Porter Davis homes

Our house is now in Week 20 (28/6) but no electrical things (powerpoints and switches) have been done.

It was so disappointing and not sure if PD will have any excuses not to paying the late penalty!!!~

No excuse for not paying. It is written on the contract, once pass the date, they have to pay.

ok its been a while since i have blogged - PD started with the escavation of the block and that was on the 2 nd june - so far thats all they have done - still waiting on plumbing to be laid - and the "customer service" officer seems to think that an update includes letting us know she was away and thats her idea of an update - emailed the other day using the 24/7 webiste login and still waiting a response did call the site manager and he was good - told me that he will be away for a week so i assume that nothing will be done for the next week - by the way
i remeber them sayign that there was a a difference in start8ing date actually refers to site start dates... does this help?

Hi All,

Just gave my $1000 deposit to PD, however I am now feeling unsure going ahead with them as most of the comments/blogs I have read about PD aren't very encouraging.

Anyone here had been happy with PD so far?

Thanks.

Qas

Lots of people Qas.... remember that only the unhappy usually speak up. Consider them the miserable minority.

For what it's worth, building a house is awful, no matter which builder you choose. The only good thing about it is getting to the end. It has its moments of excitement, but those are usually outweighed by the stressful times. You just have to keep your eyes on the end goal, and have lots of patience.

Start a building thread and keep us posted - you'll find lots of support here.

Just sticking up for us miserable minority (although I'm not sure how minor we are) , we did in fact have a wonderful build the first time 5 years ago and unfortunately our current experience has been far from that. By voicing our issues, we hope we can pass on knowledge to the next person who can take it to their build. There is nothing wrong with expecting the best, as I know it does exist, so stay strong. It would be silly for me to recommend PD after the experience I am having but that is not to say that others will have/have had better luck than us. Goodluck.

I have heard great reports from people that built with PD. Mistakes are going to happen with any project, but its how they go about correcting the issue is what is important and from what i understand PD have a good reputation in this regard (although im sure some others here might disagree)

Building is stressful, but the end product is worth it. You just have to be prepared to fight when you need to but also be excited and enjoy and learn from the experience

Thanks Kek, Elizbeth and Lunchtime for taking the time to respond.

I'm glad to have found this forum, i browse a lot but not post much, well not yet.. I guess I need to look at starting a thread/blog very soon.

This is our first build and have very limited knowledge of the building process, still heaps of learning to do.

PD was awarded Most Professional Builder this year so they must be doing something right?

I will be posting more and will definitely be seeking comments as the build starts.

Qas

Elizbeth, nobody was arguing the point about your particular build. I'm sure it was just as bad as you say, and I'm sorry you had an awful time. If you've ever read my threads or blog, you'd find that ours was a long way from a picnic. But I have to be fair and say that all defects were rectified, compensation was paid as per the contract, we got a beautiful home in the end, and I don't see the point in bad-mouthing a builder who's no worse than most and a lot better than some.

More to the point, there are many people on this forum who've had good experiences and the really miserable experiences are in the minority.

Putting my moderator hat on, I have to point out that this forum isn't a venue for airing grievances - there are plenty of avenues open for pursuing real problems with builders, but bagging a company on the internet isn't the best way to go. There's a pretty clear warning about the dangers of defamation here.

Some of the posts in this thread are pushing the limits and I just wanted to draw that to everyone's attention.


Qas, I look forward to following your progress. Do start up a thread of your own - and be sure to add photos.

We have a favourite home and are pretty close to signing our next few years over to PD.
I have been reading Homeone for a little while and it has woken me up to a few things to look out for

Hoping for a good build here

We love our PD house but our build was not without hiccups and there is some quality of work that I am not happy with (such as the crappy painting). But that can be fixed up properly later on, when my kids have finished trashing the place.

10 months after moving in they finally turned up yesterday to fix some chips in the front render
We still have a few basins that won't drain the water quickly so the pipes are obviously blocked (PD are aware of this) and a paint mark on the carpet was removed but it's ruined the pile so I am going to hit them up for a whole room of new carpet. This will be address at the 12 mth maintenance appt in August and if necessary the word VCAT will be mentioned.

But despite this, I still love my Illoura

It's not the problems or hiccups that come with building,
it's how your builder deals with them that is the test of a real quality builder i believe. JMHO

We just sold our current home & ready to finally go and get a quote from pd to build the cremorne 35. Absolutely love the house.
I have read so many negative things about so many builders. But have decided Its the house plan that we love & will make the final decision.
Mel

I'm commencing soon with PD and are wondering if I need to arrange any inspections myself along the way or at the end of the build?
Any comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Ant.

Hi Ant

We recently built with PD, we had inspections at all major stages.

Good luck with your build.

Thanks for that.
May I ask if that's something you arranged yourself, or did you liaise with PD? Any suggestions on who to use?
Cheers.

Ant where are you building? I'll send you a PM with details anyway.
We built with PD and had no issues with getting our own Inspector several times throughout the build. It was definitely worth it and everything was addressed and fixed by PD with no hassle. We received the written report from the inspector the night of the inspection.
PD have been great to deal with. Sure some issues arise but they will with any builder. PD have been great with all of our concerns and addressed them all to our satisfaction. Best to be reasonable and you will get things fixed.
Good luck with build. You'll have good times and bad but the good far outweigh in the end.

PD had no issue with it, I always let my CSC know via email and the SS via text for what time was arranged. Details of who we used is on our blog (link below)

In fact our SS was eager to get the last report quickly so many of the issues had been addressed before our PCI. I totally agree with oze there will be issues but it is how they are dealt with that matters and as far as our build went PD have been great.

I got a copy of the independant inspections that PD advertise on their website and what the sales rep discussed with me and it provided no detail at all. Will arrange my own pre-plaster check once the bricking has been done

We are in the process of finalising on the Cayman 41.

Anyone else building the Cayman?