Porter Davis homes

lizbf85 · May 18, 2017 3:02 pm

9528

I got the breakdown of OHS cost from PD this morning.

Out of 18k, 16k is to Provide manual handling charge due to site restrictions. Manual handling includes but not limited to franna crane, dogman, traffic mangement. Additional allowances for restricted and limited access for trades due to built-up area.

May I ask whoever did or is doing KDRB whether the above figure is normal? Thank you

That's ridiculous!
what kind of limited access do you have? do they have laneway or front access? Id be asking for an even bigger breakdown of those costs.

lizbf85 · May 18, 2017 3:03 pm

Hurrow

sencillez

Hi would anyone have the pricing for having an extra rail in the WIR?

You mean another hanging rail? No idea but I'd have to think it couldn't be much at all, you could go to Bunnings and install one yourself for $50 at a guess, probably a lot less!

i think it was about 100 or 120 for two of our large master robes. very cheap! and not worth the hassell doing post.

lizbf85 · May 18, 2017 3:05 pm

nikil

Question for those of you have started building..

On our Tender / Contract we have $28,601 for slab upgrades, followed by a list of upgrades. At some point will we get any other documentation to say that they are still going ahead with all these upgrades? We have had a second soil test but they didn't say of they have made any alterations, however it took them 3 weeks to update the drawings and submit them to council.

They did this to us, price increased for screw piles however they also took steel reinforcements out of our plans. No credit until we asked about it. Do you have your tender and contract slab drawings to compare the two.

nikil · May 18, 2017 3:06 pm

lizbf85

nikil

Question for those of you have started building..

On our Tender / Contract we have $28,601 for slab upgrades, followed by a list of upgrades. At some point will we get any other documentation to say that they are still going ahead with all these upgrades? We have had a second soil test but they didn't say of they have made any alterations, however it took them 3 weeks to update the drawings and submit them to council.

They did this to us, price increased for screw piles however they also took steel reinforcements out of our plans. No credit until we asked about it. Do you have your tender and contract slab drawings to compare the two.

I haven't been given any slab drawings? Just the breakdown that's in the contract document. I have copies of both soil reports and there is differences in the soil types on them.

lizbf85 · May 18, 2017 3:09 pm

nikil

lizbf85

nikil

Question for those of you have started building..

On our Tender / Contract we have $28,601 for slab upgrades, followed by a list of upgrades. At some point will we get any other documentation to say that they are still going ahead with all these upgrades? We have had a second soil test but they didn't say of they have made any alterations, however it took them 3 weeks to update the drawings and submit them to council.

They did this to us, price increased for screw piles however they also took steel reinforcements out of our plans. No credit until we asked about it. Do you have your tender and contract slab drawings to compare the two.

I haven't been given any slab drawings? Just the breakdown that's in the contract document. I have copies of both soil reports and there is differences in the soil types on them.

sneeky arent they ! they must have stopped providing them, as this is how we picked up on it.
If they have taken this long to update documents definitely question what the changes were and if this is going to be reflected in the price under your slab upgrade.

( hopefully that doesnt affect your negatively though and it increase)

The soil reports are really quite useless to us unless we were engineers and understood them.

9528 · May 18, 2017 3:13 pm

lizbf85

9528

I got the breakdown of OHS cost from PD this morning.

Out of 18k, 16k is to Provide manual handling charge due to site restrictions. Manual handling includes but not limited to franna crane, dogman, traffic mangement. Additional allowances for restricted and limited access for trades due to built-up area.

May I ask whoever did or is doing KDRB whether the above figure is normal? Thank you

That's ridiculous!
what kind of limited access do you have? do they have laneway or front access? Id be asking for an even bigger breakdown of those costs.

They have the full access from front. There is no parking restrictions on both sides of street. It's a rather quiet street with power poles on the other side of the street. There is no school nearby. There is a bus stop which is app.29m away from my boundary. The bus runs 30mins interval during weekdays and 1hr over weekends. Underground electricity pit has been installed recently.

nikil · May 18, 2017 3:13 pm

lizbf85

nikil

lizbf85

[quote="nikil"]Question for those of you have started building..

On our Tender / Contract we have $28,601 for slab upgrades, followed by a list of upgrades. At some point will we get any other documentation to say that they are still going ahead with all these upgrades? We have had a second soil test but they didn't say of they have made any alterations, however it took them 3 weeks to update the drawings and submit them to council.

They did this to us, price increased for screw piles however they also took steel reinforcements out of our plans. No credit until we asked about it. Do you have your tender and contract slab drawings to compare the two.

I haven't been given any slab drawings? Just the breakdown that's in the contract document. I have copies of both soil reports and there is differences in the soil types on them.

sneeky arent they ! they must have stopped providing them, as this is how we picked up on it.
If they have taken this long to update documents definitely question what the changes were and if this is going to be reflected in the price under your slab upgrade.

The soil reports are really quite useless to us unless we were engineers and understood them.[/quote]

Yea they mean nothing to me other than I can tell the soil description is different but I have no idea if it means the soil is better or worse than originally thought! I emailed her Tuesday evening to ask if there was any changes but she hasn't replied. I'll get onto her again tomorrow if I don't get a reply.

3rin · May 18, 2017 5:43 pm

OneMoreForsyth

Hi Guys,

We are building Forsyth38 and at a very initial stage of design, has anyone added shower to powder room with along with Feng-shui stair case option. Just wanted to see how the room layout look like ? Thanks.

Hi there,
I wanted a house that has 3 bathrooms. I fell in love with Vancouver but I did not want to sacrifice the rumpus size to accomodate the bathroom so the only way I can think of is lengthening the house by 1.5 metres and placing the bathroom at the rear of the rumpus room but this will cost me about 20k and I also have to wait for approval so I started looking at another design and came across the Forsyth 38. It has an open plan kitchen and living and have the option of turning the Lounge to bedroom 5 by selecting the shower to powder option. If you choose the feng shui stairs, you will lose the double linen - you will need to ask for credit or relocate it to Laundry perhaps then the shower to powder will be the same as the guest suite option and you may want to take the robes and the the door from the Lounge, this will save you about $500

OneMoreForsyth · May 18, 2017 5:55 pm

Thanks for the tips 3rin. Glad to know that we will get some credit for the deleted linen, will keep in mind.

I vaguely remember that the Guest Suite + Feng shui stair case option doesn't work together. I will check on that again.
Are you building forsyth38 as well ? Thanks for the comments.

9528 · May 22, 2017 5:54 pm

lizbf85

9528

lizbf85

Yes we went through this. The legal point of discharge casued us alot of pain and costs, not to mention huge delays with council and then just before settlement.

We completed our KDR which took 16 months from sign to end. We had to have a pump designed and put through council to be approved, it was knocked back twice. My husband basically had to become an expert in that field and liase with plumbers and council to get it right. It was a joke! It cost us about $13k i think from memory for this pump system to be put in to connect to the storm water. there also was a 20k option that we were lucky enough to avoid.

tip- read over your OHS charges, this is where we fought! at tender they were charging us about 3500 for traffic management, In short story our street is super quiet and the need for traffic control was not even needed. It was laughable. we rang our council and were told it was also NOT required. They are quite the shifty bunch so make sure you do your research. We had this cost removed from contract alongside another cost for deliveries been within a certern distance of overhead power that too was about $3 or 4k
anddd.... guess what power lines weren't even close to that distance. She walked in and out of our tender 5 mins last saying oh yes your right and wiped it off straight away... that was the point we knew we were totally being ripped off.

Good luck! question everything

Hi Liz, thanks a lot for your reply.
I questioned the overhead power line within 6m of construction as well at tender. She said ' Oh, that must refer to your neighbor's overhead cable' which is at least 15m away. All power poles are actually on the other side of the street. Eventually they took the wording off, but no reduction was given.

After reading your post, I have sent my BC an email asking for a break-down of OHS cost. They told me the majority of my OHS was from traffic management. It's not a super quiet street like yours, but definitely quiet and a lot space to park cars. One question regarding traffic management, which department of the council should I contact to get a definitive answer about it?

I also asked my BC to get me something solid regarding LPOD, as according to PD Knockdown Rebuild Guide, any additional construction required will be determined at tender, which didn't happen at tender. I'd rather have this answer sooner than later.

What!!!! well i'd be following that up straight away as that cost was in the thousands to us being closer to power lines. Didnt your tender give you that breakdown? 18k is extreme. Call your local council to discuss traffic management requirements for building, they will advise you whats needed. It seems PD do not call but claim they have charging you whatever they feel like. Get it in writing from the council and provide that to PD or even just a verbal.

Yes you should push for some answers around the LPOD becasue honestly they have no clue what they are doing and you dont want to be sprung with an extra $13-$20k cost at contract becasue they now realise there is an issue.

Let me know how you go.

I just received an update regarding LPOD. They say they will install soakage pits and put extra $5500 allowance under Services. Does anyone have soakage pits put in during a KDRB?

Thanks

lizbf85 · May 23, 2017 1:12 pm

9528

I just received an update regarding LPOD. They say they will install soakage pits and put extra $5500 allowance under Services. Does anyone have soakage pits put in during a KDRB?

Thanks

Sorry no ive never heard of this.

naziac · May 23, 2017 2:43 pm

Quick question: did your contraction drawings have Water Meter marked on them? All our drawings are missing that although the sewerage, electric pit and telstra pit are all clearly marked out.

Naama · May 23, 2017 4:14 pm

naziac

Quick question: did your contraction drawings have Water Meter marked on them? All our drawings are missing that although the sewerage, electric pit and telstra pit are all clearly marked out.

Hi Naziac.

For us we had a water meter that later on turned out to be our neighbor's water meter and even with that conundrum PD were aware and on top of it. So don't worry, if you have or don't have a water meter is something that PD is aware of because they contact the water company for your construction. And it never showed on any drawings...

AnnPerkins · May 23, 2017 6:24 pm

9528

I just received an update regarding LPOD. They say they will install soakage pits and put extra $5500 allowance under Services. Does anyone have soakage pits put in during a KDRB?

Thanks

I think I'd check whether your council will allow a soakage pit?

9528 · May 23, 2017 6:38 pm

AnnPerkins

9528

I just received an update regarding LPOD. They say they will install soakage pits and put extra $5500 allowance under Services. Does anyone have soakage pits put in during a KDRB?

Thanks

Does your council allow soakage pits?

They told me that there are two options. One is to the kerb and the other is infiltration system which is soakage pits. To discharge to the kerb, you would need 600mm fall on your blockto have enough gravity. My block is flat with barely 100mm fall so that we can't have that option. I asked them about possibility of being knocked back by council. They told me that they did quite some of pits,especially along southern coast and should be fine.

sinbox · May 25, 2017 11:15 am

Hey Folks, just curious about the domestic building insurance that PD takes out (underwritten by QBE in my case). Does the insured amount match up to your contract value of the home? It doesn't in my case and also there is a limit on each claim - 20% of Contract Value and a $300k overall claim amount. I'm still getting my head around with this subject as I mistook the construction insurance that was in the contract. The domestic building insurance is meant to cover you in case the builder dies or the company becomes insolvent/disappears for non-completion of work and also for any non structural defects for 2 years and structural defects for the next 6 years.

Somehow it doesn't make sense that you are insuring a home for less than its contracted price! Do we still need to take out additional insurance to top it up?

Hurrow · May 25, 2017 11:42 am

sinbox

Hey Folks, just curious about the domestic building insurance that PD takes out (underwritten by QBE in my case). Does the insured amount match up to your contract value of the home? It doesn't in my case and also there is a limit on each claim - 20% of Contract Value and a $300k overall claim amount. I'm still getting my head around with this subject as I mistook the construction insurance that was in the contract. The domestic building insurance is meant to cover you in case the builder dies or the company becomes insolvent/disappears for non-completion of work and also for any non structural defects for 2 years and structural defects for the next 6 years.

Somehow it doesn't make sense that you are insuring a home for less than its contracted price! Do we still need to take out additional insurance to top it up?

You mean the one from QBE that says Certificate of Currency? My one of that has the contract value as the same as what it's costing to build the house, and it doesn't say anything about limits on each claim.

My understanding (and I could very well be wrong!) is that during the building process if something happens to the house then that is Porter Davis's problem, not yours. Once they have handed the property over to you, then if something happens it is your problem.

sinbox · May 25, 2017 6:48 pm

Hurrow

sinbox

Hey Folks, just curious about the domestic building insurance that PD takes out (underwritten by QBE in my case). Does the insured amount match up to your contract value of the home? It doesn't in my case and also there is a limit on each claim - 20% of Contract Value and a $300k overall claim amount. I'm still getting my head around with this subject as I mistook the construction insurance that was in the contract. The domestic building insurance is meant to cover you in case the builder dies or the company becomes insolvent/disappears for non-completion of work and also for any non structural defects for 2 years and structural defects for the next 6 years.

Somehow it doesn't make sense that you are insuring a home for less than its contracted price! Do we still need to take out additional insurance to top it up?

You mean the one from QBE that says Certificate of Currency? My one of that has the contract value as the same as what it's costing to build the house, and it doesn't say anything about limits on each claim.

My understanding (and I could very well be wrong!) is that during the building process if something happens to the house then that is Porter Davis's problem, not yours. Once they have handed the property over to you, then if something happens it is your problem.

No Hurrow that's not the one. I got confused initially too and had assumed that's the same as domestic building insurance. From the read of it however, the Certificate of Currency is for Construction Insurance and Public liability - think of it as their insurance cover if they destroy your neighbors property by mistake during construction.

The one I'm talking about is the Domestic Building Insurance which I received over mail a couple of days back. By law, (atleast in VIC), builders are also required to take out Domestic Building Insurance for any activities costing over $16K, which covers you as a client for the insolvency and other scenarios I mentioned previously. Think of it as insurance for the standard 6 yr building warranty...

ya1980 · May 26, 2017 11:45 pm

AnnPerkins

We had a look at a PD Waldorf that is on the market in Glen Waverley yesterday. Very nice. I think it will go for $2mil. :shock:

You mean this one:

https://www.realestate.com.au/sold/prop ... -125161154

Its already sold!! I think I've spotted at least 4 Waldorf Grange's in Glen Waverley on the market recently. This was the nicest one though.

Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅
Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅

Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅
Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅
Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅

Hurrow · May 27, 2017 8:11 am

It's been a busy week for us with some exciting news, our land will settle in a couple of weeks! Unfortunately we're still stuffing around with developer approval for the house, there are all sorts of requirements which I would have thought Porter Davis would have made clearer up front giving they are building plenty of other houses in the same estate. It's one of those things where some people in the organisation know the information but it's not passed on to the BC or tender presenter or WoS or SC where it could have been brought up and saved a lot of time now, so slightly frustrating but hopefully it will all be resolved soon. After that I guess there is still council approval and all the rest of it so we're not likely to see work start any time soon.

Hopefully our developer has now sorted out the issue with our block of land as well, apparently that was done on Monday so if we drive out there this weekend we can check.

We've also had a change of BC which is a shame, our previous one seemed pretty organised which was good, we are yet to hear from the new one but hopefully it's a smooth transition process.

What's been happening with everyone else?