Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Aug 10, 2012 5:07 pm Hi Everyone, Looking for feedback from anyone who has recently built or is currently building with Coral Homes. Thinking of building with them in the near future. Cheers. Re: Building with Coral Homes 2Sep 16, 2012 10:13 am I'm interested in this too. Settlement: 10.02.13 Slab: 06.03.13 Frame: 08.03.13 Lock-up: 05.04.13 Handover: 03.06.13 Build thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=59555 Brisbane Photography Re: Building with Coral Homes 3Sep 21, 2012 10:47 am There are a couple of building threads with Coral that were in the Brisbane area too and they seemed to have quite fast and mostly troublefree builds. This is a link to one although I think it is a bit more in depth on the blog. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=59344&p=923522#p923522 Re: Building with Coral Homes 4Nov 28, 2012 1:44 pm We are 1/2 way through a Noosa 25 on Lake Macquarie - looked after by Newcastle. Started in September - and have now got to lock-up stage. Starting to put down tiles in bathrooms etc. We have found the process so far to have been good. I don't know much about building and so I have appreciated that. I was concerned about their insistance on building retaining walls - worked out OK in our case and we did need them. The block has a lot of excess clay and dirt that I now know we need to get rid of, but the advice we have had from our supervisor has been good. Only one problem so far - the top of the vanity wasn't what we ordered. We initially hoped to be finished by Christmas but not surprised to hear it will be February (January is a write off). Work has been quick, but I have been impressed with the craftmanship so far. Hope this helps. Re: Building with Coral Homes 5Nov 28, 2012 2:44 pm We have just had one built across the road from us. They are quick at building - they probably had it completed and handed over in less than 16 weeks. They had quite a few trades on site at the same time and actually had the place gyprocked before they had bricked it. I havent seen inside, so can't comment on the quality of the build. 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: Building with Coral Homes 6Nov 28, 2012 9:51 pm We're just started a build with Coral - building a Noosa 279 with a custom internal layout. This is our first new home build and before we decided to go with Coral we checked out just about every builder available in our area (Sydney) and progressed with quotes with a few of them. Because we are knock down rebuilding and building a custom design we've probably had more interaction with Coral than the average customer might. Without a doubt they're are a notch above most builders. Things like: - Responsive and friendly sales staff. We went with the sales people up at Waterford County / HomeWorld Hunter because they had the Noosa on display up there and we liked them. - Realistic pricing - for base prices, inclusion packages, upgrades etc. They're not the cheapest but you don't want to build with the guys who are. We had a false start with another large NSW builder, whom I still like, and Coral's pricing (on everything) is far better than what we saw with them. - Responsive and friendly head office staff. Read through the forums and you'll find it's a pretty common story that once people progress with a build and start dealing with their builders head office, the customer service goes through the floor. Phone calls aren't answered, messages never returned, emails are never replied to, belligerent attitudes, changes made to designs without notifying the customer etc etc - the list goes on. We've seen none of that with Coral and I'd be surprised if anyone else has. They have a culture of doing the right thing. - Flexibility with designs. Not only can you change their floor plans and facades as much as you like but if you want to organise the air conditioning / flooring / extra electricals / kitchen appliances / solar power / kitchen handles yourself - no problem. If you want to mix and match the standard list of inclusions or get credits for some of the inclusions you don't want - no problem. They'll allow your tradies onsite during the build, provided you get them to sign some OH&S stuff. We're doing all of these things. I've read of another customers organising their own water tanks - some builders won't let you touch these "because it's a BASIX thing", i.e. because BASIX (in NSW) is used as a cash cow by a lot of builders. - You're allowed onsite, they give you a copy of padlock combinations and door keys. It's simple but I think this is a big thing. Everyone loves dropping in to see their build and take photos of those things they've been waiting so long to see. These are our homes, it's our property and it's an exciting process to go through. Most builders lock the site down and don't allow you to enter unless they're with you. I think this is a poor experience and actually works in the favour of the builders who have something to hide. I know some builders turn a blind eye to customers going onsite, but I've heard of others that will actually send legal cease and desist letter to their customers. It beggars belief. Fair enough if there's significant OH&S issues - exposed wires, fall hazards etc. But for the most part these are builds are clean and safe sites, or should be. - Some Queensland design features. Most (all?) of their designs have 600mm eaves and they're big on counteracting site soil conditions - we've got (or will have) spoon drains dug in all around our house, several storm water lines, flexible couplings and expansion joints on the sewer pipes, drains under every external tap and provisioned for the future driveway. We got a mostly flat building site with clay soil type, so we've got drainage issues. I really like that Coral have spec'd the drainage items of our build like this - it's cost a few thousand $'s but it's worth every cent. I don't want a house with creaking and cracked walls, stuck doors and windows, and muddy pools everywhere in the yard when it rains. They've gone a long way to solving those issues. - Steel frames. Yes, I'm one of these guys that loves steel frames . When we signed with Coral they weren't offering them and that was disappointing but their benefits were still worth it. They now offer them as part of their Eclipse package or you can add it as a seperate upgrade like we did. To put the price of the upgrade into perspective - the upgrade from T2 timber to steel frames was less than the credit we received for the timber stacker door in the Eclipse package. It's not significant. - Inclusions to suit budgets. Coral's top inclusions package is called Eclipse and it costs quite a few thousand $'s - like I say, it's honest. What that means on the flipside is if anyone is on a tight budget or just don't care about inclusions like those in Eclipse or Indulgence then they can build a house to suit and not be paying inflated base prices or hidden costs that recoup the price of inclusions given away too cheaply. They get a great quality house from a reputable builder, without getting sucked into all or nothing upgrade packages just because they wanted a nicer kitchen tap. - Build time. We've only just started so I can't speak from full experience yet... but from all reports Coral are quick. This is one of the key differences between cheap and better builders, and a classic indicator. Some builders get prices down by having a long pipeline of work, and a smaller team of staff and tradies to work on it - and some, sadly, are just incompetent. So it might take them several weeks longer than usual to get a stage finished, or work grinds to a halt between stages. Again, read through the forums and you'll see it's heart breaking for some people who drive past their site and see no progress for weeks, or knowing that their house is sitting exposed to the elements longer than it should be etc. Coral seems to operate very smoothly and have all the stages prepared and ready to go whenever possible. I can say the two biggest cause of the delays to our build so far was our certifer and ourselves. Interestingly Coral were advertising a 12 week build time for some designs when we signed up. There were some conditions to it, like having a flat block, no easements near the build area, a standard design with no inclusions package etc. I wonder if anyone got that? It's very impressive if so. I've contacted some builders who haven't replied to an email in 12 weeks. BTW - I don't work for Coral or anything like that, I just want to give credit where it's due. Also, in my experience there's a few good builders out there and you tend to spot them straight away. If the builder you're considering sounds like they're doing you a favour by answering the phone, or they don't follow through and send you that file even after your polite follow up call, if the marketing material has mistakes in it and looks like amateur hour, if their website looks like their cousin put it together in an afternoon and half the links don't work, if the price looks too cheap and you're wondering how they do it, or if their building sites look like artillery testing zones... buyer beware. My Build Thread: Coral Homes Noosa 279 Re: Building with Coral Homes 7Nov 29, 2012 7:01 am Yes I agree with most of what 'thattime' says. I found Karen at Chisholm easy to talk with and negotiate with. The prices were generally quite upfront. For example, we went with the Indulgence package as we couldn't stretch to Eclipse. But it was OK - no sense of criticism, pressure etc. We did negotiate a few minor 'extras' to be included but also had some variations - a reasonable charge for plan changes for some items. We actually live around the corner from where we are building and so have frequently visited - combination and keys given freely. I have done some cleaning up etc so I actually feel involved in the building process. Have met tradies on site and negotiated a few changes with them (some extra costs, of course for some items). I have also just chatted with the contractors and been impressed with their workmanship. One of the things I have noticed (and neighbours have said) is just how organised and coordinated Coral have been with the way things have arrived, people done their work etc. We may have considered the steel frame. It wasn't available when we signed, but were are close to the saltwater lake anyway so not sure if was the best option. We still have a way to go - especially over the Christmas break, but we have been very happy so far. Re: Building with Coral Homes 8Dec 11, 2012 10:13 am We have just received our contract for our Coral home. So far we have been really happy. The site costs went up $20k due to rock and H class soil. Coral asked for the tests to be redone to check their findings before they sent us the tender. I thought that was nice of them to have the results double checked at no extra expense to us. They have been very good with changes although we have made minimal. We have chosen to go with the Eclipse Inclusions and have been happy with what is included so far. We have barely had to add any cash when making our finishing choices. So far the only added expenses are $500 for our feature tiles (trust us to choose the most expensive tile), $100 for wood grain laminate on the cupboards and $800 to upgrade from the bronze class carpet to gold class. All expenses that are seeming very low compared to what a lot of our friends are having to pay on finishing upgrades. Re: Building with Coral Homes 9Jan 12, 2013 8:05 pm We are about to build the marcoola 32 in hunter region and I would really love to get an idea from people what they have spent on upgrades (like electrical etc) We are getting the eclipse upgrades but if anyone has upgrade prices (electrical, kitchen, doors etc etc) that would be great Re: Building with Coral Homes 10Apr 03, 2013 7:23 am Hi Jen 1977/ Jason's girl, currently I'm dealing with coral homes in newcastle, only a tender stage now. Can you please share me your experience with coral homes. I'm new to this site, don't know how to contact people's. my site contains HI soil with compacted fill, may be rock in the site. Whole block having 2m cross fall and building area may be 1.5m fall. Please give me some informations about site costs and other costs to aware. Thanks Re: Building with Coral Homes 11Apr 03, 2013 11:31 am Hi Tanga, So far we have been very happy with Coral. Your block is sounding similarish to ours. If you have been given a quote expect an extra roughly $20k for H class soil and rock. We had a cut of 950 and fill of 450. So probably close to the same fall as your block. This might mean you will need a retaining wall if you are building close to a boundary. If so this will be up to you to construct. Also Coral will ask for a construction and occupation certificate. They suggested we use Acro as that is the company they use, however we found that council will provide these certificates for a much lower cost. We saved about $200 with Maitland Council. When you go for your colours app be aware that the costs the girl gives you might not be correct. She told us about $800 for the carpet upgrade and it actually cost $2k. She is great help with colours and finishings but not so great with costings. The paperwork side took a far while for us but I think that is fairly standard across all builders. We first approached Coral for a quote on October 1st and our start date was March 21st. The construction so far has been fantastic. Site was scraped on the 21st. Slab will be poured tomorrow if this rain holds off. We have seen movement every day. We had one issue where the plumbers broke the wrong piece of footpath and the SS has already assured us they will fix it for us. SS seems very knowledgeable and is in contact regularly. I have a blog listed in the blog list on this site if you want to see a play by play. Re: Building with Coral Homes 12Apr 03, 2013 2:15 pm We built with coral in the Hunter Valley and found them quite good.. We too went eclipse package with a few changes. Our block was fairly level, we needed a small retaining wall at the back of the house but nothing major. At work at the moment but if you want an idea of any prices send me a message and i can look them up. Cheers Damien Re: Building with Coral Homes 13Apr 08, 2013 7:08 pm Jason's girl, Thanks for your information, what about retaining wall? Coral ask you to do before they build or do it later. I got a tender with other project builder they say equally cut/fill 0.75m. My block 18.4m wide and building is 12m wide. LH side is 5m to boundary and RH side 1.5m to boundary. How to reduce site cost? That means retaining wall. Re: Building with Coral Homes 14Apr 09, 2013 10:23 am We had to have the retaining wall built before they would start building. I would say you probably won't need one on the RH side but will need one on the LH side. It will depend if it is the cut or fill side or if your cut/fill goes from front to back. We had half the retaining wall needed for the fill and half for the cut. This meant that the fil side had to be completed before the site scrape and the cut had to be completed after the scrape, before they started forming up the slab. The site supervisor has been really good though and let us know what was needed when. I think battering is cheaper it is just wether or not they have the space to do it. Re: Building with Coral Homes 16Apr 10, 2013 8:07 am I'm not sure what the split was rock/H class soil wise. All I know is that the site costs went up $20k fromm quote to tender and a majority of that was actually because of the H class soil not the rock. Although we only had rock in the back corner. The good thing about Coral though is that you are given fixed site costs so as soon as that tender is signed the site costs won't change. There are quite a few builders that will charge you extra once they have started and hit rock. With Coral what you sign off on is what you get. No hidden surprises with the site costs. Something I am really impressed with at the moment is that it hasn't quite been 3 weeks since our site scrape and we already have 90% of our frame up. If this weather holds we are expecting frame and windows to be completed this week. Construction has been very quick and very good so far. Hoping for roof and bricks next week so the weather is no longer an issue. Re: Building with Coral Homes 17Apr 10, 2013 11:33 am Jason's girl, I'm doing house and land packages with coral, but the block of land is I own myself, coral say they can make a tender like house and land packages. I recently got a quote, not a proper tender. quote shows fixed price site work exclude rock. I think My site cost already went 20k+for H1 slab without rock, I Paid deposit already and wait for soil test report to come in. At tis stage I only worry if its rock hits how much they going to make charge. Total budget cost gone over my budget Re: Building with Coral Homes 18Apr 13, 2013 10:46 am same with us... we didn't expect site cost to be so high and went over our budget...trying to work out where we can find some savings as I don't think site cost will change with whatever builder we would go... Good luck! Re: Building with Coral Homes 19Apr 14, 2013 1:22 pm What I will say is if you do not budget 100-150k over the base price (which excludes site costs and slab upgrades) then you will always be over budget... Regardless of builder. We are building a Marcoola 32 and I can't even remember the base price We have added the eclipse package I can tell you that I have 60k just to finish off the house (air con, bamboo flooring, driveways, fences etc) Happy to break some items down if anyone is keen to understand costs Re: Building with Coral Homes 20May 07, 2013 12:35 pm How is everyone's builds going? Thattime I see you are nearly finished. Your house is looking great. Has anyone one else started building yet? We should be enclosed this week. Bricky thinks he will be finished today. Insulation started yesterday and with it arrived gyprock and cornices so hopefully we see some walls soon. We are first time builders so don't really know what the next steps are. At this stage it means every day is a surprise to see what they are doing. Hope everyone is enjoying the experience. We are loving it so far. It is so exciting to see everything come together. Ask the council if there is a chance of getting build over easement exemption. Sometimes easements are unused and 24cm is not all that much. Good luck. And yes any builder… 2 13718 In Qld it is a requirement that a builder must have a cost breakdown, for building a home to the same specification, with the same inclusions and the same finish. So ask… 1 1679 Ask for references and speak to them. If they are defensive or try to avoid the request, walk. 1 74218 |