Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 641May 22, 2014 8:33 pm Upsize, your house is looking great! Looks like a real house now Spoke to the supervisor today. No action for the remainder of this week (bricks half done around the ground level) but the schedule for next week is scaffolding on tuesday, fascia & gutters on wednesday and roof at the end of the week then bricks recommencing the week after. Ses, we didn't go through council (did the CDC route) and although it was meant to take no more than ten days it took the better part of a month and would have been longer if I didn't constantly chase them up (you can see from my earlier posts that it wasn't smooth sailing). Experiences with other posters here have been varied though Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 642May 22, 2014 9:55 pm Ses we also went through CDC, and it was very fast. Didn't take more than 2 weeks could have been less. We also had our plan knocked back as it had to be narrowed, K were great and modified the plan by taking it in by 30cm at no costs. It may have had something to do with clearing it before christmas. Either way impressed with that part of the process. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 645May 25, 2014 8:23 pm Bit annoyed at the end of last week, we got a call from the pool fence hire place that we have to extend our fence hire which I knew was going to happen but what also happened was that we were told that our pool fence didn't cover our whole pool anymore as the person building next door to us has removed their temporary fence therefore leaving a gap in our fence. When I discussed this with the fence company they said it would cost me an extra $140 to rectify the fence. Don't know about you but in my opinion they should have fixed it themselves, as we paid for a temp fence around all our pool not for them to utilise someone else's fence. In the end I refused to pay the extra amount and DH and I went round today and fixed it ourselves, not rocket science! But very annoyed that they didn't do it properly in the first place. So note for anyone else building pool first, make sure your temp fence goes around the whole pool and doesn't rely on anyone else's. As in most circumstances the pool fence will be the last to go, given the house has to be finished before you can finish he pool. And the call themselves experts. The other thing that concerned me was I noticed our pool pipes have moved closer to the pool. Not sure why, but they are definitely too close, we don't want the pool equipment being right next to the coping. Have emailed Supervisor on this one to find out what happened. Will also text pool rep and ask him as well. Very weird and annoying. Really have to watch everything. Which is hard to do when you can't access the site. DH not as annoyed as me, he says they are only pipes and can be moved. I just don't want to be slogged another cost. Guess take this as joys of building! Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 646May 26, 2014 2:54 pm Upsize, agreed we need to check everything and frequently too. We are still waiting in a firm date to order the pool installation. Looking to have the landscaping and permanent fencing done immediately to avoid these extra costs. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 647Jun 04, 2014 7:59 pm It has been quite on here, thankfully our house hasn't been quite. Our bricks, roof, down pipes are finished. AC went in today, sentinel went in today and electrical looks like it starting too. Bricks all cleaned and looking great. Our inspector is going on site on Friday to do a report for us which is exciting, hoping report comes back ok. Must get a photo of the house on here without the scaffold. How is everyone else? Photos? Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 649Jun 05, 2014 7:37 pm OMG, have I been doing some research over the past few weeks... We are finally ready to submit to council and it has been a very long 7 months. Let's hope the council process is quick and easy!... Yeah right We have received our flood study and are paying a fortune in preparation for a 1in100 yr flood which the council solved this problem 15 yrs ago by adding extra drainage in the whole suburb. The council has been kind enough to not allow the storm water drain running through the back yard to be counted as a flood solution so we have to change the house plans we thought we would have an underground 'pit' to collect any possible flood water on the property. After a very extensive flood study we now have to have part of the duplex on brick piers to raise the house 49cm to make way for any floods (that may never even occur) to flow underneath. We will then have the extra cost of stairs/verandahs to all doors (that were not initially needed as the land is flat) extra driveway allowance and then an open space under the house at the end of the build which will need to be 'fenced' in so the dogs don't run away. This will be costing quite a bit of extra money that we weren't counting on so let's hope there are no more surprises. And to top it off, we have just been told that all of our emails have gone unanswered over the last month regarding some internal colour etc questions and additions because the lady that we have been working with has left the company!! I am so glad to hear that you are all getting closer to your 'happy ending'. Once all of your houses have made it into the build process, everything sounds a lot more positive and is giving me something to look forward to Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 650Jun 08, 2014 10:18 pm Hi! We're considering doing a custom build with kurmond homes. Has anyone else used their own plans/designed plans with kurmond? Would love to receive any info about your experiences. Thanks Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 651Jun 09, 2014 9:42 pm Najam we didn't do our own plan but I know others have. Not sure if the current kurmonders have their own plan. Good luck with your decision. Friday we had our own certified inspector check out the house and I am happy to report everything went well. We were very impressed with how our supervisor T handled everything. Only minor things were pointed out but with each thing pointed out T called the trade person who was responsible on the spot and organise them to come and fix it. They also had the construction manager there pointing out things that needed being done. So very impressed with the build process, compared with our first home build this house building process is going heaps better. Hoping things continue, looks like the house will be at lock up on the 23rd, and our fireplace is going in after that. Very exciting to see how it keeps going. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 652Jun 12, 2014 4:47 pm In the last 3 weeks we've had barely any activity. Scaffolding went up back then, roof tiles were delivered but only the fascia and gutter on the 2nd storey has been put up. I've been out of the country for the week so been trying to get in touch with our site supervisor (who I think is the same as yours Upsize) to try find out what's happening. There has been a bit of wet weather but I'm disappointed that the roof still isn't on and we only have a tiny bit of brickwork. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 653Jun 12, 2014 9:18 pm Hi carak777 and the rest of you Kurmond Home builders out there. We are also now committed to building with Kurmond Homes on our land in Normanhurst, in northern Sydney and started our project with them back on 11th Feb 2014. This was only after a 3 month process which eventually eliminated Eden Brae and Clarendon Homes from the tender process for various reasons but mainly based on price and design not being exactly what we wanted. We duly paid our $1500.00 to the very professional KJ at the "Home World" in Kellyville to start the process of the build of our Riviera 33. She seems very attentive and knowledgeable. We like others also have read many blogs regarding Kurmond Homes which had a similar theme of "over promising and under delivering" but after discussions and many reassurances from KJ we decided to take a leap of faith and commit with the next $6000.00 with the balance of our 5% deposit being paid early in May. Truthfully our experience thus far has been pretty much “JUST OK”. Not great and certainly less than what was promised and definitely less than what was expected based on the hype by Kurmond themselves. Let me say that we believe, on what we've seen and heard that Kurmond will eventually build a good home but I believe they still suffer from all the previous problems of the past that people speak of based only on what we've experienced so far. Weather they remain in budget will also remain to be seen. We will be updating our info and experiences as we go for any or all of you who wish to read them. We believe we are level headed, sensible people with realistic expectations so we will try to give an honest and real account of our experiences and feelings and thoughts during this building process. So far, I do have some helpful tips when considering dealing with Kurmond Homes. Tip No1 Don’t get caught up in the advertising that makes you feel that Kurmond is better than any other home builder. Realistically, I believe that the project home building industry as a whole does to a certain extent survive on “over promising and under delivering”. Kurmond is no different. Their frontline sales staff are excellent, slick, knowledgeable and present themselves very well. They remain attentive to your needs and seem genuinely concerned about your progress. The issue seems mainly to be a disconnect between what the sales people tell you and what really happens back at head office. We have only been with Kurmond since February 2014, however, a lot of the things that were mentioned in the blogs are still happening today. Which brings me to tip No 2 Check everything and don’t rely on Kurmond following your instructions when it comes to drawings and specifications. We picked up plenty of errors which can only have come from someone back in head office not checking what they do properly before sending out the revisions. This caused us a lot of delays as every time you have to correct or make a change its back to the back of the cue. They are still understaffed it seems as they always say “how busy they are”. There is a decided lack of attention to detail in the drafting section with plans coming out incorrectly or altered without any explanation relying on just us to find the problems. Tip 3 Get them to clearly state how long something will take and get it in writing because unrealistic timeframes given by Kurmond relating to things like engineering drawings, submissions, specifications and the “Big One” Start Date leave the client angry and frustrated. I would believe that by now a home builder of Kurmond’s size and experience could do better. That said, today we are in receipt of yet another email with the obligatory smiley face at the end of the email warning us of another delay. Brilliant! Anyway to finish off I just want to say that we will of course continue to let you all know how things are going and we will be as quick to say if we are happy with something as we will be determined to say if we are unhappy about something. We hope that our ongoing experiences will be a real life account of “the Kurmond Experience” as Peter K says in the ads he is currently running on the radio. I wish you all well and stay tuned for the next instalment. Please feel free to PM me and I can let you know how we are going and perhaps give some advice along the way. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 654Jun 13, 2014 7:25 pm Welcome Leaanna, yes I have to say you are going through the painful part, just wait until you get to colours. I found that even more painful! in saying that, I am now finding the build process, so far, pleasantly pain free and surprisingly enjoyable. We are already nearly at lock up stage and we had an inspector check out our house last week, DH went to check it today and all things that were mentioned on the report have been fixed and electrical completed and insulation in, now ready for gyprock. DH just said that our sliding door frames also went in. So it seems all systems go. Mckz, we also got a report back from the T that brickies are very booked out at the moment and he said if we started our house a little bit later they would have struggled to book tradies and the progress would have been slow. Sounds like T is as frustrated as you at not being able to get the ball rolling. Hope a slot opens soon for you to get it all happening. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 656Jun 16, 2014 9:54 pm Mars great progress, very exciting tiling, exciting to see colours you have chosen. have they given you an estimate on completion? I saw the plasters at our today. Lock up scheduled still for next week. Our fireplace is getting finalised with all the framing being done according to spec, ready to be installed. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 657Jun 17, 2014 9:57 am UpsizeTime Mars great progress, very exciting tiling, exciting to see colours you have chosen. have they given you an estimate on completion? I saw the plasters at our today. Lock up scheduled still for next week. Our fireplace is getting finalised with all the framing being done according to spec, ready to be installed. Upsize, yes its moving very fast. I'll have a confirmed handover date by tomorrow. Original date was July 3, so I expect to add 3-4 weeks to that. The fireplace sounds nice with this cold weather! Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 658Jun 17, 2014 8:51 pm WOW Mars, that's quick and so exciting. Guess the count down is on. I need to push DH to ask for a date for us. Re: Building with Kurmond Homes 660Jun 19, 2014 8:28 am Hi Everyone, Great progress everyone!! Check out our latest pics below. We are currently at gyprocking and most of the inside seems to be done. We got some Solar panels on the roof for a cleaner wireless finish i guess. Things are going well so far they doing a super job. Bricks look great. Tradies are swift all in all pretty happy. We have another KH build across the Road and they doing pretty good too. Upsize, With the Fireplace did the fireplace ppl need extra brackets/bracing/supports for the actual unit? Hows everyone else going? Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Ask for references and speak to them. If they are defensive or try to avoid the request, walk. 1 74688 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 105494 Hi there! Putting the feelers out there for those who have (or almost) built with Arli homes! Interested in your experiences who've built from their stock home designs… 0 23467 |