Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jun 11, 2012 1:59 pm We are in the final stages before signing a contract to build our new home, we signed off a proposed plan and paid $2k deposit for the working drawings to be done. These are now finished but show significant changes to room dimensions which amounts to a house about 20 sqm smaller than originally agreed upon. I am considering walking away from the deal and forfeiting the $2k deposit as this seems to me to be an indication of the lack of integrity of the builder (one of Perth's biggest). To a novice, the house looks the same as agreed upon and I nearly signed the contract without measuring the room sizes.
Is this a common problem and should I continue with the builder if they reinstate the sizes to those agreed upon? Re: Final Plan Dimensions Smaller than agreed upon. 2Jun 11, 2012 2:30 pm That happened to us with a previous build. The builder said he never realised that the draftsperson had made the room smaller on the plan. He fixed it straight away and was the best builder we could have wished for. We never had one other problem with the build, he was the best. I would speak to the builder about it. Re: Final Plan Dimensions Smaller than agreed upon. 3Jun 11, 2012 2:31 pm You are right, this is not a good start and if you continue you will have to keep your eyes open all the way. You should get independent building consultant for stage inspections. I know it adds up to have all stages inspected but it's still cheaper than hair replacement. If you pull out you should be entitled to your deposit back as the builder is at fault. you will find useful blogs about stage inspections http://www.buildingexpert.net.au Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: Final Plan Dimensions Smaller than agreed upon. 4Jun 11, 2012 3:07 pm Thanks for the response, I appreciate any advice I receive regarding the building process. I have taken this up (very strongly) with the company which I chose because of their good reputation, size and the fact they are Master Builders award winners and I am so disappointed at this situation. I'll wait to their response before making a decision whether to pull the plug or not. Maybe when they see that I am not prepared to accept any nonsense they will settle down and build a home for me to the standard I know they are capable of, lets hope so anyway. Re: Final Plan Dimensions Smaller than agreed upon. 5Jun 28, 2012 6:34 pm Apparently the draughtsman drew the plans based on a 10 m frontage block in error, ours is a 12 m frontage and we had extended the size of the bedroon and living area extra to the basic plan. The builder has amended the plans to agreed spec and we are happy again. Just been to pre start and received very helpful and professional treatment. Hopefully building will start by mid August after all the red tape and formalities have been completed. Re: Final Plan Dimensions Smaller than agreed upon. 6Jun 28, 2012 8:22 pm Great to hear that things are going well. (How they got a 12 m frontage confused with a 10 m frontage is a bit scary!) Demolition August 2009, Construction Started September 2009, Completed December 2010 Laminate Flooring 7Jul 03, 2012 7:42 pm Got an excellent quote on "Designer Collection" laminate flooring from Trevors Carpets in Perth, it looks fantastic but looks can be deceiving. Has anyone heard of this brand? cant find too much about it on the internet. I wanted Quick Step but the quality of the Designer Collection product seems to equal that of the Quick Step and at a much lesser cost (about half) Any input from anyone? I am well aware of the general rule of "You get what you pay for". Re: Final Plan Dimensions Smaller than agreed upon. 8Oct 23, 2012 5:05 pm After discussions with the draughtsman, I am convinced the issue with the plans was a genuine error. The first brick was laid on the 1/10/2012 and three weeks later the roof is almost complete, they have really pulled out all stops to get the house completed as quickly as possible. So far I am very impressed with Aussie Living, they have been totally professional and customer service has been great. Work has always started on the date they have given me and although I am not a building professional, workmanship seems to be good, I hope things continue to go so smoothly. I would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone wanting to build a home. I will update progress from time to time. Re: Final Plan Dimensions Smaller than agreed upon. 9Nov 29, 2012 3:18 pm Lock up achieved 21/11/2013 and all internal doors fitted 22/11/2013. Painting of ceilings, door frames and doors, downpipes etc. scheduled to start 3/12 and tiling meeting with Foreman and tiler scheduled for 7/12. All internal fittings and fixtures can now be installed and I have been told to expect a 6-8 week delay from lock up to PCI. So far, thankfully, Aussie Living has under promised and over delivered on most aspects of the construction so maybe we will be able to get handover quicker than anticipated, maybe we will be able to move in early Feb...certainly hope so. Re: Final Plan Dimensions Smaller than agreed upon. 11Nov 29, 2012 5:14 pm I am really happy to hear this. We are buidling with Aussie, have prestart tomorrow! hoping it all goes well and we don't spend too much! We picked them partly because of the sales guy (never felt like he was trying to sell it to use) and they have one of the only plans that fit out 10m frontage that didn't make the house have a really long hallway and have all the bedrooms together! Re: Final Plan Dimensions Smaller than agreed upon. 12Dec 14, 2012 2:26 pm Tiling done and he has done a great job but I am really disappointed that the contractor excluded tiling the laundry and 2nd toilet from the contract in the first place, its a matter of less than 4 sqm but now I have the hassle of trying to find a tiler to finish the job after handover. They would have included it for an exhorbitant cost which I would have been crazy to accept and I cant see why they had to exclude it. In real terms this would have cost them next to nothing if their tiler had done this when he was on site doing all the other tiling. Another gripe is that I cant get a firm handover date from them, I have a PCI date, 25/1/13 but they cant say how long it will take to fix anything found at the PCI. How am I supposed to coordinate the painters for the interior, the flooring company for the carpets and flooring and the paver to pave up the side of the house and most importantly give my landlord notice until I have a firm date. While I am waiting for this date the contractors who I need to finish off the house (as mentioned above)are filling their work schedules for next year and I these jobs may end up stretching up to a couple of weeks extra instead of the week I had budgeted for before we can move in.At $450 per week this could be expensive. Apart from this irritation, they have done a good job so far and the relationshipwith the building company has been good, I just hope that things dont go "pear shaped" in the closing stages of the build. Re: Final Plan Dimensions Smaller than agreed upon. 13Dec 14, 2012 7:08 pm Congratulations! Sounds like it has been happening quickly! Not long to go now!! All of our flooring is included because of our loan requirements so don't have to worry about that but the additional costs if you don't do the standard adds up quickly. Is there not a requirement as to how long after PCI handover should be in the contract? Re: Final Plan Dimensions Smaller than agreed upon. 14Dec 14, 2012 7:48 pm The contract actually mentions that the builder has 5 working days to fix any defects but I havent had any definite confirmation of the date of the PCI as yet. We were told that it could be the 25/1 but it could be later depending on how work commences after the holidays. Our Supervisor/Foreman is very pedantic and I cant see too much escaping him so I hope the handover comes soon as soon after the PCI as possible. The work which we have to arrange has to be done in the sequence of 1) interior painted and 2) flooring done thereafter, the paving and electrics eg light fittings changed, can be done at a later date but 1 & 2 must be done before we move in. We had a pleasant surprise today, we went past the house earlier this morning to see if anything was going on, it was locked up and no one was there but when we went past later this afternoon the Essa stone benchtops and basins had been installed, we were only expecting these to be in on the 19/12. Soon after we had a nasty surprise, the painter came back to us with a quote of +-$4k plus paint to paint the inside of the house, its not a big house (3 x 2) and most of the north facing wall is glass so I was a bit shattered at the price. Come Monday I will get quote from another contractor who works in the area. I read somewhere that lock up is about halfway in the "build", I was a bit sceptical as so much had been done so quickly but I see now that this estimation is not far off, the little things take the longest to do. One of the first things I am going to do after we have moved in is drill a hole in a wall, any wall... just because I can...It has been so restrictive living in rentals for the past 4 years that the freedom to do what I want in the house will be most liberating. When do you think they are going to start your house? Re: Final Plan Dimensions Smaller than agreed upon. 15Dec 14, 2012 7:53 pm Thay sounds steep!! Aussie quoted us about $3500 to paint, we didn't take up the offer. We had pre start 2 weeks ago. Have emailed our changes back but haven't heard anything.... Hoping the real stuff will start reasonably early in the new year! Re: Final Plan Dimensions Smaller than agreed upon. 16Dec 14, 2012 7:58 pm Good luck and if you need to bounce anything off someone who has just gone through it, please dont hesitate to contact me, it would be great if i could give someone the benefit of my experience. Re: Final Plan Dimensions Smaller than agreed upon. 17Dec 14, 2012 10:47 pm John where are you building? I Am using our builders painter and he is painting my house during the holidays, we don't get handover until middle of January. The price was excellent for the size of the home, can pm you details if you want them. Re: Final Plan Dimensions Smaller than agreed upon. 18Dec 18, 2012 2:58 pm Went past the house today and the aircon is being installed, its evap air as reverse cycle (RC) is far too costly to run. At the moment we have a top of the range reverse cycle but we cant afford to run it for more than a couple of hours during the hottest part of the evening. At least the evapair system takes the edge off the heat at a reasonable cost, 10% of the RC's running cost I am told. Will miss the heater though on cold winter nights. Had some excellent advice from our Building Supervisor. We have a cottage block and the house is long and narrow, the one side, I call the "service" side, has the washing line, area for bins etc and all the sewage and waste water pipes running down that side. I mentioned to the Supervisor that I was thinking of concreting or laying liquid limestone down that area, he strongly advised against this as he said it will be very costly should we encounter a problem with our piping and recommended we put brick paving instead as this will be far more cost effective if we ever have to lift and relay to get access to the pipes. Great advice, makes sense and brick paving it will be. Meeting tommorrow to measure for glass splashback. After shopping around we decided on Splash of Glass in Wangara as their quote was quite a bit cheaper than others we received and they also advised that we check the colours we like "in situ" as light variations in the showroom and in our house can alter the look of the product. So tomorrow they will bring a selection of samples of our favoured colours to our house and we will choose the one that we think looks best against our cabinetry and benchtop. Good advice and great service. Still hoping for PCI no later than 25/1 with handover by the end of Jan, then the painting, flooring and window treatment and maybe we will be able to move in sometime in the first half of Feb, maybe earlier!!! Final Plan Dimensions Smaller than agreed upon. 19Dec 22, 2012 4:56 pm Surprisingly the paving has been completed before the Christmas break, I wasnt expecting it but I am very happy with the result. Of the major jobs still to be done the electrics have to be connected as does the plumbing and taps installed, doors and door frames painted and the garage door installed and then its up to the "commisioner" to finish the place off with all the small but important stuff. Then the big clean up and PCI still on track for 25/1, hopefully I will have the keys in my hand by the 1st Feb and the painter will start on the interior on the 4th Feb, then the flooring laid and then the big move mid Feb...cant wait to be in my own place again after 4 years of renting and paying other people's mortgages. At last I have found a painter whose quote is reasonable, it wasnt easy as at this time of the year all the trades are going flat out and either they cant give a commitment for next year or they just dont answer their phones. Neil Armstrong Painters seems to be highly recommended and are registered members of the necessary controlling bodies so lets see if I am "over the moon" with their work at the end of the contract. Bad pun..sorry. Re: Final Plan Dimensions Smaller than agreed upon. 20Jan 04, 2013 1:08 pm Off to choose "window treatments", this morning, or curtains and blinds as I call them.I would like to get away from venetians as they are labour intensive to keep clean but I dont think we have much option in the bedroom. We have an east facing window and the morning sun could be a problem. Because of the configuration of the window normal blockout curtains wont work and we both agree that venetians and a heat deflective film on the windows will be best for us. For the rest of the house it we like roman blinds but maybe we will see something else at the blind/curtain shop several of which have some very attractive offers so maybe now is a good time to buy. Hi All New to the forum and looking for some advice, has anyone else renovated an old miners cottage in or around Ballarat and been able to identify the flooring? We… 0 8775 Your house roof does not show rusting other than some surface rust on the flashings. 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