Porter Davis homes

monkeypantz · Sep 17, 2012 9:48 am

humble

Been in our house for 9 months, had hotwater system stolen overnight..

wtf..

Oh no, humble! What a pain!

humble · Sep 17, 2012 11:53 am

CCTV getting installed as I speak. Over it.

michaelrezk · Sep 17, 2012 2:11 pm

humble

CCTV getting installed as I speak. Over it.

Was that at the far end of the house so you couldn't hear it ????

ma2531 · Sep 17, 2012 3:36 pm

monkeypantz

Blog updated with this week's progress. Mostly tiles

hi monkeypantz. I look forward to reading ur blog everyweek, i have have to say with all the blogs i read, ur colour selection is one of the best, and its a credit to both of you.. ur home is going to look fantastic.

humble · Sep 17, 2012 3:52 pm

michaelrezk

humble

CCTV getting installed as I speak. Over it.

Was that at the far end of the house so you couldn't hear it ????

Yup.

cinderella_375 · Sep 17, 2012 4:03 pm

Sounds like a good idea humble. But so sad that you have to do it!

We are being "boxed" today and the boys said hopefully slab tomorrow, but I just looked at the weather forecast and it isn't too good!!! Just our luck!!

gabster · Sep 17, 2012 11:06 pm

ma2531

gabster

Our frames have started to go up!! Refer to blog for more details!
Its amazing how fast PD is working on our site! Sorry for all those who haven't made progress on your building, maybe our tradies are heading over to yours sometime next week!

Well, our independent supervisor had a look at our slab after its been poured and he's said that all is level and the slab was within tolerable range. Im wonder what this range is, anyone have any ideas?

Also, I've noticed that some of the outlet pipes or down pipe usually have a tape over it. Im worried that some of them may have been broken off or damaged during the build. What is it gets clogged up during the whole building process? I've read on the forum that some people are finding that AFTER they've moved into the house, their toilets get clogged, and their showers are not working etc.
Any suggestions how I can prevent this from happening, or rather, should I get someone to go check on the pipes now?!

Finally, with the solar hot water panels. We have ours drawn on the drawings facing the Western sun.
From some research I believe the system should be facing a Northern sun preferably. Would the solar panel guys coming out know what to do or will they just mount it to whatever specs the drawings have done?!

hi gabster, we were told by our inderpendent inspector that 6mm was the tolerable range, ours was 10mm out in certain areas. its been a abousolte headache trying to get it straight before they laid the tiles. Thankgod we have a good s/s and he was not prepared to lay tiles down until it was right.

hi ma2531
would you know if they have to prep the slab for any uneven areas before they lay Balero laminate flooring?
Im assuming you raised the issue with your s/s for him to have known?
Your house looks Awesome btw! Im a regular on the blog as well!

humble · Sep 18, 2012 12:18 am

gabster

hi ma2531
would you know if they have to prep the slab for any uneven areas before they lay Balero laminate flooring?
Im assuming you raised the issue with your s/s for him to have known?
Your house looks Awesome btw! Im a regular on the blog as well!

When it rains.. go out and take a look. You will see the puddles.

We had a big one in the master bedroom. Lucky it was carpet.

michaelrezk · Sep 18, 2012 8:58 am

Quote:

Yes we will be doing us with the PD contactor after handover, if you contact Programmed Property Services at Clayton Road they will give you a drawing, there is some grass in addition to the plants, we will be upgrading to exposed aggregate, they only do Boral for which we have to pay extra in addition to what we have paid PD. Let me know how much they quote you.

Hey J& C I have asked PD not to do the landscape and they have accepted.
The contractor wouldn't reply to emails after I sent my plans which I found a bit rude and therefore its there loss not mine.

cinderella_375 · Sep 18, 2012 12:59 pm

Yay! We've been slabbed. Updates on the blog

monkeypantz · Sep 18, 2012 2:10 pm

cinderella_375

Yay! We've been slabbed. Updates on the blog

Hooray, you finally got there!

Hopefully you're seeing a frame soon

Marto54 · Sep 18, 2012 7:32 pm

I've just spoken to a sales person from Porter Davis in length and they told me that they don't offer external decking or solid timber flooring on their builds??

The decking I can deal with and obviously have completed after handover. Solid timber floor needs to go down before kitchen etc, so you get the perfect finish (which you can't get with pre-finished timber / bamboo - don't get me started on the timber edging they use around kitchen fixtures!). They won't even let me bring my own guys in to do it during the build either.

Can anyone who's built with PD confirm or deny whether this information is correct?

Cheers..

KimBrunoPD · Sep 18, 2012 8:08 pm

Hi Guys,

We have spent the last 12 mths reading these forums as we wait to take the next step and do a knock down and re-build in Ascot Vale with PD. Time has come for us to join and provide info for the people looking to take the next step :-)

The process has been tough, stressful and disappointing with Portr Davis to date but I am a believer that things may turn around. ::lol::

Can someone let me know about the 6 star energy rating? Does this add much to your base price?

Apparently as we have upgraded some things we may be charged extra, originally they mentioned that the orientation could mean we incur costs but I presume that the inclusion of 6 star ratings in the base price will cover this?

Thanks guys

J & C · Sep 18, 2012 8:19 pm

michaelrezk

Quote:

Yes we will be doing us with the PD contactor after handover, if you contact Programmed Property Services at Clayton Road they will give you a drawing, there is some grass in addition to the plants, we will be upgrading to exposed aggregate, they only do Boral for which we have to pay extra in addition to what we have paid PD. Let me know how much they quote you.

Hey J& C I have asked PD not to do the landscape and they have accepted.
The contractor wouldn't reply to emails after I sent my plans which I found a bit rude and therefore its there loss not mine.

Hi Michael

We are in the same boat , the so called project mangers at this contractor do not reply to emails, or return calls (I've left 'n' number of messages). Finally when I manged to get hold of them they informed me that they deal only with the SS and when the SS gives them a go ahead they will do the job.

We are keen on doing the driveway and landscaping with the builder (even though we are paying a premium price), we want to do minimum amount of work on the house externally as like most houses our house has been built using waffle slabs. I found the link below on this forum.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=51843&p=836903&hilit=slab+movement#p836903

But the driveway is the last thing on our mind as our SS has to resolve some construction related issues from our final private inspection report.

J & C · Sep 18, 2012 8:22 pm

To all those that have had their final private inspection...How long does it take for PD to resolve issues raised in the report.

We submitted the report to our SS today...

mitroff · Sep 18, 2012 8:43 pm

cinderella_375

Yay! We've been slabbed. Updates on the blog

Woo Hoo !!!
Things finally started happening

Good luck

Now before you know it, the frame will be up

KimBrunoPD · Sep 18, 2012 8:50 pm

mynewlife

We have just signed up to build the Sandarah and I am very excited. Now we have all the fun of making sure we have included everything we want in our house.
I am trying to make myself a budget and trying to get an idea of costs.
Electricals is the one area I have no idea about. I have been looking at everyone's blogs to get an idea. I am trying to understand what the Electrical packs are and what they offer. When I look at other peoples blogs, they talk about Fibre packs. Is it something that we will probably need?

How did you go with the electricals? We are building the Sandarah and have our appointment in a few days...

Have you started your build?

Team PD · Sep 18, 2012 10:37 pm

Marto54

I've just spoken to a sales person from Porter Davis in length and they told me that they don't offer external decking or solid timber flooring on their builds??

The decking I can deal with and obviously have completed after handover. Solid timber floor needs to go down before kitchen etc, so you get the perfect finish (which you can't get with pre-finished timber / bamboo - don't get me started on the timber edging they use around kitchen fixtures!). They won't even let me bring my own guys in to do it during the build either.

Can anyone who's built with PD confirm or deny whether this information is correct?

Cheers..

Hi Marto54,
Are you able to send me a private message with your contact details so I can look further into this for you?
Cheers, Helen

sencillez · Sep 18, 2012 11:33 pm

monkeypantz

Thanks Wateman, I find it really strange. You'd think that if it was standard they'd at least take a little more care with the brickwork up there

hi monkeypantz, we found the same issue during PCI. looks like the mortar is overflowing in between the bricks. SS said they will clean it up, I hope they do

On a separate note, we also found that the top of the internal doors were not painted. SS said those are not required.

Mikey_Harrison · Sep 19, 2012 12:48 am

J & C

To all those that have had their final private inspection...How long does it take for PD to resolve issues raised in the report.

We submitted the report to our SS today...

Hey J & C

I think we were about 2 - 4 waiting after submitting the last inspection report where it felt like nothing was happening. Esp when you look though the windows and see the same issues. But 2 were completed post handover (within a week) and I guess lots happens that you just dont see.

The only think I can say that may help was the our PCI was on the 20th and we thought 2 - 3 weeks to resolve everything but they wanted to hand over by EOM to make their targets so it was a week ! So if your PCI is in the back end of the month, plan maybe for handover that month too.

We had a week between final PCI and key ceremony.

Thanks
Mikey