Porter Davis homes

skye02 · Mar 28, 2013 8:31 am

inglewood

skye02

Attended our tender appointment today and everything ran very smoothly. So far so good. Kudos to our sales consultant, our BC and the presenter at head office today.

Glad your tender went well. Ours did too. :wink:

Just had a look at your blog. When did you first sign up with PD? When we had our colours appointment they asked us this and as we signed up in November, we we were able to choose from both caesarstone or essa stone. I think they should have signs up at Hopetoun stating that when they change suppliers the original range is still available for people who signed up before a certain date. It would make it much less confusing (and frustrating!!) for new people who see both options in the showroom and then assume that they can have either.

Hope you can get your caesarstone...

Hi Inglewood! Unfortunately we signed in January so we missed that cut off date. Admittedly i ordered samples of both the white standards in caesar stone & essa stone and they are both very similar so although i "threw a tanty" to begin with im actually not too unhappy with the colours provided.

Mali02 · Mar 28, 2013 9:15 am

skye02

inglewood

skye02

Attended our tender appointment today and everything ran very smoothly. So far so good. Kudos to our sales consultant, our BC and the presenter at head office today.

Glad your tender went well. Ours did too. :wink:

Just had a look at your blog. When did you first sign up with PD? When we had our colours appointment they asked us this and as we signed up in November, we we were able to choose from both caesarstone or essa stone. I think they should have signs up at Hopetoun stating that when they change suppliers the original range is still available for people who signed up before a certain date. It would make it much less confusing (and frustrating!!) for new people who see both options in the showroom and then assume that they can have either.

Hope you can get your caesarstone...

Hi Inglewood! Unfortunately we signed in January so we missed that cut off date. Admittedly i ordered samples of both the white standards in caesar stone & essa stone and they are both very similar so although i "threw a tanty" to begin with im actually not too unhappy with the colours provided.

We too just missed the cutoff. Disappointing but oh well, nothing much we can do!

neilrosh · Mar 28, 2013 11:03 am

We had our contract appointment this week and it went reasonably well. There were a couple of price changes that we were not anticipating - extra bracing on the walls to accommodate extra wall tiles. That was $770. Plus we needed to add R2.5 batts to the external walls to make the house 6 star rated and that was another $660 but at least we get something for our money with the batts (unlike the wall studs).

As expected, there were a number of errors between the drawings and the contract and you need to be diligent in picking those up.

Overall we are fairly happy with how everything went and the PD staff were very patient and accommodating with our requests.

Now we wait for final bank approval with fingers crossed they don't undervalue to contract price.

skye02 · Mar 28, 2013 11:18 am

neilrosh

We had our contract appointment this week and it went reasonably well. There were a couple of price changes that we were not anticipating - extra bracing on the walls to accommodate extra wall tiles. That was $770. Plus we needed to add R2.5 batts to the external walls to make the house 6 star rated and that was another $660 but at least we get something for our money with the batts (unlike the wall studs).

As expected, there were a number of errors between the drawings and the contract and you need to be diligent in picking those up.

Overall we are fairly happy with how everything went and the PD staff were very patient and accommodating with our requests.

Now we wait for final bank approval with fingers crossed they don't undervalue to contract price.

Hi Neilrosh. What extra things did you add to the house to need the extra batts?
I have a 1m extension to a back room and i wonder if this will mean a batt increase.
I am not adding downlights.

Lurgen · Mar 28, 2013 11:30 am

*sigh*

Heading back to Hopetoun for a second attempt at getting my electrical right next week, that should be interesting. My original appointment was severely rushed for both elec and colour so we're hitting all sorts of complications lately. A long drive and big impact to work for what will end up being a 20 minute meeting to fix a handful of items that just don't seem to want to come together without me being there in person.

Oh, and now I'm seeing the same "fixed price contract" anomaly that others have reported. PD found a mistake they'd made from their side and tried hitting me up for more money. I could have sworn that the contract applied equally to them as well as me! Funny though, the mistake is the result of the Hopetoun rush job, so I'm not all that interested in paying any extra cash for it. Should make for a frustrating but interesting debate.

On the bright side my BC is really proving herself lately, deftly managing the nightmare of being the messenger each time the various PD department gives her bad news to deliver. She has stayed professional, focussed and constructive, which I really appreciate.

Brighter still, final drawings are coming next week which puts me less than a month from start!

neilrosh · Mar 28, 2013 12:07 pm

skye02

neilrosh

We had our contract appointment this week and it went reasonably well. There were a couple of price changes that we were not anticipating - extra bracing on the walls to accommodate extra wall tiles. That was $770. Plus we needed to add R2.5 batts to the external walls to make the house 6 star rated and that was another $660 but at least we get something for our money with the batts (unlike the wall studs).

As expected, there were a number of errors between the drawings and the contract and you need to be diligent in picking those up.

Overall we are fairly happy with how everything went and the PD staff were very patient and accommodating with our requests.

Now we wait for final bank approval with fingers crossed they don't undervalue to contract price.

Hi Neilrosh. What extra things did you add to the house to need the extra batts?
I have a 1m extension to a back room and i wonder if this will mean a batt increase.
I am not adding downlights.

The 6 star energy rating can be changed by almost anything. We were told that the display homes are 6 star rated but even the change of orientation to suit your block of land can change the rating. Therefore the energy rating report that comes back for your home will most likely require some sort of upgrade to achieve the 6 star rating again. PD then look at the cheapest options to bring the rating back up to 6 stars. They then look at changes you have made and attribute the required energy upgrade changes and cost to you due to your changes. It's difficult to argue with them as the report does not specify where or how the rating was diminished from the original 6 star rating.

In our case we added a 1m extension to the garage, increased the size of the laundry window and included the Alfresco. We were not overly concerned about including batts in the walls as it was something we were considering anyway and we think it will make our home more energy efficient.

Hope this helps.

joles · Mar 28, 2013 12:12 pm

neilrosh

We had our contract appointment this week and it went reasonably well. There were a couple of price changes that we were not anticipating - extra bracing on the walls to accommodate extra wall tiles. That was $770. Plus we needed to add R2.5 batts to the external walls to make the house 6 star rated and that was another $660 but at least we get something for our money with the batts (unlike the wall studs).

As expected, there were a number of errors between the drawings and the contract and you need to be diligent in picking those up.

Overall we are fairly happy with how everything went and the PD staff were very patient and accommodating with our requests.

Now we wait for final bank approval with fingers crossed they don't undervalue to contract price.

neilrosh, I'm curious about the extra wall bracing for the tiles. We have the same tiles on our floor and walls, 300 x 600 porcelain, so quite heavy tiles and we didn't require extra bracing. :th:

tstr1a · Mar 28, 2013 12:28 pm

neilrosh

We had our contract appointment this week and it went reasonably well. There were a couple of price changes that we were not anticipating - extra bracing on the walls to accommodate extra wall tiles. That was $770. Plus we needed to add R2.5 batts to the external walls to make the house 6 star rated and that was another $660 but at least we get something for our money with the batts (unlike the wall studs).

As expected, there were a number of errors between the drawings and the contract and you need to be diligent in picking those up.

Overall we are fairly happy with how everything went and the PD staff were very patient and accommodating with our requests.

Now we wait for final bank approval with fingers crossed they don't undervalue to contract price.

$770 for wall bracing.. what a rip... its costs under $30.... and take 15 min to do (assuming speed bracing will be used)...... ppppfffftttttt

The wall should be braced to start with.

meowsy · Mar 28, 2013 12:39 pm

Hi all, I'm just looking at the essastone website- can anyone tell me which colours are standard, and part of the current promotion? Thanks!

neilrosh, is that identification easy enough to do as a layperson? What kind of expertise would someone need to make sure everything is ok in that regard?

Mali02 · Mar 28, 2013 12:47 pm

meowsy

Hi all, I'm just looking at the essastone website- can anyone tell me which colours are standard, and part of the current promotion? Thanks!

neilrosh, is that identification easy enough to do as a layperson? What kind of expertise would someone need to make sure everything is ok in that regard?

I got this information from my SC, this was valid as of 1st January 2013.

Cat 1
Crystal Chalk
French Nougat
New Sable Lux
Piazza

Cat 2
New Crystal Salt
New Ciaro
Macchiato
New Chinchilla
Carbon

Cat 3
New Basmati
White Truffle
Porcini
Panna Cotta
Terazzo
French Black
New Byzantine

Cat 4
Dusk
Sorbet
Frappe
Bitter Chocolate
Promenade
Midnight Rendezvous
Galileo

Cat 5
Bone White

You can order free Samples from the Essastone website - http://www.essastone.com.au/

neilrosh · Mar 28, 2013 1:12 pm

Totally agree that the wall bracing is a rip off but what can we do. The cost was to add extra studs to the wall. I quote " Charge is for additional timber studs (300mm centres in lieu of standard 600mm centres) and compressed sheet lining in lieu of standard plaster. Both of these are required due to the extra weight.". We added extra tiles to the walls which effectively saw 2 walls of our ensuite fully tiled.

neilrosh · Mar 28, 2013 1:12 pm

Meowsy what identification are you talking about?

meowsy · Mar 28, 2013 1:20 pm

Neilrosh, sorry, I was referring to this "As expected, there were a number of errors between the drawings and the contract and you need to be diligent in picking those up. "

ftd- thank you, exactly what I was after! I will order some samples.

tstr1a · Mar 28, 2013 1:25 pm

neilrosh

Totally agree that the wall bracing is a rip off but what can we do. The cost was to add extra studs to the wall. I quote " Charge is for additional timber studs (300mm centres in lieu of standard 600mm centres) and compressed sheet lining in lieu of standard plaster. Both of these are required due to the extra weight.". We added extra tiles to the walls which effectively saw 2 walls of our ensuite fully tiled.

at least its done properly, nothing you can do about the price.

Mali02 · Mar 28, 2013 1:26 pm

meowsy

Neilrosh, sorry, I was referring to this "As expected, there were a number of errors between the drawings and the contract and you need to be diligent in picking those up. "

ftd- thank you, exactly what I was after! I will order some samples.

No problems. If you need anything else (or if anyone needs anything else for that matter!) please let me know. I have a stack of spreadsheets with display home colours (benchtops, cupboards, bricks, timber flooring, paint, render) etc that my SC kindly emailed to me

neilrosh · Mar 28, 2013 1:53 pm

[quote="meowsy"]Neilrosh, sorry, I was referring to this "As expected, there were a number of errors between the drawings and the contract and you need to be diligent in picking those up. "

You don't need any particular skill but you do need an eye for detail. You should be able to do it yourself but It takes a bit of time. We had pricing on one list and cross checked that first, and yes there were errors with the pricing. Then we had a construction check list that we ticked off. Some of the frustrating things were that even where we didn't make a change to something, the drawing was incorrect, and in some cases where we did make changes either the contract or the drawings or both were wrong.

Things need to be right on EVERYTHING so cross check your contract specs, colour specs and drawings all say the same thing. As an example, just because the contract specifies glass splash back, the drawing may not so you need to check this. Also, our house has brick as standard above the windows. We upgraded and added brick above the garage so we made sure to check that the garage was drawn correctly. It was, however all of a sudden our windows were drawn with the in-fill stuff. So if you only check things that you changed you may miss something. To give credit to PD, our consultant was helpful in also identifying some errors.

The tiled niche in our ensuite was drawn in at about hip height. Our BC picked that up and asked if we wanted it that low. Of course we didn't, but I doubt we would have picked that error up and we would have been stuck with niche about 3 foot off the ground!

meowsy · Mar 28, 2013 2:04 pm

neilrosh, wow, I see what you mean. It is this kind of stuff that makes me nervous! Can you take the contract and drawings away to have some time to do all of that? Thanks for posting, I hope I will remember to refer to this post when I get to that point....

neilrosh · Mar 28, 2013 2:07 pm

meowsy

neilrosh, wow, I see what you mean. It is this kind of stuff that makes me nervous! Can you take the contract and drawings away to have some time to do all of that? Thanks for posting, I hope I will remember to refer to this post when I get to that point....

I was pretty nervous too and in fact we took my Mum with us because nothing gets past her :lol:

They would not let us take the contract away no matter how much of a hissy fit you want to throw.

meowsy · Mar 28, 2013 2:29 pm

neilrosh, ok thanks so much. I will take my Dad who is an engineer by trade to cast a sharp eye over everything.

skye02 · Mar 29, 2013 5:39 pm

I know this has been previously discussed but what agreements have people come to with PD regarding skirting boards when doing flooring post handover? I've been told they will provide uncut, unpainted and outfitted skirts.