http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1736398
I thought the discussion was quite balanced.
In particular I liked this contribution:
MacMikey
Forum Regular
We built with a major builder here in Melbourne (18 months ago) and had a pretty good run of things. Sure there were a couple of issue, but nothing major at all. A friend of mine was also building around the same time but with a smaller builder and had a similar experience to us.
Were were only discussing this the other day and came to the conclusion that you can work on making it a good experience for yourself and get a great house at the end of it by:
- being engaged in the process
- taking the time to understand the process
- form a good relationship with your site supervisor
- staying on top of what is going on – regular site visits and chats with your SS
- use an independent inspector at every stage of of the build
I estimate that during the whole process I spent 3 days a week doing something house related. It's a lot of time but it's a big investment.
I see many comments from people complaining about this and that, and sure many are valid, but I bet a lot are from people who were not engaged in the process. Take my neighbour for example. Several times I was chatting to them about their build and things I noticed weren't right and 90% of the time they had no idea what was going on. They didn't even notice the missing roof tiles just before they moved in so when it rained they got flooded....
aussieboy90 writes...
IMO project homes are a perfect example of "you get what you pay for"
I don't agree. You get what you put into it...
reference: whrl.pl/RcO241
posted 2011-Jul-13, 6pm AEST
My parents built 4 new homes so I've always had some idea of what to expect. Two were with small builders and the other two were both with one of the large project home builders. All were positive experiences. The poster above generally mirrored the approach my parents used.
What approach works/worked for you?
What would you add to the list below for a positive build experience?
- taking the time to understand the process
- form a good relationship with your site supervisor
- staying on top of what is going on – regular site visits and chats with your SS
- use an independent inspector at every stage of of the build
If you have built before, what would you do differently the next time around?