Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Aug 09, 2011 11:21 am Hey All. We have recently finished building with Bentley Homes in the Laurimar Estate, in Doreen Vic, and we thought we would share our experiences with them. When we first went in to the display house we had a deposit on a piece of land, but didn't have much time to decide if we wanted to purchase it (it was a sloping block, so had to try and find a builder that would build on it). After getting the run around from another builder, we where only left with a couple of days to decide what to do. We spoke to the sales person in the display house, and he was very, very informative and knowledgeable. We where honestly surprised at how much he knew and how he was able to look at the block and tell us exactly how the house could be built (we later found out that he was actually the engineer at Bentley). He organised to get drawings of the site and house and purposed layout for us by the Tuesday or Wednesday that week (we where looking through the house on a Sunday). True to his word we had them all and where VERY happy with what we saw. So we decided on the land and on the house with Bentley (we decided on the Brando). We then started dealing with a sales consultant at another site (in Mernda) who would help us through the customisations we wanted to make to the house and all the other questions. We had a fair few customisations including, having the garage stepped down from the rest of the house, changing the location of the Rumpus and Alfresco, modifying the Rumpus to be suitable as a theatre room, full smart wiring throughout the house, sound system and in-rood speakers, as well as upgrades to heating, cooling, tiles, kitchen etc. Again, we where very impressed with this sales consultant, who was very understanding, helpful and explained everything fully. When we where happy we paid the deposit and went onto the next stage, including the colour selections and contracts. Before we got to the colour selection we where sent a document from Bentley which detailed all our options and available selections. this made it far easier to go into the colour selection as we already had a good idea on what we wanted. We also visited a Austral Bricks location to help us choose the bricks.So going into the appointment (which occurred on the 20/06/2010, the same day we settled on our land) we where already well informed, but the options where still immense. However, the office consultant who was there was very nice and patient and gave us good advice and suggestions on our selections. Happy with that we left the colour selection for a meeting with the company that was going to do all our Smart wiring and sound system. Once we where done there, they passed all the info onto Bentley for us, which made it much easier for us. Between the colour selection and contract signing we where still making slight changes to the tender and drawings to get it just right. They where still very happy to make the changes for us, and very helpful. At contracts everything was very well explained at the meetings and, we very excitedly, signed away to get our house built. There was a lot of pages to initial and variations to sign, but we had it the way we wanted. After this came the waiting. As with all builders, after contract signing it takes a little while for all paper work to be done, documents checked, contractors organised etc. before the site works started and the building began. This was an anxious time for us as we just wanted it to be finished NOW and we could move in.But, on the 20/10/2010 the ground was broken at the site and it was on it's way. From there we very quickly had a slab and the frame up. We hit a bit of a snag with the bricks just before Christmas (apparently they weren't available until Mid to late Feb) but we had our hearts set on those bricks so we agreed to wait it out. Very quickly after the bricks arrived in Feb, the bricking was all done, and we where at lockup. The plasterboard then went in, but then the build seemed to slow a little. We couldn't see much happening, but we knew it was. after another month or so we had all the kitchen and Bathroom in and it was looking good. The carpet and tiling was soon in and all was looking good. The build had so far been very painless and had flowed really well. We where very happy. We decided to have a walk through with the SS and we noticed a few items which weren't quite right (incorrect sinks and taps, incorrect fan, missing wiring etc.) but he very quickly had those sorted.After this we ran into some problems which slowed the build right down. The front of our house required a coloured concrete driveway as well as matching coloured concrete stairs. Our SS was having a hard time finding contractors willing to take the time to do the stairs. When he was finally able to get a contractor, it was a while before he was able to come in and complete the stairs. But after a month or so of waiting, the stairs where finally in. It was at this stage, now that we could get tot he front door, we noticed a problem with the front door being very bowed which would allow a lot of air to escape. We reported this tot he SS as soon as we noticed it. To this stage we where very happy with Bentley and they had done a fantastic job on the house. The house was really well made and construction had been hassle and headache free. The finishing touches where done to the house, including the outside painting (which we requested to be redone as the first time it was done it was a poorly done job, with many places that where missed) we had the final inspection of the house. While most of the issues we had noticed had been fixed, nothing had been done about the front door issue which we had raised 4 weeks previously. We also noticed that the house and windows were fairly dirty, making it hard to really note any faults or issues with the house. But we decided on the day to accept the house, on the condition that the front door was fixed, the ceiling was completely repainted, and that an issue with the oven range-hood was fixed the next day. So, the day after handover, we got the appliances installed, and while they where there the Rangehood was fixed and the ceiling was repainted. However the front door was unable to be fixed. This was a large annoyance as it had been an issue which was raised weeks prior but nothing had been done about them. So it was promised a new door would be order to replace it, but this would take 2 or 3 weeks. We then did a big clean of the house, and in the process noticed more issues. The first we noticed was that the main tiling throughout the house was defective. At least 40 tiles through the house where either cracked, chipped, or had a defective edge. Not to mention several cracked and broken tiles in a toilet which had sharp edges.We then also noticed that most Windows through the house where scratched, some with only a small scratch or 2, but others with a large amount of scratches.We also had problems with poor painting on feature walls inside and outside (no straight edges, not painted to corners of walls, patchy and generally not looking professionally finished), scratched Mirrors, Shower leaking water (the door is bowed in the middle and doesn't contact the frame, but I am told this won't cause the water leaks), and other finishing details which weren't satisfactory. As soon as we noticed things like this, which are obviously things which need to be fixed before maintenance, we have contacted the site supervisor to try and got him to try and resolve these issues. It's now been 8 weeks since we have taken handover and we are still struggling to get these issues fixed. The front door has only in the last week or 2 been replaced and the frame fixed, but we still haven't had the other issues resolved. We are still in contact with our SS and his manager in regards to these issues, but they are wanting to defer getting these things fixed until maintenance, and are even purposing bring the maintenance period forward. All up, Bentley homes does build good house and are a good builder. The houses are of really good quality, and are well made. The process as a whole is relatively pain and trouble free.However, when it comes to the finishing of the house they do seem to drop the ball a little. The finishing doesn't really live up to the rest of the house. It is also a bit of a pain trying to get the issues resolved after handover, as everything is tried to be pushed over onto the Maintenance. All up I would recommend Bentley to anyone who is looking at building. I would just caution them to take note of the finishing at the end and really keep on top of it to avoid problems being drawn out. Re: Bentley Homes (Vic) - Our experience 2Aug 31, 2011 11:54 am Msolok, Bentley homes have a very good reputation for quality built homes and excellent workmanship, I can understand you are dissapointed with the issues you are having at the moment, hopefully Bentley will get things sorted out quickly for you and uphold their excellent reputation. Please keep us updated on progress. A bank is a place that will lend you money only if you can prove that you don't need it... Re: Bentley Homes (Vic) - Our experience 3Aug 31, 2011 3:14 pm Buttercup Msolok, Bentley homes have a very good reputation for quality built homes and excellent workmanship, I can understand you are dissapointed with the issues you are having at the moment, hopefully Bentley will get things sorted out quickly for you and uphold their excellent reputation. Please keep us updated on progress. No question, the house itself is of high quality and made well. On the whole we are happy with however the build has gone, but the frustrations with the finishing at the end is a bit of a let down. It's not so much the fact that there are faults with our house (this is inevitable), but more that it took Bentley so long to respond and resolve our issues (waiting 9 weeks to get the front door fixed, after we told them about the issue 4 weeks before handover, is a long time to wait for such an issue. Not to mention the cracked, sharp toilet tiles). As of yesterday the faulty tiles have all been replaced, which is a big relief. With that out of the way, one of the big issues which we have, which has been really hampering our ability to live in the house (have had to have move much of our furniture out of the way and into other rooms in order to be able to get the tiles replaced, and that took around 2-3 weeks to get finished), has been resolved, so will be easier for us. We have out maintenance inspection on Monday, so we will hopefully get a timeline on getting the rest of our issues fixed then. I'm hoping that it won't take them too long to fix all the problems. They already know about some of our problems, so hopefully they will be ready to get going on them and get them sorted. Will give an update once we have the inspection. Re: Bentley Homes (Vic) - Our experience 4Sep 05, 2011 4:00 pm We had our maintenance inspection today, and the Maintenance Manger is really nice. He was very willing to look for all the faults, not just let us point them out, which is a refreshing change. We had gone through the house over the last couple of days and have used little coloured stickers to mark our paint defects. We then wrote a list of the other issues, so we would remember everything we had an issue with. He was happy to list everything we had as a defect. I think there was only 1 thing which was put down as being for investigation (which was the shower door which is bowed and leaks water, and that's because he has to see what the company says. And the stange marks on both shower doors). We have to organise 2-3 days that they can come in in a couple of weeks and do work, and 2-3 days a week or so later. At that stage the Mainteance Supervisor will come back out and do another inspoection with us and come up with a more manageable list of defects and take it from there. At the end of the inspection he said that the list which we had come up with was much longer than they usually get for places. He has said that they are currently reviewing the finishing stages when they are building and at how they can get better quality and less defects from them. So, hopefully Bentley Homes is able to work out these kinks and get the finishing stages working much better so as not to have these little hiccups in the future. Then they will truely be doing their houses justice. I will give another update once we get some more work going here. Re: Bentley Homes (Vic) - Our experience 5Sep 05, 2011 4:05 pm deb17 The maintenance guys are here painting, they have done a brilliant job. I can't believe how much of a difference it has made, they are so handy, fixing tiles, painting. We couldn't be happier with their work and also Bentley for checking over the whole house, even things that wern't listed, they still checked everything. Sounding good Deb. Hopefully they get all your problems fixed up quickly! Re: Bentley Homes (Vic) - Our experience 6Sep 27, 2011 10:18 am We had the maintenance guys out last Thursday and Friday. They have been great, very friendly and obviously know exactly what they are doing and how to do a good jobs. So far we have had the shower doors replaced, a mirror measured up to be replaced, the heater vent in the bathroom moved to the correct location (this was done by the heating company, not Bentley, and they clearly did not want to do it and grumbled the whole time. Even threated to leave us with a hole in our roof), the 6 WIndows measured up to be replaced, and patching of some walls ready to be repainted. There is still a huge amount left for them to do, and they are due back this Thursday and Friday. My feelings are that everything won't be done then, as there is simply too much left. Looks like they will need to come back for another inspection with us and some mroe days work. It feels good that this stuff is finally being addressed and resolved. It's been a long time since handover, but it's finally underway and getting resolved. So we are happy Re: Bentley Homes (Vic) - Our experience 7Sep 27, 2011 9:08 pm I also built a Brando with Bentley. I understand I have a different SS and am in a different suburb (though not far away) than Msolok and Deb. It's possible therefore that different trades were used for my house. My experience with the sales end wasn't particularly good and I very nearly walked away because I simply didn't trust the sales person, who did tend to waste a fair bit of my time looking at things that clearly didn't fit the description of what I had asked for, and she did her best to create a false sense of urgency. However, that's where my criticism of Bentley ends. In stark contrast to most of the experiences I read about on here, my relationship with Bentley vastly improved after I had signed on the dotted line. The customer service person was patient, helpful without being pushy, extremely efficient and honest. There was no attempt to up-sell, but anything we asked for could be accommodated. Through her efficiency in processing the paperwork and permits site works started much sooner that I had thought possible. The SS was equally as patient and honest and really took the time to make sure I was comfortable and feeling reassured about everything. I didn't really need to bring anything to his attention he simply took care of it. As an example, based on the soil tests after the contract the slab had to be upgraded. I didn't have to ask for this, and there was never any mention of any additional cost, it was simply and cheerfully upgraded. In fact the price at contract is the price I paid at completion, there were no unexpected costs or claims at all. The build proceeded at good pace, and was completed in less than half the contract period. We were the second house to slab in the release, but the first one to finish and by a good margin. We spent more than 4 hours pouring over the house at PCI while the SS cheerfully walked with us supplying dots. We submitted what I thought was a pretty ambitious list of things to be done, including requesting an additional power point be added at no charge, but they were all done and done thoroughly. For example we asked that some wood stain be cleaned off a couple of bricks, the SS wasn't happy with the results of the clean, so when we came back for the settlement inspection we found they had been replaced, cleaned a third time and the area indistinguishable for the rest of the wall. I was pretty demanding about when appliances could be delivered and commissioned given my working hours. I fully expected there would be delays as a result of this, but there were none. We've now been in for 7 weeks and, while there are a few items of maintenance populating our list for the 90 day inspection, these are relatively minor. I haven't discovered any issues at all with the tiling or grout (in fact the tiles still make me smile when I come home from work), nor have I noticed a scratch on any window or door (and I have cleaned them after reading Deb's and Ms' comments just to be sure). I'm a sceptical person by nature, and went into this build expecting to come up against delays, unplanned for costs, or other issues. But at every stage Bentley have either met or exceeded their promise. Lets compare the level of service to say, I dunno, Telstra. Bentley build a house in 16 weeks. Telstra have taken 7 weeks to connect a phone line, and the internet connection is still yet to appear. Matt's Brando: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=46340 Started March 30th 2011 PCI July 15th Re: Bentley Homes (Vic) - Our experience 8Sep 28, 2011 12:49 pm deb17 Hi Matt, Scratches and marks on windows, I believe is very common, I know others around here that have had most of their windows replaced. The suppliers drop them off too early, therefore they are left outside in all types of weather. Yours were probably put in as soon as they arrived or had plastic on them. Ours had plastic on some of them, but were left on the slab for over a week in the rain. My Brother In Law is a glazier, he said that the toughened glass scratches very easily, the ones that are being replaced are some of the sliders, that are made of toughened glass. It does seem fairly common, yes. I know that ours did not have any plastic on them, and they where in before our roof was on. So they where there for a fair while without protection. We have had to have all 3 of the sliders for the Alfresco replaced, as all where significantly scratched. At the same time, we are needing touchups to our windows Power coating. A lot of the Windows have scratches in the power coating which need to be patched up. That's ben an ongoing issue we have been trying to get sorted since day dot. Re: Bentley Homes (Vic) - Our experience 9Sep 30, 2011 6:19 pm Today was the 4th day that we had Bentley homes out to do maintenance on our place. This was supposed to be all the time they needed to fix our defect list. To say we are disappointed is a bit of an understatement. In the end they appear to have mainly concentrated on the paint defects and very little else. While most of the paint defects around the house have been fixed up, they have missed a few and made there are some where they have done the touchups. They haven't touched any of the defects outside. I understand that the past 2 days have been very wet and windy in Melbourne so not much could have been done, they had 2 great days last week with full sun and little wind to do the stuff. To be totally honest, where some touchups and Fix ups have been done, the work looks amateur at best. In many places it is clearly visible where they have worked on something, or fixed something, or painted something. Makes it look worse than it did originally. Other than the paint touchups, none of the larger issues have dealt with. They haven't even looked at the faulty grout in the wet areas, still haven't had the scratched Mirror or Windows replaced, the remaining tiles fixed, tiles around shower haven't been fixed (there is a bit on our shower base which should be tiled where they have just out silicon) and more. In a couple of days it will be 4 months since we took handover. We are really wondering how much longer it will be until these issues, which should have been fixed immediately, are resolved. Re: Bentley Homes (Vic) - Our experience 10Oct 01, 2011 7:02 pm Bentley seem to be on the ball when it comes to fixing any problems. Hopefully we don't have many dramas when it comes to building our home. A bank is a place that will lend you money only if you can prove that you don't need it... Re: Bentley Homes (Vic) - Our experience 11Oct 01, 2011 9:37 pm deb17 We are nearing the end of our maintenance, the paint work looks great now. Maybe, you havn't had your second coat yet, I am sure that they will give it another coat, once everything is dry and they can see how it came up. We cant see, where they have re-painted, it honestly looks perfect now. We had our windows done yesterday and are very happy with them, have yours been measured yet? Beaumont are coming out to look at the grout in our wet areas, the grout in the rest of the house is perfect, I do believe the grout we chose for the wet areas is a problem, hopefully they will be able to do something with them. We were really happy with the guys that worked at our house, they went out of their way, to ensure that we were happy with the end result. I hope you can get everything resolved, i'm sure that Bentley will get through your list as quickly as possible. We were lucky that we were home and they could come any day to do the work, so we got through our jobs quickly, we felt very comfortable with them in our home and often left them here and went out, which was a relief to us, not to have different people here fixing things. The comment from the guys as thy where leaving on Friday was they just needed to come back to redo the ceiling and the front door and they will be finished the maintenance items. This is obviously not true as they have only really done some Of the paint defects (from what we can see thy have done the easier ones to fix, and tried to ignore the more complex), but ignored the other items on the maintenance list. We have spoken to the Maintenance manager and he has commented that he is Sosa outer with this. He hasn't been able to get out and look at anything, but from what he had been told they had gotten a lot on the list done. He has said he will obviously have to come out and discuss with us what to do now. From our point of view we have given 4 months to get many of these issues resolved, with people having to sit around waiting for trades to turn up. As me and my Partner both work, getting days where someone can be there is difficult and costly (we lose pay for not being at work). We are getting frustrated with the run arounds we are getting, and feel like we are going around in circles and really not getting far. We really do hope these issues are sorted soon, but we won't be holding our breaths for it. Re: Bentley Homes (Vic) - Our experience 12Oct 12, 2011 9:17 pm Had the meeting with the maintenance manager today. We went around the house and worked through the maintenance list. He used the list that the maintenance guys had used (and crossed out just about everything as complete). I could see on his face as we went around that he knew how bad it has now gotten. He could see that some stuff had tried to be fixed, but had only been half completed, done sloppily or made it worse.
The water damage we have to the plaster boards on the ceiling in the Alfresco is getting worse and the plasterboard is starting to rip. In the end he was very apologetic and did say he was disappointed at the results, but simply asked for 2 more days to complete it. There is no way it can be done in 2 days. I have pointed out to him that we have provided constant access to our house now for the last 4 and a half months, had to take (or manage to find someone to sit around at our lace) for over 15 days now (which is 15 days of lost income), and have had to live in what can only be described as construction site conditions. It has gotten beyond a joke and we are completely over it. Add to this the fact we have been back around to the display house and have found items which have been finished far poorer in ours, and not to spec. We really feel like we are taking 1 step forward and 2 steps back. Our impression of Bentley Homes is getting worse and worse by the day. They do make a structurally well built house, but the finishing is no where near good enough. Poor painting, poor attention to detail, fail to be able to follow the plans, and inability to resolve the issues in any sort if reasonable time frame. Honestly, we feel we have been severly let down. Re: Bentley Homes (Vic) - Our experience 14Oct 20, 2011 6:09 am I would like to apologize for my previous comments. It appears that some offense was taken from them, which was not my intention. My intention is simply to document our experience and feelings as they occur. I would also like to take this time to reiterate that these are simply our feelings, experiences and impressions. It is by no means a representation of what everyone may experience with Bentley Homes, but merely our experience as we are going. Today and Tomorrow we have the maintenance guys back to try and finish off the work. It has been acknowledged that it is doubtful that everything will be able to be completed in these 2 days.so they will be concentrating on the issues inside and will be coming back at another stage to deal with the stuff outside (as no one needs to be home for this). We are already aware of a few issues which won't be addressed, so we will continue to investigate and review our options with these. Re: Bentley Homes (Vic) - Our experience 15Oct 20, 2011 8:17 am Purely speculating on what may have inspired your last post.. But in MY opinion - I think it's poor form when companies try to censor people from posting their own opinions and experiences on the internet. To me it shows they have something to hide, and potential customers, especially in an industry where there is a lot of money on the line, deserve to see both sides of the coin. The good AND the bad. Working for a company in a different industry, but also with a web presence, I know that bad public feedback can be quite damaging, but trying to censor it is poor form. Instead it should be up to the business to change the customers opinion, within reason. Re: Bentley Homes (Vic) - Our experience 16Oct 20, 2011 8:39 am Wateman Purely speculating on what may have inspired your last post.. But in MY opinion - I think it's poor form when companies try to censor people from posting their own opinions and experiences on the internet. To me it shows they have something to hide, and potential customers, especially in an industry where there is a lot of money on the line, deserve to see both sides of the coin. The good AND the bad. Working for a company in a different industry, but also with a web presence, I know that bad public feedback can be quite damaging, but trying to censor it is poor form. Instead it should be up to the business to change the customers opinion, within reason. + 1 Couldn't agree more... A bank is a place that will lend you money only if you can prove that you don't need it... Re: Bentley Homes (Vic) - Our experience 17Nov 25, 2011 1:39 pm So, it's been a while since my last post. We have been going backwads and forwards with the builder trying to get our list of defects resolved. We had what we are hoping was the last day of maintenance yesterday, but we have yet to inspect the work. We are going to look through over the weekend and see what it is like. There are still a few other things we are in dispute with with the builder. I will gve an update once I heard back from them in regards to what will and what won't be done. We can't wait for all this to be over. It's been a very long time to get these things done. We had our maintenance inspection back on the 2/09/2011 and we ae still having the maintenance guys over to fix stuff brought up back then. It's taken so long and been such a stress on us. Re: Bentley Homes (Vic) - Our experience 18Nov 25, 2011 1:54 pm Sending you my sympathies .. it will be wonderful when it's all done and you don't have to deal with the builder anymore. You're nearly there ... understand a little of what you're going through For info on our build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43093 Built the McLaren by Dechellis - slab down 22 Feb - handover 30 Aug 2011 - and gardens finished 9 Dec 2012!! Re: Bentley Homes (Vic) - Our experience 19Nov 27, 2011 9:56 pm Mclaren Sending you my sympathies .. it will be wonderful when it's all done and you don't have to deal with the builder anymore. You're nearly there ... understand a little of what you're going through Thank Maclaren. It will be wonderful once we get there, but sadly still not there yet. We have gone over what the builder has done, and as expected there are still things which need to be fixed up. Will speak to the Maintenance Manager tomorrow about them. Re: Bentley Homes (Vic) - Our experience 20Dec 28, 2011 10:29 am Just a quick update on how we are going. Most of the maintenance items are now completed, but there are still some items they have to come back and fix properlly (like sanding the front door frame before putting on the gloss coat in order to remove all the bumps and cracks, and repairing the roof sarking which has been ripped in a huge amount of places during the build). We are still in dispute with the builder in regards to the tile grout in the Bathroom and Powder Room, which when you try cleaning it with water and a scrub brush the grout is coming out (to which we have been told not to clean the tiles with a scrub brush.....). And in regards to our driveway which our contracts lists as being 'Colour-On Concrete' and they have simply used a paving paint to colour it (which, as we understand it, as not the same thing. Plus the paving paint is peeling off the driveway in a large amount of areas). So we are still working through the issues with this place, which considering we took Handover in June and the maintenance inspection was in September, seems to us like a very long time. Will provide an update once more happens here! 11 40687 3 47365 I apologise for any confusion, but your understanding is correct. We approached our situation differently based on advice from… 11 53172 |