Porter Davis homes

yoyo72 · Sep 29, 2016 6:39 pm

we got to about 5 weeks before we even had wood on site, has been a slow start and a bit frustrating but framers are on site and working hard, it is going to take a full 3 weeks for our frame to go up apparently, we didnt realise they build everything on site, we though pre made framing turned up. our slab however ended up being a shocking job, rushed and with a heck of a lot of stuff needing to be fixed up....still dealing with that but at the end of the day i dont think it will fall down ha ha it is just a shocking job which isnt on.

lizbf85 · Sep 29, 2016 9:16 pm

yoyo72

we got to about 5 weeks before we even had wood on site, has been a slow start and a bit frustrating but framers are on site and working hard, it is going to take a full 3 weeks for our frame to go up apparently, we didnt realise they build everything on site, we though pre made framing turned up. our slab however ended up being a shocking job, rushed and with a heck of a lot of stuff needing to be fixed up....still dealing with that but at the end of the day i dont think it will fall down ha ha it is just a shocking job which isnt on.

That sux andand definitely isnt a good start! Do u guys have a independent inspector? Have they rectified the slab? Yess i noticed they make all on site too which was strange. It took about a week or so for our frame. Our roof tiles started today too so its definitely moving along for us now. Hoping yours gets moving and past the problems

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yoyo72 · Sep 29, 2016 9:24 pm

yeah i have a meeting with the slab guy this week...it really is shyte. we are building over 50 square home so guessing cause it is a big 2 story it will take longer, ill let you know how we go with slab, at this point looks like i may have to get darbecca in...

lizbf85 · Sep 30, 2016 10:19 am

so you dont have a inspector currently? and how did you pick up that it was a bad job or was it very obvious.
Yes a two story frame defiantly takes longer.. Hell yes i dont think id build without one, its not worth the stress!!!

i am interested to know if people get the report of PD's inspectors as advised in our sales meeting ( most of which was rubbish) our SS said he would send through as soon as it was available so hoping to see it.
we got a private inspector for slab, but getting one of our own builder friends to check the frame before we make our second payment to them next week. The follow pre plaster and pre handover will defiantly be by our inspector.

I hope you get some resolution as a bad slab causes nothing but long delays.

lizbf85 · Sep 30, 2016 10:20 am

did anyone here receive PD's "independent inspector" reports along the way?

yoyo72 · Sep 30, 2016 11:56 am

i think im going to ask for an independent report myself (the PD one), after all i pay them and that is part of the build. i dont know that structurally the slab is bad but if you look at it you can pick stuff up everywhere and im not even a concreter and it looked like extremely poor work to me. in saying that they have acknowledged a messy job (blamed it on weather) but seemed to have taken my concerns seriously and are working with me to rectify any issues, again it will not be anything major that i know of anyway but still stuff that needs to be rectified.

sinbox · Oct 01, 2016 9:06 pm

How much did people pay for an independent inspector like Darbecca to assist in reviews right from Contract all the way to handover ? Also, we are scheduled for our tender appointment soon, so keen to know what contract clauses people had reviewed/modified? The key one seems to be around the staged payments. Anything else to be aware of?

jasonwg · Oct 02, 2016 10:17 am

sinbox

How much did people pay for an independent inspector like Darbecca to assist in reviews right from Contract all the way to handover ? Also, we are scheduled for our tender appointment soon, so keen to know what contract clauses people had reviewed/modified? The key one seems to be around the staged payments. Anything else to be aware of?

I'm having 3 in total, 2 complete already with NHI. The PCI is the most dear (happening next week) at about $750 from memory. The other 2 were $550 I think. So if you want up to 5 you'd be looking at about $3-$4k.

sinbox · Oct 02, 2016 10:57 am

jasonwg

sinbox

How much did people pay for an independent inspector like Darbecca to assist in reviews right from Contract all the way to handover ? Also, we are scheduled for our tender appointment soon, so keen to know what contract clauses people had reviewed/modified? The key one seems to be around the staged payments. Anything else to be aware of?

I'm having 3 in total, 2 complete already with NHI. The PCI is the most dear (happening next week) at about $750 from memory. The other 2 were $550 I think. So if you want up to 5 you'd be looking at about $3-$4k.

Thanks jasonwg...how was your experience with NHI? How did you go about including provisions for your own building inspector into your standard contract?

jadering777 · Oct 02, 2016 6:36 pm

Hi everyone...

im looking for advice from those who have built or dealt with Porter Davis.

Has anyone been given a credit for the BAL allowance (the bushfire assessment levy) after the house contract has been signed and after Porter Davis has been notified that there is no BAL needed?

When we signed the Tender document, there was an allowance of around $4.8k. Now that the BAL is not needed, we are being given no refund of that allowance as Porter Davis says that the contract is fixed price.

What are your thoughts? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Waldorf_Grange_Build · Oct 02, 2016 9:24 pm

jadering777

Hi everyone...

im looking for advice from those who have built or dealt with Porter Davis.

Has anyone been given a credit for the BAL allowance (the bushfire assessment levy) after the house contract has been signed and after Porter Davis has been notified that there is no BAL needed?

When we signed the Tender document, there was an allowance of around $4.8k. Now that the BAL is not needed, we are being given no refund of that allowance as Porter Davis says that the contract is fixed price.

What are your thoughts? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Our BAL had been taken out by Tender but I'd be fighting for a post contract variation if I were you.

shanis33 · Oct 03, 2016 10:45 am

lizbf85

did anyone here receive PD's "independent inspector" reports along the way?

We got copies of the "reports" afterwards. They are just a piece of paper saying it passed. They said to me that they don't get a defect list or anything which I thought was crap

lizbf85 · Oct 03, 2016 4:33 pm

jasonwg

sinbox

How much did people pay for an independent inspector like Darbecca to assist in reviews right from Contract all the way to handover ? Also, we are scheduled for our tender appointment soon, so keen to know what contract clauses people had reviewed/modified? The key one seems to be around the staged payments. Anything else to be aware of?

I'm having 3 in total, 2 complete already with NHI. The PCI is the most dear (happening next week) at about $750 from memory. The other 2 were $550 I think. So if you want up to 5 you'd be looking at about $3-$4k.

We were having 4 that were about $2500..i think its definititly worth having some form of second eyes. Weve had one so far and were only minor issues that were rectified. We decided to skip the frame and have our builder neighbor check it out trying to be as picky as possible and still couldnt find a fault. We were pretty happy. For the pre plaster and handover we will be going back to our inspector.

We are dealing with new homes. So far so good

lizbf85 · Oct 03, 2016 4:36 pm

Waldorf_Grange_Build

jadering777

Hi everyone...

im looking for advice from those who have built or dealt with Porter Davis.

Has anyone been given a credit for the BAL allowance (the bushfire assessment levy) after the house contract has been signed and after Porter Davis has been notified that there is no BAL needed?

When we signed the Tender document, there was an allowance of around $4.8k. Now that the BAL is not needed, we are being given no refund of that allowance as Porter Davis says that the contract is fixed price.

What are your thoughts? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Our BAL had been taken out by Tender but I'd be fighting for a post contract variation if I were you.

That's rediculas. If it's an allowence then thats yet to be confirmed. If they've then confirmed it not required then the allowance is void. They really try anything! Def fight it!

lizbf85 · Oct 03, 2016 4:37 pm

shanis33

lizbf85

did anyone here receive PD's "independent inspector" reports along the way?

We got copies of the "reports" afterwards. They are just a piece of paper saying it passed. They said to me that they don't get a defect list or anything which I thought was crap

Yeh im not surprised. We waiting on it before we pay second stage! Our ss said it's coming so will be interesting to see what we see.

shanis33 · Oct 03, 2016 8:34 pm

dojrude

shanis33

dojrude

Anyone else got squeaky floorboards?
We had our 3 month inspection and pointed them out only to be told that they wouldn't fix them till the house is 18 months old.
Has anyone else been told this?

The VBA lists creaking floorboards as defective if less than 24 months old and I really don't see why I should have to live with creaky floorboards for 18 months because some lazy tradie didn't do his job properly.

I appreciate the house will settle over time and more may appear, but surely they should be fixing any that exist now and address anything new at the 18 month stage?

Yes ours squeak and groan, are no where near what they should be.

That's terrible that they won't fix for 18mths!!!!

Did you have your inspection bang on 3 mths or was it later? I haven't even been contacted and ours is 3mths in a week!

Also did you have issues with quality of paintwork in the house? If so did they say they will rectify it?

Not sure why my previous response was blank - sorry about that.

Yes, it is bad being made to wait. Funny how they gave me only 7 days to make payments, but have given themselves 18 months to fix issues.

We also had issues with paintwork. My biggest gripe being that it's not really the 3 coats of washable paint listed in the contract as they have to water it down that much to get it through the spray gun that it loses all it's washable properties. Our paint is that thin that my 18month old can scratch it off the wall with his fingers. We had a wall rolled with a single coat of paint as part of our 3 month fix up and it looks so much better. The rolling gives it some texture and you can tell it's much thicker than the rest when you touch it. The tradie even told us we'd be able to wash this wall when he'd finished - but probably not the others. I'm tempted to complain and see if they'll roll the whole house as the contract states washable and in it's current state all but the rolled wall definitely isn't washable. We have shiny spots on walls where we've tried to be as light as possible when removing marks.

We're also getting our staircase sanded and restained as the quality of the finish is awful.

Forgot to reply.
How did you get on with the paintwork? Did they roller?

I have the same as you, wipe with just water as I was told and still have marks where I've done it. Annoying

shanis33 · Oct 03, 2016 8:39 pm

thewoodies

shanis33

Ah it's all good. Worth it just to be in

Glad your house is holding up but that creaking sounds weird! Have you asked ss about it?

Do you have details for the landscaper you used? And rough costs?

I just realised I never replied. Haven't asked the SS about the creaking, we decided we need to wait til we have a fence up and see if that makes any difference. We are very exposed at the moment. Fence should be done Tuesday or Wednesday next week, fiiiiiiinally.

We've got Beyond Landscapes doing our landscaping - look them up on FB. Initial quote was around 10k for doing decking on the alfresco and a decked path to the front door, beds at the front and on the side and concrete. We'd basically got them to quote for everything then pared it down to around 8 - ditched the decking and did a path to the front door (& from the sides to the alfresco), concrete paths down the sides, turf, stuff at the front etc. They've been very good but not having the fence up yet is causing delays. Also they will be busy working one day then we won't see them for two or three more

(but again the lack of fence delaying the concreting etc causing issues).

Here's the front - mulch still to go down Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅

And the back

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Covering the alfresco will be a later thing... Looking at some IKEA options I've seen others use. Unfortunately we've had so many unforeseen expenses that some stuff we thought we'd budgeted for will have to be delayed, crazy how many weird costs there are for moving into a new estate that we totally didn't expect, like spending almost $300 on a temporary internet solution for the month before we could get the fibre hooked up (no data coverage on our phones in the house and we love our internet too much

) and $100 on a PO Box because the post office are refusing to deliver to us, plus all the usual new house things you don't think about

Hey woodies I tried to pm you but it wouldn't work. I can't find this company on fb, can you pm me the link by chance?

sinbox · Oct 04, 2016 5:10 pm

We had our tender appointment today and was baffled with the increase in site costs! Anyone had a rigid raft slab done by porter davis for a double storey?

lizbf85 · Oct 04, 2016 5:49 pm

sinbox

We had our tender appointment today and was baffled with the increase in site costs! Anyone had a rigid raft slab done by porter davis for a double storey?

Site costs are their biggest money maker. R u doing a knock down? Never heard of that slab sorry

sinbox · Oct 04, 2016 5:55 pm

No lizbf85, it is a new build in a new estate...I wish there was some kind of oversight on builders charging outrageous site costs...it is frustrating having to spend months in a design process where they lock you in and make it very difficult to change builders later and take whatever pile of cow manure reasons builders provide!