Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Feb 08, 2012 9:49 pm Hi All, I'm building with HBC and I am finding that there is no work done on site at all for days. The brickwork was all done fast and good, but since then it just so slow. We had the roof framing done over 2 days and then no one else was at the site, Wed, Thursday or Friday last week, then on Monday they did the pre-plumbing and electrics and again nothing since Monday. So that is 3 days working out of the last 8 working days. This seems crazy to me and I am just wondering if this is normal? Thanks Amanda Re: No work on site for days 2Feb 08, 2012 10:00 pm Seems absolutely normal to me! Frustrating..but normal.......... have a look through some threads on here......some people have gone months without any work being done! Our building thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=51657 Re: No work on site for days 3Feb 08, 2012 10:10 pm Are you baiting us here Amanda I Reckon ours would be finished if 3 out of 8 working days were worked! As Eiffel said, completely the norm on most builds. Dribs and drabs, then nothing for days, weeks, months even. If you're lucky, you'll get a run on where work is done every day for a week. Having said that, there some builds that just fly up in a few months! We had a slab for three months, scrape for two before that and my build has nothing on the slowness of some others here Really, I think it comes down what other jobs are on, how many your builders are doing and where the tradies are next directed to go etc. BTW, HOPE YOURS IS ONE THE FAST ONES Re: No work on site for days 4Feb 08, 2012 10:16 pm Thanks for the replies. I wasn't baiting Mike...just can't believe how bad they are. And being in a new estate getting really frustrated seeing houses started so much later flying up and over-taking ours! Sadly feel better knowing everyone has the same frustrations! Don't know how those with long delays do it! Re: No work on site for days 5Feb 08, 2012 10:22 pm Let me get this straight - you've had your frame go up and plumbing/electrical prep (was that the actual rough-ins as well?) completed since the beginning of last week and you're complaining? Seriously? To be honest this is why I think it's a bad idea to be checking the house each and every single day, which I know is hard if you are living next door/across the road or drive past it on your normal daily commute. It's much more satisfying to go once a week or so to give things time to move along and seeing the changes since your previous visit, rather than checking every day and getting depressed when you don't see any activity for a few days running - sometimes when we see something has been done we head up again a few days later to see how it looks when it has been finished. In general your progress depends on when they can get the contractors in - it's not like the next one is always on hand to start working immediately as soon as the previous one has finished for everything that needs to be done, as much as we would like it to be. The sticking point is that there are other jobs that are being done at the same time and site supervisors have to perform a bit of a juggling act to get contractors moving between the jobs they are managing - our SS is currently overseeing 19 builds in our area so you can imagine the fun and games he has organising the contractors across all of them but things are still progressing along relatively smoothly (every time we go something new has been or is in the process of being done). There are also regular inspections that happen each time something major is completed and generally speaking no work is done by tradies on the day of an inspection. Another thing that can hold things up is late or incorrect delivery of supplies - this is something that the builder obviously cannot control in the long run as sometimes things are delivered to the wrong site or a supplier has inventory issues so there's nothing that can be done other than wait for the supplier to deliver the (correct) supplies... We all go through the same thing with the ups and downs so don't let it get to you - contractors do want to get through jobs as quick as they can as they generally get paid on a per-job basis, which is why you'll often see them working on the weekend on some houses (so they can start on a new job the following week). It's not that tradies in general are a lazy bunch who just loaf around or take a few days off before moving onto your build (in fact it's quite the opposite), it's just the contractors (who will be) assigned to next task to be completed in your build haven't finished their previous job(s) yet, so don't stress overly much. It's also not a race against everyone else or even a race at all really - I'd much rather wait a bit longer and get a quality build with a high standard of finish than a rushed build that I'm stressing about for months after we have moved in (although the amount of time Mike has had to wait is crap and his builder needs a kick in the backside). Some people apparently have nothing better to do than comment on other people's sigs. Re: No work on site for days 6Feb 09, 2012 11:43 am That is most definitely the norm... as others have said you will get weeks with heaps of activity and then it will slow down for a bit and then pick back up again, it all depends on what contractors/trades are available, what other jobs they have on and how well your SS has things organised. We have had weeks of delays... our current time line stands at Site Scrape 12/12/11, Stormwater and Sewer 23/01/12 and slab to be poured tomorrow 10/02/12 (weather depending) so if you take out the 3 week xmas break it has taken 5 weeks for us to go from site scrape to slab (8 weeks including the break) ... and we were told we would have a slab before xmas! I hope things pick up and get moving for you! Sarah, Andy & Parker - Building Our First Home - Burbank Lamont 2600 Our Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=51696 8 3960 I'll be here once a week, lets make that Mondays. If you have a question, this will be the day I will log in for a look around.. If your lucky, sooner. Ask away...… 0 5424 Block of two storey townhouses requires painting on the roof. A brick parapet wall separates each unit and extends above the tiled roof. The parapet walls require sealing… 0 2818 |