Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jun 08, 2012 9:58 pm Well I thought I better get on board with the new age of information sharing and start a thread to document our journey and to hear about other builds progress also. So Sunday we will be paying the $3000 deposit to kick things off with the Stroud 30 with an additional 1m stretched out the back. Came very close to going with MJH Monaco but the quality of Rawson’s inclusions just blew MJH out of the water. So I guess the 120 day count down starts now, and our land is not registered yet I spoke with Julie at the selection centre and she was very helpful at putting my mind at ease regarding standard selection choices and upgrades. Paul, at the display homes Waterford County, has been sensational. So I think next we get some type of final tender? and/or contract to sign and some prelim plans to approve prior to Council, my wife knows all those details, being a building inspector for Council I am more focused on the construction side of things and my wife being an accountant will do the math. Any advice on how you have gone with Rawson would be appreciated. Re: Rawson Homes - the adventure begins 2Jun 10, 2012 5:09 pm OK, $3000 paid and the ball is rolling. All seems to be going to plan so far. Met Tarsha today up at Waterford County, so it was good to meet anther member of "Team Rawson" RA RA RA, and she was not there to attack Paul so I can only assume that her project is still going smoothly. One thing I discovered today while I was dumping all out MJH tenders was they advertise 2 coats of Taubmans Endure interior paint, first coat sprayed (booo) and second coat rolled. When we went to the selection centre we were told that for an additional $2600 they would do 3 coats of paint, top coat rolled, in Taubmans Living Proof Silk. Now I rang Taubmans info line today and even the guy at Taubmans said the Living proof Silk was budget paint and we should always go with the Endure as it has a 15 year warranty. So MJH will charge you and additional $2600 for and extra SPRAYED coat of an inferior paint. FAIL FAIL FAIL. I just hope that all the promises from Rawson turn out. All indications so far are positive and have no complaints.....yet So what next?.............I suspect we need to make sure all promises and extras are noted on the plans and in the contract or final tender? We understand that the price will still vary at colour selections but I don’t want to leave it till construction to be questioning inclusions we thought we included. Being in the building certification industry it’s hard for me to get too pumped up yet as its all numbers and paperwork. Will see what happens next. Re: Rawson Homes - the adventure begins 3Jun 10, 2012 5:46 pm Congrats!!! We are yet to find any surprises with Rawson! They've been excellent with all our variations and changes to plans. We're a week or two from starting, so can't comment on the building part, but the paperwork part has been smooth! Hope everything goes well for you, and look forward to seeing your place progress Built the Seaview 36 with Rawson Homes - Read about it on my blog http://lamaisondemorgan.blogspot.com.au/ Re: Rawson Homes - the adventure begins 4Jun 11, 2012 9:01 am Thanks Smorgzzz, so have you done colours yet. how did that go? So have you signed the contract? So at what point does every little detail get noted? I understand that floor plan and anything structural needs to be finalised prior to Council but what about the little things like ducted exhaust fans to bathrooms and no tiles to kitchen splashbacks ect Re: Rawson Homes - the adventure begins 5Jun 11, 2012 9:37 am We have done our colours, contracts signed, we're just waiting on the bank to finalise things and we're good to go, so hopefully dirt will start being moved within the next 2 weeks! We noted some variations at our tender appointment, and then the rest was added in along the way, somethings were just emailed in as we got plans (things like windows rotated as we didn't want horizontal windows) and then the rest was done at the colour appointment. All the floor plans & structural changes were required for council, and then we had our electrical appointment, so then you can change power points, add exhaust fans etc etc and they don't do the tile selection until you're nearing lock up, because they don't like tiles to be discontinued and then have to go back and reselect. Any upgrades of tiles you pay for the difference, it's not added to your contract amount. Our colour appointment was fantastic, the lady knows her stuff, we went in well prepared though and knew what we had wanted, she wasn't pushy and guided us well. If you have a look at my blog you'll see what we changed and upgraded. Built the Seaview 36 with Rawson Homes - Read about it on my blog http://lamaisondemorgan.blogspot.com.au/ Re: Rawson Homes - the adventure begins 6Jun 11, 2012 4:09 pm Congrats BigTed. You did well getting through the colour selections room without paying the $3,000. Even at out colour walkthrough they did not give us a quote for the 3rd coat of paint. I dont think any of it was rolled. Our old house was MJH and the paint work was CRAP. We have put some of the variations that we knew we wanted in the initial tender. We have increased the size of the kitchen by 900mm on both the island and the bench and we have changed the caesarstone to 40mm and added waterfall ends to the island. Cold tap for the fridge, increased the fridge space to 1m for a double door fridge. Undermount sink. I made sure I added these before we got the initial tender as I wanted to add as little as possible when I went to colours. Modified Fernside 38 Rawson Homes Blog: http://www.thehousethatmatandjenbuilt.blogspot.com Build Thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=60501 Re: Rawson Homes - the adventure begins 8Jun 13, 2012 7:02 am Quote: What type of cornice are you getting with Rawson. We haven't got that far yet - haven't even thought about cornice. I am going to go with the one that is standard. This build is hugely over budget at the moment, so hoping that we can stick with pretty much standard from here. Modified Fernside 38 Rawson Homes Blog: http://www.thehousethatmatandjenbuilt.blogspot.com Build Thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=60501 Re: Rawson Homes - the adventure begins 9Jun 13, 2012 9:16 am Not that I am that old Jen but one thing I have learnt over the years and 3 previous builds is there is no such thing as over budget. I.e. if u can get the money just do it. You only live once and inflation is a wonderful thing. I remember our first house build 16 years ago and we were both working and had sleepless nights with worry about borrowing $90,000. In hindsight we should have borrowed 3 times that much, and we could have, and bought every block in our street. But thats easy to say, harder to do. Re: Rawson Homes - the adventure begins 10Jun 13, 2012 12:29 pm It is funny, my father in law watches all of these property shows and they give their budget at the beginning of the show and at the end they say what they spent. He always complains that they cannot have a budget and then spend so much over it. I have now told him that we wanted to spend X amount before we started this build, but what we wanted was so far from reality and now we are getting the realistic price. I have really given up worrying about it. Got our tender presentation this afternoon. Hoping it is pretty spot on with what Paul has already costed Modified Fernside 38 Rawson Homes Blog: http://www.thehousethatmatandjenbuilt.blogspot.com Build Thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=60501 Re: Rawson Homes - the adventure begins 11Jun 13, 2012 4:30 pm Paul was spot on with our quote. When the tender came back it was very close to what Paul said, but with Rawson we found we did not need to add much extra into the initial price, and from what I have been hearing you should not get whacked too hard at selections either. We did end up deleting the driveway as it was very expensive with Rawson and the glass splash backs in the kitchen were 50% more than we can get ourselves. So just keep it simple and pay for the things that count, ie, lights/electrical and kitchen upgrades. Re: Rawson Homes - the adventure begins 12Jun 13, 2012 5:52 pm Just got ours back. Paul was out by a bit, he was not there, so I could not question it too much. What has made a difference is the slab. We had a soil test with Mac Jones and it came back as M class slab. Another one has been done by Rawson and it has come back H slab which adds an additional $6K to the price. Rawson have the soil test from Mac Jones and they are looking at them both. I am really hoping we dont have to have the additional slab. We also had additional for electricity and for water and sewerage. As it is an acerage block they dont know the exact amount as it is 66m to the sewer and stormwater and that could include rock etc as there is currently a lot of scrub in the way. The have said it should be a maximum of $4000, but have allowed for $10,000 just incase. Modified Fernside 38 Rawson Homes Blog: http://www.thehousethatmatandjenbuilt.blogspot.com Build Thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=60501 Re: Rawson Homes - the adventure begins 13Jun 13, 2012 7:15 pm OH I see, As a building inspector I would advise that if there is any chance that your slab COULD be "H" (as it is subjective test) I would not be arguing that point, just go with the "H". Whatever they are going to charge, and if its $6,000, its worth it. Also $6000 sounds about right anyway. They need to use bigger waffle pods and about 30% more concrete, and after all you dont want your slab cracking or worse your walls and doorways. I am surprised that Paul did not notice the addition distance to your services, but everyone would have to charge an extra for that. Ask them if you can get a reduction in the cost if your husband digs the trench (he can thank me later for that ) Maybe get your own engineer to review the two reports or even do another and see what they think. I used to work for an engineer and we never charged much for a soil test. Let me know where u are building and if its in the Hunter area I can recommend some good engineers, that way maybe you can sign some type of waver with Rawson and go "M" class? Re: Rawson Homes - the adventure begins 14Jun 13, 2012 7:45 pm I've found posts about the different classes of soils ... however, is there any longevity value to be had in building a house on a slab for a "more troublesome" soil-type? For example, we're expecting to be spending an amount that makes ~$6k extra relatively insignificant ... is there any value in asking to spend a bit extra to build as though it was a less stable soil-type? Re: Rawson Homes - the adventure begins 15Jun 13, 2012 9:51 pm Forg I've found posts about the different classes of soils ... however, is there any longevity value to be had in building a house on a slab for a "more troublesome" soil-type? For example, we're expecting to be spending an amount that makes ~$6k extra relatively insignificant ... is there any value in asking to spend a bit extra to build as though it was a less stable soil-type? NO and YES. If your soil is classified a genuine "M" (Moderately reactive clay) the correct designed slab will be fine and will outlast any other part of the dwelling. But, your second question is semi correct, and that’s what I am trying to say, because it is a subjective test, i.e., soil sample taken and examined from various spots on the block, if it was a line ball decision $6000 is not much in the context of the entire build. There is NOTHING, not even termites, that can make a home practically worthless than having the corner of your house sinking or heaving up. And it’s arguable if it can be fixed. There are methods of underpinning and epoxy type injection under the slab but I would take termites any day over an under engineered slab. It’s so obvious too when a slab fails, massive cracks in the gyprock over doorways extending from the corners up to the ceiling and cracking bricks. I could not think of anything worse. But engineers are people too (like accountants) they make mistakes and sometime play it safe and over engineer structures, so a second opinion is always an option when it comes to engineering design. Re: Rawson Homes - the adventure begins 16Jun 14, 2012 8:59 am One of the things that I noticed when looking at the soil test last night, i noticed that one of the bore holes has been done where they are building and the other one was done 10 past where they are actually going to build. Our building envelope is 3m from the right boundary and it is 20m wide, however the bore hole was drilled at 29m from the right boundary, so no where near where we are going to build (as the house is going to be built 6m in from the right boundary and is 14m wide). There are large trees that need to be removed in the building envelope, and they were cautious that this might cause some instability in the ground. $6,000 is insignificant in the whole scheme of the build and we do not want to have a M slab when we need an H slab, but my question is why are two engineers so different? Modified Fernside 38 Rawson Homes Blog: http://www.thehousethatmatandjenbuilt.blogspot.com Build Thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=60501 Re: Rawson Homes - the adventure begins 18Jun 14, 2012 1:28 pm Jen1977 $6,000 is insignificant in the whole scheme of the build and we do not want to have a M slab when we need an H slab, but my question is why are two engineers so different? I would suspect if they were both looking at the same samples maybe they would come up with the same answer, but classifying soil type is only an opinion, and if two engineers are looking at two different samples there is a higher chance that you might get two different results, especially if it’s a line ball type call. The problem is soil conditions, well clay anyway, change all over the lot, so one set of samples could of been just good luck that they did not hit the Highly reactive clay while the other samples may of been in Moderately reactive clay. Just a side not, most builders do an "M" class footing design regardless. The engineers I worked at, we got people coming in for us to do a soil class. to confirm an "S" class site to save money. Now footings designed for an "S" site on an "S" class site will perform just as well as a slab or footing designed for an "H" or even "P" class site on that type of site. If it was me in this situation I would just go the "H" class slab and get on with worrying about other stuff, otherwise get a third opinion. Re: Rawson Homes - the adventure begins 19Jun 14, 2012 1:34 pm BradS bigted, how stable is shale? Shale is a rock, and rock is the best to build on. The problem with shale is its smaller and not as solid as say sandstone. Forget the shale its what type of soil the shale is in, and from my experience shale is normally in more reactive type clays. Re: Rawson Homes - the adventure begins 20Jun 14, 2012 4:08 pm Our builder didnt really give us any clasification, he just said it takes what it takes. We were at risk of paying lots for the piering and slab but its a chance you take. I don believe the slab will ever move as its 100mm thicker than normal and pretty sure from memory our builder wont use anything less than 35mpa concrete. When Rawson's did the tests they came back with H class. Given how quickly any pooled up water clears I am guessing the land is quite reactive. Not that it really means much, but all of our 69 piers hit shale. Average depth was about 1.5 metres so we ended up lucky with the costs. We budgeted for twice what it cost us thankfully Just started the Build process for Chifley 42 with Rawson homes, will keep you all posted with the Build progress. 0 2995 Ask for references and speak to them. If they are defensive or try to avoid the request, walk. 1 76359 I would never build with Fowler homes. I built with them in 2021 and till date maintenance issues are pending. All their existing trades and businesses don't work with… 14 107001 |