Porter Davis homes

Blog now updated.

Thanks to everyone hopefully you have all enjoyed our blog in the last 24 hours it has surpassed 1,500 visitors and 10,000 individual page reads.

Wow the power of the net for communication is just astonishing.

Most of all we hope our blog has helped others through thier build and dealing with Porter Davis and other trades.

see more About the hoffman – Building the hoffman
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We have finally started! Site started yesterday with a our site cut.

I just wanted to ask what people have done with tracking their build and documenting things. I'm trying to find a way that will work for us, whether its a note book with notes, excel spreadsheet, some app etc. I plan on taking photos of the site with my timestamp app so the date and time are shown on every photo.

I have all the email correspondence in folders on my email, I may print some out as well.

Thanks!!

That's pretty reasonable, we've been quoted $110-ish for exposed aggregate concrete. Who was the company? We're starting to get quotes for post build. We like bitumen with a bit of aggregate in it like our friends have, but the company who did theirs, the owner retired a few years back

Can anyone tell if thing like sinks, shower base, baths, basins, wet area sealing are part of fixing stage?

What about external cladding, tiling in bathroom, splash back, stone on kitchen bench and island, stone on bathroom bench etc is part of fixing or completion ?

These are all pending and I have received the invoice.

The PD contract definition is very broad and does not list specific things.

For those thinking about the Brivis touchpad. We chose it mid 2016 due to the rep saying there will be an app coming with wifi control. So I messaged Brivis and asked when is it coming. Here is their reply:

"Hi Coralie, we are working on an app which we hope to have available mid-year which will have internet connectivity. Thanks, Brivis Climate Systems."

We used Darbecca as well and did all the inspection they offer. We combined the inspections that it was possible to do so for in order to save a bit of money.

One (legitimate) complaint that our SS had about Darbecca is that often they will tell you about a problem but not necessarily the location(s) of that problem. For example we had a problem with a gutter that didn't run downhill, but the report didn't say where it was so all the gutters had to be checked. Same with a few noggins etc, or insulation not being installed correctly.

You also have to keep in mind that just because it's on the report doesn't mean that it has to necessarily be fixed, if it's a big issue you will no doubt want it done but for small non structural issues you may not care enough to delay the build. As an example we had a window where the bottom sill slopes downwards by about 5mm over the width of the window. Taking it out and getting it replaced would have delayed things by a couple of weeks, it wasn't a big issues to us so we let it go.

We did slab, frame and final inspections. My feeling is a flat well made slab and a frame that is built correctly = a well built house.

see more About the hoffman – Building the hoffman
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Pre slab as you can not see anything underneath post slab. For post slab you can do it yourself. All you need is a 2m long straight edge some packers and a metal ruler.

You need to see if the slab is flat and doesnt have waves in it if you want flat floors.

The Victorian building authority has a tolerences guide you can download that all builders must meet. This includes allowable fall and wavyness in slabs.

see more About the hoffman – Building the hoffman
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Handover (hopefully) today.... Like  ⋅  1 comment  ⋅  Pin to Ideaboard  ⋅  Share

We setup a specific gmail account for the whole build. That meant that the 2 of us could read/send the same messages. It also gave us access to google drive which we used to keep all build documents. Again, it allowed either of us access to the same documents. Any photos from the build from either of us were saved to the same google drive.