Building is a stressful time and I think people tend to act on emotion and become a bit crazy.

I've had a number of people message me directly on our instagram blog asking what I think of PD so far and my answer is: So far the experience has been pretty good all round. There's been a few little issues with some of their processes, few mistakes here and there, but I came into this build with the expectation that things weren't going to be 100% perfect.

Give them the benefit of the doubt and the opportunity to resolve these issues. Also be respectful, I feel like that goes a long way. The way some people carry on, it's no wonder they get radio silence from their SS.

Oh yes if they stuff up they need to rectify it. They made a lot of mistakes with our build and I thought we were fairly understanding with it all. My point is that the client should not get slugged extra days in their contract for tradies to get a house up to basic building standards after an independent inspector. Sure they are human and make mistakes, or may not remember all the rules from trade school, but don't punish the client with days in the contract.

goldencrumble · Aug 18, 2018 2:45 pm

Has anyone kitted our there wardrobes using IKEA? Would love to hear your thoughts on that if you have.

shane3340 · Aug 21, 2018 7:51 am

Did anybody else have their plumbing put through the slab in the wrong location? The plumbers who did ours were about a metre off on ALL the pipes coming out of the slab - apparently, the slab will need to be cut open and pipes moved.

Anyone else had a similar experience? I've been told it will all be fine, re-engineered and checked, but obviously still concerned...

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Mrs_W · Aug 21, 2018 9:32 am

shane3340

Did anybody else have their plumbing put through the slab in the wrong location? The plumbers who did ours were about a metre off on ALL the pipes coming out of the slab - apparently, the slab will need to be cut open and pipes moved.

Anyone else had a similar experience? I've been told it will all be fine, re-engineered and checked, but obviously still concerned...

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We have a freestanding meter box and a sub board in the garage and the conduit for the sub board was in the wrong spot which meant our slab had to be cut open. It was re-engineered and we got a certificate/report from the surveyor. We weren’t thrilled by it, and I’d be less thrilled if it was all the plumbing as that obviously means more cuts.

I’m of the opinion that the SS really should be checking this stuff.

Hoffman 39 · Aug 23, 2018 8:20 am

Hi everyone

New to homeone!
We are building a hoffman 39 soon.
Couple of questions:

How much it costs to hire a building surveyor? Go with porter davis recommended ones or your own?

Anyone had to make your neighbour's overhead powerlines to go underground at your expense because it crosses your property?

Any answers will be greatly appreciated!

Thank you

goldencrumble · Aug 23, 2018 2:00 pm

Hoffman 39

Hi everyone

New to homeone!
We are building a hoffman 39 soon.
Couple of questions:

How much it costs to hire a building surveyor? Go with porter davis recommended ones or your own?

Anyone had to make your neighbour's overhead powerlines to go underground at your expense because it crosses your property?

Any answers will be greatly appreciated!

Thank you

Welcome!

We have used Darbecca, as most people on here do, for our house inspections. Price varies depending on what inspections you want and if its a single/double storey. Best to email them for a quote - they are quite thorough.

Re: Powerlines. We are doing a KDRB and have had powerline issues. Its a very sore point especially for my husband!
We had our neighbours overhanging power and telecommuncations (x2) on our property. The telecommunications wires were very low. We managed to get them moved at our cost. We were advised that moving these would save money off our site costs. This didn't happen. They wanted us to move the power as well but we said no. That would have required our neighbours getting a new meter box and a lot of work and money,and our relationship with them was already stretched with the moving of the other wires. Plus they wouldn't guarantee it would reduce our site costs.

goldencrumble · Aug 23, 2018 2:19 pm

goldencrumble · Aug 27, 2018 11:11 am

Has anyone pulled up the laminate floorboard skirting before? In the picture below, this is a fridge space. That extra 30mm would give us a lot more options with a new fridge. I obviously don't wish to damage the boards. The white skirting boards are fine to stay, just the wooden ones.

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inexp_user · Sep 13, 2018 7:42 am

If your contract build time includes 28 days for Christmas but your build was outside the Christmas period do damages get paid from the build timeframe- the 28days for Christmas?

What have people's experiences been?

goldencrumble · Sep 14, 2018 6:13 pm

MikW · Sep 14, 2018 6:26 pm

goldencrumble

I am so over water issues. We are so close to our build finishing and we have had a pretty good run, which run out!

I got the water bill for our property, its been approx. $150-200 per bill during the build, mainly service charges. I almost dropped dead when I opened it up to $4500!!! WTF!!! There had been a leak, which both myself and our SS noted. The plumbers sure took their time in fixing it though. Obviously as soon as I got the bill I called my SS and left a message. He also was shocked. I emailed the bill through to him and our BC, basically saying we aren't paying it etc. Unfortunately, since the account is in our name we were the ones that had to deal with the water company. And if we have used that much water, where has it gone??

So today we got answers. It was from the leak, underground. Thankfully for us the leak was located right near our 6 massive soakage pits, which took the water away from the house, which is also why the leak didn't look as bad. We have made PD check all the pipes and the foundation/soil etc. No damage thankfully.

Then PD were going to do a BV for the bill. Um, that's great that your going to pay for it but a BV isn't helpful, this means I still have to find $4.5k for the bill - the bank isn't going to give me that money. After my husband explained this to our BC, who must had had a lightbulb moment, and they are now depositing the majority of the bill money into our account, with the exception of service charges etc. So I was thrilled to have all this in writing today, as I didn't want it to hold up handover, as I wasn't going to accept handover without the bill resolved.

So you can imagine how thrilled I was to see they had cleaned the front yard today and levelled the ground. And you can imagine that turning to absolute anger when I release they have hit the water meter and what do I have....ANOTHER LEAK!! Its been pushed over, water leaking out, they would of known they had done it, there is water everywhere. Yet another call to our friends at the water company. As its the water meter, fingers crossed south east water just come out and fix it. But as soon as they see it they will know its been run over.....I have turned off the water but its still leaking, which I think means it on their side so hopefully its fixed sometime next week. Seriously, I never want to deal with a plumber again.

A good win, but you have to be kidding about the meter being run over. When we bought our block of land, our meter had been run over and the pipes destroyed. It cost us $500 to get it fixed. $250 from SE Water for their side, and $250 for a plumber to fix my side. Neither party would complete the work, either side of the meter had to be a seperate call out fee. Madness. You may like to follow that one up with PD as well! All the best with handover and moving in.

goldencrumble · Sep 14, 2018 10:18 pm

Waldorf_Grange_Build · Sep 18, 2018 8:48 pm

inexp_user

If your contract build time includes 28 days for Christmas but your build was outside the Christmas period do damages get paid from the build timeframe- the 28days for Christmas?

What have people's experiences been?

We started in March 2017 and we had the allowance for Christmas written into contract but we should have been finished before Christmas. The build was delayed however and went 106 days over and we had handover late March 2018.

Waldorf_Grange_Build · Sep 18, 2018 8:50 pm

goldencrumble

I am so over water issues. We are so close to our build finishing and we have had a pretty good run, which run out!

I got the water bill for our property, its been approx. $150-200 per bill during the build, mainly service charges. I almost dropped dead when I opened it up to $4500!!! WTF!!! There had been a leak, which both myself and our SS noted. The plumbers sure took their time in fixing it though. Obviously as soon as I got the bill I called my SS and left a message. He also was shocked. I emailed the bill through to him and our BC, basically saying we aren't paying it etc. Unfortunately, since the account is in our name we were the ones that had to deal with the water company. And if we have used that much water, where has it gone??

So today we got answers. It was from the leak, underground. Thankfully for us the leak was located right near our 6 massive soakage pits, which took the water away from the house, which is also why the leak didn't look as bad. We have made PD check all the pipes and the foundation/soil etc. No damage thankfully.

Then PD were going to do a BV for the bill. Um, that's great that your going to pay for it but a BV isn't helpful, this means I still have to find $4.5k for the bill - the bank isn't going to give me that money. After my husband explained this to our BC, who must had had a lightbulb moment, and they are now depositing the majority of the bill money into our account, with the exception of service charges etc. So I was thrilled to have all this in writing today, as I didn't want it to hold up handover, as I wasn't going to accept handover without the bill resolved.

So you can imagine how thrilled I was to see they had cleaned the front yard today and levelled the ground. And you can imagine that turning to absolute anger when I release they have hit the water meter and what do I have....ANOTHER LEAK!! Its been pushed over, water leaking out, they would of known they had done it, there is water everywhere. Yet another call to our friends at the water company. As its the water meter, fingers crossed south east water just come out and fix it. But as soon as they see it they will know its been run over.....I have turned off the water but its still leaking, which I think means it on their side so hopefully its fixed sometime next week. Seriously, I never want to deal with a plumber again.

Oh gosh what a nightmare. So much stress you don’t need.

Cheltsider · Oct 04, 2018 9:17 am

Madison_45_Vic

Method 1 should be:-
Deposit - 5%
Base Stage - 10%
Frame Stage - 15%
Lock-up - 35%
Fixing - 25%
Completed - 10%

Very helpful post!

Charly6s · Oct 04, 2018 9:51 pm

Waldorf_Grange_Build

inexp_user

If your contract build time includes 28 days for Christmas but your build was outside the Christmas period do damages get paid from the build timeframe- the 28days for Christmas?

What have people's experiences been?

We started in March 2017 and we had the allowance for Christmas written into contract but we should have been finished before Christmas. The build was delayed however and went 106 days over and we had handover late March 2018.

So did they try to include the 28 Christmas days as part of the building contract? Or because they were due to finish before Christmas kicked in, did that mean they were not allowed to count those 28days a?nd had to pay damages during that time?

Waldorf_Grange_Build · Oct 10, 2018 7:18 pm

Charly6s

Waldorf_Grange_Build

inexp_user

If your contract build time includes 28 days for Christmas but your build was outside the Christmas period do damages get paid from the build timeframe- the 28days for Christmas?

What have people's experiences been?

We started in March 2017 and we had the allowance for Christmas written into contract but we should have been finished before Christmas. The build was delayed however and went 106 days over and we had handover late March 2018.

So did they try to include the 28 Christmas days as part of the building contract? Or because they were due to finish before Christmas kicked in, did that mean they were not allowed to count those 28days a?nd had to pay damages during that time?

It was a simple mathematical equation that the contract said 266 days and they took 106 more days to build so we got compensation for the 106 days. In the end they did go through the Christmas period so it didn’t change the contract.

9528 · Oct 10, 2018 7:44 pm

goldencrumble

Has anyone pulled up the laminate floorboard skirting before? In the picture below, this is a fridge space. That extra 30mm would give us a lot more options with a new fridge. I obviously don't wish to damage the boards. The white skirting boards are fine to stay, just the wooden ones.

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I'm in the same boat with quads on both sides. Would like to remove those,but don't know how