Porter Davis homes

eli-kay123 · Jun 09, 2011 5:29 pm

Chorlton

INTERNAL FINISH OF THE GARAGE

Hello All,

For all those who have now built with PD, may I ask what the internal finish was inside your garage? If it has been lined with plaster board sheets were all sides of the garage boarded?

I ask, as in my garage all sides have been plaster boarded with the exception of the (i) front wall (either side of the garage door) and more strangely (ii) half of the back wall in the area of the rear garage door.

When I asked my SS why the rear wall had not been completely plaster boarded, I was told that was the actual finish for a PD home and that all PD's homes are constructed in a similar way ??!!???

Personally, it nots very aesthetically pleasing and looks basically unfinished, and consequently would welcome others comments on this before I raise the issue again.

Thanks in advance,

Chorlton

Hi Chorlton,

I never thought about the garage. That's not acceptable. It's half finished. I will be questioning this at my contract signing. That's like having the toilet with out a flush.

humble · Jun 09, 2011 5:42 pm

eli-kay123

Can anyone tell me if they had the flooring included in their promo (Cat 1 Tiles, Cat 2 Carpet) but decided to source their own flooring elsewhere. Did PD give you a credit for not going ahead with them.

Even if you only got the carpet and did the rest yourself the July Price $2k is still good value.

We were told we wouldn't get a credit. Its either in or out, but we could just get the carpets and tiles and do our floorboards separately ourselves. It still worked out to be better value. So far, we haven't been able to get any price reduction. Considering I can get 4k off a 45k car, I find it somewhat bemusing I cant get anything off a $240k house. :th:

joles · Jun 09, 2011 5:48 pm

Chorlton, we have brick showing around the big garage door. Are you building a single or double storey? The garages are different for both. Generally double storey homes will be all brick internally, whereas singles will usually be plaster board and/or a combination of brick and plaster board. Seriously, it's not half finished, it's just how they do them. And that's most builders. I've got construction drawing for four different houses in front of me, from three different builders (PD, M'con, Boutique), 1 double, 3 single. The double is full brick, the singles, one is full plaster, the others a combo of plaster and brick. We always made sure we went into the garage of the display houses once we got serious so I've seen a fair few of them! :lol:

Without seeing pics, but going by the description, it sounds perfectly normal.

eli-kay123 · Jun 09, 2011 5:55 pm

tstr1a

eli-kay123

Can anyone tell me if they had the flooring included in their promo (Cat 1 Tiles, Cat 2 Carpet) but decided to source their own flooring elsewhere. Did PD give you a credit for not going ahead with them.

i spoke to my CSC about a credit and she said no.

i upgraded the tiles and carpet was close to wat we wanted.

Thanks for your reply tstr1a. Yes, we got told to take it or leave. They won't credit us. Hubby not happy. When I told him, he was fuming. Their carpet only goes as high as cat3 and we didn't like any of their carpets, so we wanted to get our own. They're willing to give it as a promo; we all know we are paying for it anyway. We can't upgrade to the carpet we want because it's not on their list even though it's thru Carpet Court. I even said to give us something else in place of the flooring. I know when we were planning to build with Henley they had it as a promo and we wanted to source it ourselves, they were happy to credit us. We will see what happens as we still have a deposit on the Lexington (Henley home) should it not work out with PD. Hubby will pull out if we can't come to a fair compromise.

You probably thinking why do they have a deposit on a Henley home. To fill you in, the reason we put a deposit on Henley was because we loved it some much and just about got to tender when I saw the Ivanhoe. With the Henley we could only get 4 bedrooms and 2 living areas but they are much larger rooms than PD. With PD Ivanhoe we got 5 bedrooms and 3 living areas (smaller rooms of course). We have 4 kids so we wanted each child to have their own room. But if it has to be and we can't compromise with PD we will go down a bedroom and living area with Henley.

Our beans have just been nerked!!!!

Humbles loves that word COMPROMISE!!!!!

eli-kay123 · Jun 09, 2011 6:04 pm

humble

eli-kay123

Can anyone tell me if they had the flooring included in their promo (Cat 1 Tiles, Cat 2 Carpet) but decided to source their own flooring elsewhere. Did PD give you a credit for not going ahead with them.

Even if you only got the carpet and did the rest yourself the July Price $2k is still good value.

We were told we wouldn't get a credit. Its either in or out, but we could just get the carpets and tiles and do our floorboards separately ourselves. It still worked out to be better value. So far, we haven't been able to get any price reduction. Considering I can get 4k off a 45k car, I find it somewhat bemusing I cant get anything off a $240k house. :th:

Hi Humble,

Back in May we were offered free flooring only if we built in July. It only applied to the Western Suburbs because they needed to fill the last few spaces. So we are under that promo. We will have to see what decisions/compromises are made over the next few days.

Thanks, reading yours and tstr1a posts, it seems it won't happen.

tstr1a · Jun 09, 2011 6:06 pm

I did put a deposit on a Henley house, I love the displays.

Henley is good as they give you a booklet with all the pricing on upgrades.. from doors to brick... everything.
But I found that I got more with PD plus a plan which I liked.

Get the floor plan right (the most important thing) and don’t get caught up in lttle things which can be done down the track.

I just spoke to an independent inspector and they where extremely impressed with PD quality... mentioned that PD are better than the some others.

Chorlton · Jun 09, 2011 6:18 pm

Bel&Marz

Hi,

On our plans it shows that only 2 walls are to be plastered. Those walls are the internal walls, which are the laundry wall and entry wall for us, though they have plasterd all of the garage and have left a little exposed brick around the rear access garage door. take a look on my thread. Page 10 there is a pic of the facade where you can see the inside of our garage.

Bel&Marz.

Our area of brickwork is around 2m wide but apart from that the inside of our garage looks the same as yours. I can't believe PD believe that looks ok ::dizzy::

Oh well, at least what my SS told me was accurate !! If that's what the final finish is then so be it........

Thanks for posting the link and sharing your experience.........

Chorlton

humble · Jun 09, 2011 6:29 pm

eli-kay123

humble

eli-kay123

Can anyone tell me if they had the flooring included in their promo (Cat 1 Tiles, Cat 2 Carpet) but decided to source their own flooring elsewhere. Did PD give you a credit for not going ahead with them.

Even if you only got the carpet and did the rest yourself the July Price $2k is still good value.

We were told we wouldn't get a credit. Its either in or out, but we could just get the carpets and tiles and do our floorboards separately ourselves. It still worked out to be better value. So far, we haven't been able to get any price reduction. Considering I can get 4k off a 45k car, I find it somewhat bemusing I cant get anything off a $240k house. :th:

Hi Humble,

Back in May we were offered free flooring only if we built in July. It only applied to the Western Suburbs because they needed to fill the last few spaces. So we are under that promo. We will have to see what decisions/compromises are made over the next few days.

Thanks, reading yours and tstr1a posts, it seems it won't happen.

I have the same deal, but July not June build date.. so its a 2k cost.

Bel&Marz · Jun 09, 2011 7:49 pm

Chorlton

Bel&Marz

Hi,

On our plans it shows that only 2 walls are to be plastered. Those walls are the internal walls, which are the laundry wall and entry wall for us, though they have plasterd all of the garage and have left a little exposed brick around the rear access garage door. take a look on my thread. Page 10 there is a pic of the facade where you can see the inside of our garage.

Bel&Marz.

Our area of brickwork is around 2m wide but apart from that the inside of our garage looks the same as yours. I can't believe PD believe that looks ok ::dizzy::

Oh well, at least what my SS told me was accurate !! If that's what the final finish is then so be it........

Thanks for posting the link and sharing your experience.........

Chorlton

Your welcome! 2m is a fair bit of wall. Maybe you could use that space as a designated working area with a bench and some shelving for tools etc. That is if your cars allow for the space.

J & C · Jun 09, 2011 8:10 pm

Has anyone on this blog opted for the surround sound and projected pre-wiring through PD ? Could you please let us know if the quality of wiring is of high standard.

We have a quote from them but not sure if the quality of work is top notch or just average. We are getting a bit jittery of getting these things done by the builder after reading this blog.

Look forward to responses

Cheers,

J & C

MelNRob · Jun 09, 2011 10:18 pm

J & C

Has anyone on this blog opted for the surround sound and projected pre-wiring through PD ? Could you please let us know if the quality of wiring is of high standard.

We have a quote from them but not sure if the quality of work is top notch or just average. We are getting a bit jittery of getting these things done by the builder after reading this blog.

Look forward to responses

Cheers,

J & C

Hi J&C,
Funny you should post this...rob went out on to our site this morning and the guys were there doing the electrical roughins and our data/home theatre cabling. . He had a chat with the guy putting the prewiring in for our 7.1 surround sound and he was on the ball. Rob is pretty cluey with this sort of thing and they understood what we are after

Remember its not the builder per se that is doing the work. They subcontract to the professional trade and in our case for electrical we've got good old Jim's electrical but not sure who Argus has subby'd out to

.

You're definitely better off getting the cabling put in as early as possible as depending on how complex your setup is, you need to run the required cables through before the plaster gets put up as you don't want to be pulling plaster down afterwards (particularly in a double storey). As we are having a central hub within our theatre room, we needed to run any prewiring through to the alfresco, living and lounge areas and theatre room.

Rob's friend's brother is an advertiser on this website (Home automation with Rod). He has been a wealth of knowledge and we are going through him to setup our home theatre. Definitely recommend shooting him a message on the forum for any ideas or tips and tricks.

Cheers,

Mel

building1 · Jun 09, 2011 10:29 pm

J & C

Has anyone on this blog opted for the surround sound and projected pre-wiring through PD ? Could you please let us know if the quality of wiring is of high standard.

We have a quote from them but not sure if the quality of work is top notch or just average. We are getting a bit jittery of getting these things done by the builder after reading this blog.

Look forward to responses

Cheers,

J & C

From what I can gather PD use L&O technologies for a lot of their stuff, I know they did our alarm wiring, my DH seems to think they're on the ball...

eli-kay123 · Jun 10, 2011 12:02 am

tstr1a

I did put a deposit on a Henley house, I love the displays.

Henley is good as they give you a booklet with all the pricing on upgrades.. from doors to brick... everything.
But I found that I got more with PD plus a plan which I liked.

Get the floor plan right (the most important thing) and don’t get caught up in lttle things which can be done down the track.

I just spoke to an independent inspector and they where extremely impressed with PD quality... mentioned that PD are better than the some others.

Thanks tstr1a,

I will keep that in mind. ::smile::

humble · Jun 10, 2011 4:17 pm

Zzz.. slow work day... whats everyones plans for this weekend?

Ours:

Bricks tomorrow..
Sunday Day trip somewhere..
Monday Collingwood v Melbourne.. Hot pies!

Gren · Jun 10, 2011 5:38 pm

Dear All,

I just want opinions here, I have already signed upto to build a house with PD with the "Porter Davis Complete" offer, and got to the stage of signing contracts (which I have already done) and know my site costs, basically everything.

But I would like to know, is if I am better off with there new offer which is the "Simplity" offer and the "Price Rewind" offer, which still applies to the house already chosen.

Gren

tstr1a · Jun 10, 2011 5:48 pm

Gren

Dear All,

I just want opinions here, I have already signed upto to build a house with PD with the "Porter Davis Complete" offer, and got to the stage of signing contracts (which I have already done) and know my site costs, basically everything.

But I would like to know, is if I am better off with there new offer which is the "Simplity" offer and the "Price Rewind" offer, which still applies to the house already chosen.

Gren

Hey Gren

all depends on the house your are building and if you want the inclusions offered in teh complete offer. With our I was better off with the complete offer

Rups · Jun 10, 2011 6:53 pm

humble

Zzz.. slow work day... whats everyones plans for this weekend?

Ours:

Bricks tomorrow..
Sunday Day trip somewhere..
Monday Collingwood v Melbourne.. Hot pies!

Might see you around humble

we sold our house and are now renting a few houses down from the brick house until ours is built. Need to have a good look at those bricks too.

humble · Jun 10, 2011 9:15 pm

Should be there about 11ish..

me_me1983 · Jun 10, 2011 10:22 pm

snoofie

Yeah, we ended up with PD because the previous builder we chose threw their hands in the air in defeat and screamed "oogie boogie" when faced with our 1:5 slope driveway after the site cut.

PD were more than accommodating and didn't even flinch at the slope.

Hey Snoofie,

Just interested to know... who was the builder that you dumped to go with PD? We just got a 50K quote for site costs through Metricon.

rramesh · Jun 10, 2011 11:10 pm

Hi All,

Our PD prestige build seems to be plagued with issues. Our latest issue is the render. We had opted for a partial render but ended up with a full front render. The final drawings reflect what we wanted but what we are seeing is something totally different.

We called up the office and they say that we have the option to choose two colors.
or t

They will remove the render form where it shouldn't be. This they say could damage the bricks and they will only replace the damaged bricks.

Option 2 seems risky and might add to the build time, option one on the other hand would just seem ugly. Has anyone had similar problems and any one have suggestions on what we can do under the circumstances

Your help/advice is much sought after.