Porter Davis homes

epiphany · Nov 04, 2006 12:11 am

I've read this thread with a lot of interest.

Construction on our PD home began around 3 weeks ago. Overall, we've been very pleased with how things have been handled & the building itself is ahead of schedule (always good). Our biggest issues have actually been with the bank supplying the mortgage...but that's another story.

My one gripe with PD so far would be that we specifically said we were going to get our fences put up before they began construction (so as to save the cost of temp fencing) but our site supervisor didn't call us before construction began (so we could remind him of our fences) &, lo & behold, our temp fences went up pretty much straight away. There seemed to have been a bit of a breakdown in communication somewhere between our admin person & our site supervisor. Now, although we're still allowed to put the fences up if we want, we won't get a rebate on the temp fencing. Which is annoying...not the end of the world, though.

However, some of our friends were also looking at a PD home & had a myriad of problems with the salesperson they were dealing with...their pricings were quite a bit higher when compared with similar items on our contract. So not quite sure what was going on but they eventually decided to go with another builder.

As for the earlier question about the skirting boards - we have also decided to get our own floor coverings done (PD even told us we shouldn't bother going with them for flooring - especially as we wanted wood & they don't get a bulk deal on wood floor coverings). We were told the skirtings are simply tacked on & can be easily removed by the person laying the floor when it comes time to do them.

Luz · Nov 09, 2006 4:39 pm

Interesting discussion....
So our construction is still supposed to start Feb 2007 (as you uncle_ant!) but we are nowhere near everybody else's issues. In fact, we have not yet signed any documents specifying what inclusions/upgrades we want but this is mainly due to the fact that the house design (Brookvale) we like will officially open only this coming weekend. Sounds like we'll be in a mad rush in the next two weeks to get up the speed.
We definately want to do our own flooring. Fortunately our salesperson is excellent and he even hinted to us that the timber lining on the ceiling or walls is cheaper if we do it by ourselves later on.

Has anyone had an experience trying to make a structural change as to widening the floor plan? I know it's easy to make it longer but I really want to figure out if it can be widened a little bit to make the master bedroom bigger.

epiphany · Nov 11, 2006 5:13 pm

Luz

Has anyone had an experience trying to make a structural change as to widening the floor plan? I know it's easy to make it longer but I really want to figure out if it can be widened a little bit to make the master bedroom bigger.

We wanted to try & legthen the garage (not enough room to widen it as much as we wanted) but couldn't because of the way the roof ran.

If the roof runs the right way (ie the way you want to widen it), they were happy to widen it (with the garage...not sure if it'd be the same with a room but can't see why not).

epiphany · Nov 20, 2006 11:22 pm

Just a wee update on our house.

We're now about halfway through bricking & we're still pleased with the speed & the results. It's looking great & we have to keep pinching ourselves that the house that's going up is actually ours

We spoke to the brickies over the weekend...it would appear PD is on a pretty strict timetable & the brickies were working over the entire weekend to make sure they met deadline for scaffolding this week. It's an interesting comparison to the Henley home that is going up next door to ours - in the time it's taken for our entire house to get to this stage (from site clear to halfway through bricking), they've only managed to wrap the house & get the bottom story bricked. Both houses are approx the same size (as we know which model they're building next door).

Only trouble we've had since my last post was some theft & vandelism on the site. One of our wooden double-glazed windows & a wooden sliding door were stolen...plus they removed all the nails in the other wooden windows (which had already been installed - the other one was waiting for the garage to be finished before it was installed) in an attempt to steal the set (but couldn't get the windows out). The brickies thought it was probably other tradies trying to get their windows for free. Some vandals also smashed 3 panes of glass, damaging the surround of one window. The site supervisor wasn't too concerned...he thinks it's pretty normal for quiet areas. All I can say is yay for insurance (but really...some people need to get a proper hobby).

Hope everyone is having a great day.

intoxicated · Nov 21, 2006 11:03 am

good to hear that epiphany (not about the vandal btw)

we're almost set to build on march, just waiting the final contract to be signed. so far, we're happy with PD even though they are only give us a lot less rebate for the water tank (we get the water tank from the land developer)

no biggie for me, but it is for my better half as it wlll make some tapware stay standard

btw, anyone knows the spefication of the standard prestige kitchen sink? is it 1 and 3/4? how deep?

squidhed · Nov 27, 2006 2:19 pm

Hi Everyone,

I have had an interesting and disturbing read of the thread so far.
I thought I would share some of my experiences with PD as many have already done.

We had a build start of last week. At this point there is nothing other than the survey pegs on the site. We are building in the west and have had numerous issues around tender and contract up to this point.

The tender process that took more than 5 hours to go through and may as well have not have happened with the number of omissions and errors that where in it. When we queried those we where confidently told we could fix those at the contract appointment. This was a complete untruth.

Your contract appointment is a tick the box and sign appointment.

At that appointment we dealt with not only our administrator but the west office manager. I would hope that none of you have to deal with him as he is a hot head (this is a description as supplied be other members of the PD staff) and will take pride in telling you that he does not like to deal directly with customers and that we should just let them build our house the way they want too. "They build more than a 1000 homes a year" quotes west office manager when trying to make a point..

All up there were approximately 30 errors in the tender/contract document and not the kind that a simple coat of paint can fix. Things like the wrong facade, roof line, incorrect electrical plans and wrong doors just to name a few of the bigger ones.

After sorting through all of this more than a month ago i thought I would touch base with our admin the day before site start. She tells me at this point that she had been meaning to call me there where some things wrong with the contract and that they want to make another variation because THEY forgot to cost some stuff in.

I'll update this once we get a decision on whats happening.

best regards to all
squidhed

Amber · Nov 27, 2006 2:41 pm

Hey Squidhed, sorry to hear about your dealings thus far with PD. I continually find it mind blowing that people have such vastly different experiences with the same company.

We don't seem to have had the issues you mention and maybe it has something to do with particular PD staff (such as the hothead you have had to deal with).

We are building in the South East (Berwick office) and while we have had some minor hiccups, certainly nothing earth shattering that it has dampened our spirits with the building process ..... yet.

Interesting that they say they build more than 1000 homes a year .... Maybe that's Porter Davis Victoria wide but certainly not their office.

One of the reasons we went with PD was because they DIDN'T build 1,000 homes a year. The Berwick office build 200 homes a year at the very most. I'm told that they have only 20 building crews and therefore only commit to 20 site starts a month. Now whether this was just a sales pitch I don't know but it came from a couple of different people.

Looking forward to hearing your updates ... let's hope it get's better!!

Amber

http://ourdreamhouse.blogspot.com/

Touchingcloth · Nov 27, 2006 5:47 pm

Hi all...been reading about PD.

We've given our $600 deposit to order soil tests in Point Cook.

I've since heard that PD tend to underquote potential site costs. One fella was told "no rocks in Point cook...so $6-7K" After the soil test, PD asked for close to $20K!!!!!

Just wondering what your site costs came in at, and where your land is?

Thanks
TC

Amber · Nov 28, 2006 8:44 am

Hey TC,
When we finally decided that PD were our builder of choice and put the $600.00 down as a deposit, the rep said that she tends to always give a rough estimate of site costs of around $5,000.00. She made sure however that we understood that this would definitely change and not to bank on that cost being correct. Told us of all the pitfalls and things that will alter that price so we were waiting for a blow out.

After the first soil test we were quoted $8,500 for site costs, but as I said in my previous post, the second soil test has revealed that the land has settled considerably and therefore our site costs are now just under $5,000.

Bear in mind that this is the flattest block in history (well .. i exaggerate but it is pretty darn flat).

We are building in Lyndhurst (South East).

Good luck ... hope they don't find too many rocks!!! :-)

Touchingcloth · Nov 28, 2006 12:27 pm

Amber

Hey TC,
When we finally decided that PD were our builder of choice and put the $600.00 down as a deposit, the rep said that she tends to always give a rough estimate of site costs of around $5,000.00. She made sure however that we understood that this would definitely change and not to bank on that cost being correct. Told us of all the pitfalls and things that will alter that price so we were waiting for a blow out.

After the first soil test we were quoted $8,500 for site costs, but as I said in my previous post, the second soil test has revealed that the land has settled considerably and therefore our site costs are now just under $5,000.

Bear in mind that this is the flattest block in history (well .. i exaggerate but it is pretty darn flat).

We are building in Lyndhurst (South East).

Thanks for the reply Amber. May I ask which home you are building? Is it from the 'Prestige' range?

Is your contract a fixed price contract?

Maybe PD put the better builders on the Prestige range and ** builders on the lifetsyle/access ranges.

Good luck with your build.
TC

Good luck ... hope they don't find too many rocks!!! :-)

Amber · Nov 28, 2006 1:29 pm

No we are building a ** Lifestyle Range home :-)

).

We chose the Everton 28 (which has since been removed from their list) - the Monteden 29 is an identical plan except for difference size obviously.

I don't think it was a fixed price contract ... I remember the terminology from when we first started the process. If you pick one of their blocks, and build their house, they give you X amount (including credit back for fencing etc.).

Because we chose a block separately to what they offered, it was a bit of a different process. But I think it was still a fixed price - once we have signed off the contract there are no more costs. I'm sure that when they get to building it some of our appliances would not be available, so they just upgrade at no cost to us etc.

Hope that answered your question???!!!!

epiphany · Nov 29, 2006 9:35 am

Our site costs came in at around $3500 + fencing but we have a totally flat block of land, etc.

Amber - we're with the Berwick office also. Haven't had any problems like you've mentioned, squidhead...hope you're able to get them sorted. It definately sounds like a case of individual offices rather than PD as a whole.

We're still currently bricking. The downstairs is pretty much finished...external doors have been hung & we should be at lockup before christmas. Still ahead of schedule (yay). We're getting an independant inspection done, though, just in case.

Amber · Nov 29, 2006 9:52 am

Great news epiphany .. I have heard that in the majority of cases (not always obviously) that PD to build ahead of schedule. When we first signed with them they said that although they guarantee a 20 week build, the average time (at that stage mind you) was taking 16.2 weeks.

Of course a whole lot of people said to me that it means we will get a ** house, things won't get done correctly etc. etc. but we double checked with Dad (who is an old school builder) and apparently Jennings used to build a house in less than 12 weeks!!! He said this was a little bit too quick but 16-20 weeks sounds good to him.

Where is your block? Ours is a flat block of land as well .. which is one of the reasons we liked the estate.

Hope it continues to progress well .. look forward to an update.

Amber

http://ourdreamhouse.blogspot.com/

tivoliboy · Nov 29, 2006 11:06 am

Hi,
It has been an interesting read. I am building at Sanctuary Lakes.
I signed the tender contract last week and will be going to sign the HIA contract next week. I have noticed that eventhought my land is flat, I have been quoted at $7000+ for site cost(no rock found) and $1600 for fencing(2 sides only as the other 2 sides have either brick or wood fence installed). Their cost include $1500 for foundation for the alfresco and $700 for surveyor to install the missing pegs?. Is this normal?

sneakersss · Nov 29, 2006 3:04 pm

Not sure if any of what you said is 'normal'.

We got a House and Land package and were initially quoted 12k for site costs. That's excluding OHS and fencing etc. To me that's steep but I have yet left that unquestioned as I feel that everytime I ask a question about anything cost related I never get a proper answer. That coupled with the fact that I have emailed our 'administrator' twice and still no response - any my answers were very basic.

Anyway, our land is in Deer Park and it's very flat and no stones from what I can see. Unless they're hidden? But anyway, a friend of mine who built in Tarneit was able to get fixed price site costs at 7k. They were quoted at 20k with another builder. We are also with a fixed price site cost although I still think their initial 12k quote is very high. After all, if it was just a quote (with no soil testing performed as yet) what are they pricing that 12k on?

Guess we'll have to see at Tender, ey.

newhomebuilder · Nov 29, 2006 5:49 pm

When people say site costs, most people think of rock, and it should be right because the block is flat. However their are a few factors to count, these may include;

Foundations. In Victoria standard is class M, however most blocks in Melbourne are class H, which does involve extra costs depending on the house size and soil requirements, and then the worst type of block you could get is P, which is very costly.\\

Termite area.

High wind area, alterations to glazing, additional roof/ wall bracing, upgrade of insulation, additional fixing of roof etc...

Connections on other side of road, which need under road boring.

Additional connection meterage. Most volume builders allow around 8 meters from pit to house, if the house has a longer set-back then more costs will be involved.

These are just some of the extras which may involve site costs.

sneakersss · Nov 29, 2006 10:37 pm

So, yup, I knew about the slab. I know ours is H-class.

Didn't know about the high wind area thing, though. But, now I do, so thanks for the very handy insight.

epiphany · Nov 29, 2006 10:53 pm

Amber - we're in Kimberly Downs, overlooking the lake. If you'd like to see photos, feel free to PM me & I'll send you a link to my gallery (it's password-protected at the moment, so can send you the password).

Tivoliboy - our temp fencing was quoted as $1918 for all 4 sides (obviously this would have reduced if we'd been able to get our fences up before they went onsite)...& our site costs & connections (over & above the standard "included" package, which includes termite protection, etc) for an H class slab in our area with virtually no fall was $3324.

scarlett · Dec 01, 2006 3:53 pm

Hi Everyone,

I thought I would put my thoughts in about Porter Davis South East branch. We are currently building South East and our progress. We have just gone through lock up stage and are heading onto the plastering stage.

SALES
Our Sales lady was sooo helpful and lovely and charming until we gave her the $600 and then she pretended to not receive emails twice over, didnt return calls and then didnt follow up what we requested with our tender person. She actually said we should "sign up quickly as the promotion will end and the prices a going up in the next week" Within a short time the price of our house went down.

ADMIN HELP
The adminstration side was pretty bad with errors. They have been helpful and lovely up until we signed the contract/final drawings stage. We had to get the final drawings done 3 times because of errors we had pointed out many times. And even the final final drawings were not correct. We were basically told at that stage that they would not fix anything more. Even though we had written instructions throughout the tender process requesting certain items to adhere with convenent restrictions in our estate.

BRICKS
Everything was going reasonably well until the bricks were laid. The quality of the bricks were very poor and in fact I would not have been suprised if they were seconds. We raised this issue and we were told this "adds character" to the house by our site supervisor.
The laying was of very poor standards as well and we are currently getting a Building Supervisor (thanks for the tip about Kevin from New Homes) out to check over.
My brother is a bricklayer and his personal opinion is "very sloppy". The motar joints varied greatly thoughout and there are lots of uneven joins and finger marks in the mortar. Not to mention that we ordered flush and what we have it concave. To say we are disappointed with the brickwork is an understatement. We have raised this several times with our Site Manager but he is very defensive.

I think over the whole process we will come out with a reasonable product but I completely disagree with their advertising "Display Home Quality".

If anyone else has some advice I would love to hear it.

tivoliboy · Dec 03, 2006 10:45 pm

Thank you very much to everyone who replied to my earlier questions.
The next question that I have is, can you get someone else to put up the temporary fence instead of the builder? reason being, I want to save a bit.