Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Building our first home -selections selected! 41Nov 13, 2013 8:23 pm I hope you get your oven, and a real start! Re: Building our first home -site cut, finally 42Feb 05, 2014 10:51 am Well, after more delays, mistakes, ****** and excuses I can finally say this week they started on site. We were about to get lawyered up and get attacking, so lucky for them they decided to move. We got our site cut monday, and temp fence up yesterday which is nice. It will stop the builders from next door using our site as a dump! I have been horrified at the level of service so far (or lack thereof) and am really, really hoping that now its in the hands of a site supervisor it will be a bit better. Oh God I hope so, I don't think I can handle another 5 months of stuff ups! Re: Building our first home -selections selected! 43Feb 05, 2014 8:30 pm Congrats on the start and I hope you experience smooth sailing from now on Custom downslope build Build thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=61873 Blog http://www.buildingroyalmanor.blogspot.com.au Re: Building our first home - slabbed 44Feb 20, 2014 2:56 pm We have a slab! We're near Geelong and there was lots of flash flooding last night so I was worried we'd hit another delay, but its turned out cool with no rain today - perfect concreting weather from what I hear. I'm going to check it out after I pick up the kids from sport/kinder. Yay! And the other day we bought a nice big mitre saw for when we build our decking/retaining walls etc, and so I can start making some furniture. My first project is to revamp some chairs I picked up from the op shop for $2 each. They are squareish chrome/steel with awful cheap upholstery. I was just going to reupholster them, but its going to be a massive pain in the butt, so I've decided to strip them back and then go a bit industrial meets whimsy with them. I'm going to do a weathered finish timber seat and then am looking into getting some coloured stretchy silicone/plastic type cord to wrap around the back in a figure 8 pattern to make the back rest. Its looks amazing in my head but I suppose that doesn't mean it will work in real life! Currently tossing up between leaving the frames chrome/metal or going black... Then next project is a chicken coop. I had an appointment with a landscape architect a couple weeks ago and we found enough space to house a couple of chickens as well as loads of edibles. I'm really pumped, I hope I stay pumped and actually get things done instead of just collating "one day" ideas! Re: Building our first home -we have a frame! 45Mar 01, 2014 3:11 pm So it turns out once they get going, they really really get going. They marked up for the framing on Tuesday, and got started on Wednesday. They stick build so i had assumed that it would take a while, but I drove past and there were about 20 people on site just going crazy! They had about 3/4 of the frame up in the one day, Thursday the finished most of the rest of the frame off and started on the roof trusses, And yesterday they finished off that and had a bit of a half assed go at straightening up the walls. Its not all good news though, they've made a mess of our sliding door, and at least another one of our windows is bent. It looks like a wobbly piece of spaghetti. they haven't braced the wall above my kitchen splashback window and it has so much movement in it I'm worried how it will hold up. And they haven't finished framing under where the window goes in one of the minor bedrooms, didn't stop them from invoicing us for the framing stage though. I'm thinking of witholding payment until they actually do finish it off. We're also getting it inspected before we cough up any more cash too, one thing I've learned is you can't trust anyone int he building game... Re: Building our first home -selections selected! 46Mar 05, 2014 9:54 pm Oh no! I hope they fix it soon. If it were me I would withhold payment until its completed properly. Custom downslope build Build thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=61873 Blog http://www.buildingroyalmanor.blogspot.com.au Re: Building our first home -framing drama 47Mar 11, 2014 2:16 pm They still haven't fixed it. They think its fine and booked in the frame inspection today. I informed them monday a week ago that I'm not paying until its passes the inspection (which is allowed as per the contract) then friday they were ringing me asking why our stage payment was late - and it was THE SAME person I spoke to on Monday! She said it had passed inspection and that she had the report, when I asked for a copy of the report she suddenly had to speak to someone else to get it. Called me back a few hours later and told me that it was booked in to be inspected Tuesday (today) and that they should have the report wednesday, and they would give me 24hrs to pay. I tried ever so hard to be polite when I informed her that we actually had 7 days from when it passes inspection to pay the invoice and she started arguing that the site supervisor said we should pay it now. Well, unless the site supervisor is also a contract lawyer I think I'll stick to what is written in the legally binding contract. We walked through weekend before last with building inspector mate and there are some horrible things that he brought to our attention - like the ridge on the roof - the timber making up the truss doesn't even touch - theres a 50mm gap (on all of them on one particular ridge) The studs along one external wall appear to have been cut short, but instead of doing it again with fresh timber, they have notched out some of the top plate in the hallway wall to bring the truss height down a bit, then have just packed the top of the studs on the external wall with the masonite packing strips that they use to pack out windows. Except its obviously not out windows, its the structural frame of our house Other things include for some reason installing a shower base cut out in the framing of one of the bedrooms (meaning more than half the studs in that wall have half the bottom notched out of them) spacing studs further apart than the 600mm centres thats required, and so much more. There are pages of defects and the builder just seems perfectly happy with moving forward and leaving the defects there, untouched. I hope that the surveyor pays attention and picks up these glaring mistakes, cos they don't seem to care about them when we mention it. I guess I'll find out tomorrow, wish us luck! Re: Building our first home - framing drama 48Mar 11, 2014 6:34 pm Good luck for the inspection! Maybe you should consider getting your own independent inspector to prepare a report for the builder? Custom downslope build Build thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=61873 Blog http://www.buildingroyalmanor.blogspot.com.au Re: Building our first home - framing drama 49Mar 12, 2014 1:07 pm Yeah, we'll be sending through a report of defects after we go back through it again tomorrow evening. Its frustrating that you can't trust a builder to build a house to standards let alone build it well to standards, and that you can't trust a surveyor to inspect it properly either. I wonder if it was this bad when councils had the monopoly on building surveying etc, before everything was turned out to private enterprise? Re: Building our first home - framing drama 51Jul 18, 2014 1:08 pm Oh, its awful, the whole thing has been one drama after another! I have avoided updating here incase we end up in Vcat or something, and its just too depressing to see it all in one long line of updates. We've had threats to suspend building which then brought the entire contract into question, we had to decide if we wanted to pursue it or just get on with it, we've had 150mm holes dug into the slab, we're on our 3rd SS, we've had weeks and weeks of no-one on site, we've got a list a mile long of things that aren't done right. Our tiles look completely different to the showroom tiles and look awful. Its just a shambles! And according to consumer affairs we can seek compensation from next week. But that will be another battle itself... eeek! Re: Building our first home - framing drama 52Jul 18, 2014 1:19 pm so sorry to hear this.. a lot of builders prey on the emotional attachment customers have when choosing their house, especially once they've invested time and thought into the actual layout and plans. For most people it's very hard to walk away at that stage! I hope you get it all resolved, it would be difficult for most not to be dropping hints as to the builders identity right about now, if only to warn others. Re: Building our first home - framing drama 54Jul 19, 2014 12:26 pm I should have clarified that all that has been spread out since I last posted. We couldn't find a builder to finish the house for the same price who was willing to take on the risk of a frame and slab they had nothing to do with so we had to ignore the potential repudiation of the contract and just let them keep going. It all happened a couple months ago now. We could have been at handover weeks ago, yet they seem to have trouble sourcing (or scheduling) trades. In the last 3 weeks we've had about 3 days of people working on site. But when we told the new SS how long the build has been dragging on for, and mentioned compensation there were trades back on site Friday. Its still a shambles though - Hopefully we'll get to do PCI in a couple weeks, then it will just be a matter of how long until they can get through the defect list before we get the keys. So its been awful, and still sucks but is moving along at least...! Re: Building our first home - framing drama 55Jul 19, 2014 4:50 pm Wow, lack of trades on site and bad organisation... Sounds like our build! I feel for you, I know exactly what you're going through I hope things start to pick up for you and that you'll be in your home soon. Custom downslope build Build thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=61873 Blog http://www.buildingroyalmanor.blogspot.com.au Re: Building our first home - framing drama 56Jul 22, 2014 1:54 pm Oh Home angels, I just read some of your blog... I have no words! At least the fixes are looking good I suppose? I've driven past our build twice today (its practically on my way to school) and the SS and plumbers have been there all day. Hopefully that means the SS is getting on top of the mistakes. Its so frustrating! Re: Building our first home - framing drama 57Jul 27, 2014 9:49 pm I hope you have had some answers? Custom downslope build Build thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=61873 Blog http://www.buildingroyalmanor.blogspot.com.au Re: Building our first home - framing drama 58Jul 29, 2014 3:48 pm Apparently I'm getting a rough date tomorrow. I sure won't be holding my breath though! Plumbers flooded every wet area when they fitted off last week. They haven't finished yet, so I'm wondering how much more they'll flood before its all done. Tiling is appalling, especially on my very expensive splashback window in the kitchen. The painter still hasn't deigned to come back and actually paint anything external. The SS was going on about getting the painter back once we get some nice weather, well we had like a week of it and they did nothing! I am just feeling so deflated and defeated at the moment, and I should be feeling excited! Maybe once I have a ballpark date I'll feel better... Re: Building our first home - framing drama 59Jul 30, 2014 11:57 pm Stacey I'm uncertain as to what stage you're at but it may be worthwhile to engage an inspector to collect all issues into one place so each one can be ticked off before they handover? Would hate to think they think they can pull one over you! --- Re: Building our first home - framing drama 60Jul 31, 2014 4:11 pm Thanks MyH1login. We have had an inspector for most of the stages so far. We're quite familiar with the house due to having site access during the build so are going to take care of this last one ourselves. I'm going through our list and matching things to the relevant standard/tolerance so that they can see we're not mucking around. They told us this morning that the cleaners are there today - They aren't. And even if they were I'm not sure why they would bother, they haven't even finished painting or fitting off the plumbing. The stupid astounds me! Anyway they're hoping to book us i n for PCI late next week or the week after. STEFF62 Framing should be fine, but he will only be able to nail the baseplates in, I wouldnt think you can dynabolt them after 24 hours. My question is, how is he… 1 5858 8 9901 Houses have been framed on floor joists since settlement, chipboard flooring is only around for 50 years or so, so why would it not be satisfactory? However exercise skill… 3 16836 |