Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Building with a builder with bad reviews 2Mar 27, 2014 2:41 pm 101 Residential in Burns Beach viewtopic.php?f=31&t=67711 Shire Approval 31.12.13 Slab Down 15.02.14 Moved in 14.10.14 Re: Building with a builder with bad reviews 4Mar 27, 2014 3:40 pm Need hints, tips and inspiration? Join me on my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ournewhomecoach Who am I? See my LinkedIn page: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jennifer-crawford/1a/429/296 Re: Building with a builder with bad reviews 5Mar 27, 2014 3:46 pm Demo + Build in Rivervale, Western Australia Moved in June 2014 http://rivervale.tumblr.com/ Building Thread Re: Building with a builder with bad reviews 6Mar 27, 2014 3:53 pm Demo + Build in Rivervale, Western Australia Moved in June 2014 http://rivervale.tumblr.com/ Building Thread Re: Building with a builder with bad reviews 8Mar 27, 2014 6:21 pm My build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=70636&p=1161767#p1161767 Re: Building with a builder with bad reviews 9Mar 28, 2014 8:49 am 101 Residential in Burns Beach viewtopic.php?f=31&t=67711 Shire Approval 31.12.13 Slab Down 15.02.14 Moved in 14.10.14 Re: Building with a builder with bad reviews 10Mar 28, 2014 9:08 am 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: Building with a builder with bad reviews 11Mar 29, 2014 11:53 pm Building with Dale Alcock Homes in Aveley Our thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=63880 And yes, my pants are indeed fancy. Re: Building with a builder with bad reviews 13Mar 30, 2014 2:10 pm Bluesuede The thing to bear in mind with large builders is that due to the volume of work you don't have the same people on site at each build. They use different site supervisors, and tender out work to different trades. So despite the overall management laying with the main office, one person's build can be a completely different experience to someone else's. Quality of work, attention to detail, picking up and rectifying issues can vary from site to site. Yes there's been a particularly vocal critic posting in various places but that person's experience, whilst perhaps having valid problems to complain about, isn't necessarily indicative of the company's usual quality of build. You have to take internet reviews with a grain of salt. You don't know who they are, whether they're real or fabricated by competitors, and also bear in mind as already pointed out, people will be much more likely to broadcast negative experiences than positive ones. Find other customers, talk to them, go look at finished examples of work, and retain an independent inspector for your own peace of mind. Well said bluesuede you can not choose your sub tradies just cross your fingers and hope for the best Re: Building with a builder with bad reviews 14Apr 03, 2014 4:34 pm Thank you all, those are very positive message. hopefully I will be able to start a thread a showing the different stage of my house, tough, mine is a very small one. Thanks again, i just feel a lot more confident, never thought I would ever buy off the plan, it just happened suddenly. =) Re: Building with a builder with bad reviews 15Jul 04, 2014 7:20 pm Howdy, Sorry to bump up an old thread, but found this whilst browsing the forums and thought it was semi relevant to what i've been looking at as well. My builder has some pretty bad reviews online from a general search, on their facebook page and some average comments on Homeone. Additionally i couldn't find any build threads from people building with them either. On the flip side, friends of mine built with them just under 5 years ago and had a pretty smooth build and were overall quite happy with everything. So far i've swung both ways and haven't even got a building contract as yet. Initially they were fantastic to work with. Sales rep was extremely helpful from forwarding release information from various estates, checking over lists of blocks i was considering to ensure the house designs would fit and so on. Even when i ended up having to make a yes or no decision on a block that was substantially smaller than i wanted within the space of about 1.5 hours, the sales rep was again really helpful - on the spot gave me a list of suitable floor plans that would work with the block and even emailed me some information to look through. Great communication during the initial stages too, any variation requests were costed and back to me within a week or two. Plan changes were drawn and sent back quite quickly as well. Then came the time to sign the PWA, and from then communication or progress basically stopped. As the land wasn't yet titled, i didn't push at all, just waited and was patient. However push came to shove, the land should have been titled a few weeks back and i was still waiting on the last bunch of variation costings to be confirmed. After a rather shirty email to the sales rep i had everything finished within about 4 days. Now just to wait for contracts. So i guess my advice, and hopefully advice i'll take onboard myself is that yes take everything you read online with a grain of salt, however also be prepared to act in your own interests to make sure you have a successful build. In hind site i should have jumped up and down 2 months ago and pushed harder for things to be done. Rest assured i won't be so patient moving forward. Other thoughts.. - Take note of what people are complaining about, and take steps to avoid that happening to you. IE if it's quality of the work done, make sure you pay close attention during construction. Would also pay to have building inspections done at set intervals as well. If it's the speed of paperwork being completed, then don't be afraid to be a bit pushy. No need to be rude, but just follow up regularly and keep track of dates things are promised. If they don't happen by that day, get in touch and find out why it hasn't been done and what they are doing to fix it. - Have realistic expectations. It's something i see on alot of building threads here. People expect build's to be flawless and perfect. It's simple - there will ALWAYS be issues with your build. Some will be minor, some will be major. It's how the company deals with it that matters. Remember your site supervisor is supervising sometimes 20 - 30 builds at once, so realistically his not there every single day and it may be 3 - 5 days if not longer inbetween visits. If you spot an issue, take a photo and send it through to either the supervisor or your CLO/CLI/officeperson/what ever your builder calls them! - Without being rude, don't be afraid to push the builder to get what your paying for. I essentially rolled over on a few things last time i built during the final inspection. I requested them fixed, they came back and said nothing wrong with them we're not fixing them and i just let it slide. A few of these things whilst minor still bug me now 4 years later. Mostly minor things, IE a scratch in my rear sliding door frame. Thing is, it's not a simple fix either. - Take lots of photo's, they can save your butt later on when the builder denies something. I had a water leak from the taps in my bathroom. First thing the builder said when they came back out was you've changed your taps. I pulled out the photos from the PCI that showed the same taps and he bit his tongue. Note: i expect he would have resolved the issue anyway, but it just saved the arguing over the problem. - Lastly make sure you have a copy of the final drawing/electrical/plumbing/elevation drawings, and that your looking at the final drawings. I recall noticing something wasn't correct during construction, however luckily before i contacted the builder i realized i was looking at an old revision of the floor plans! Re: Building with a builder with bad reviews 17Jul 07, 2014 7:13 am What an epic and helpful post Elemist.............bravo. Saving money on quality stuff done right firstime Our Build Thread https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=66810&p=1094349#p1094349 We are looking to do a KDR with fairhaven homes, Have seen plenty of good reviews about them pre construction and plenty of negative reviews about them during contruction… 0 18192 Hi starting the process of looking around for Dual Occ builders. Looking to build a home shared with family either as a duplex or front back. Has anyone done any recent… 0 2366 Old Home Restoration / Renovation I cannot find a review for the Reblocker I am getting a quote from. Am I doing something wrong, or are numbers of reblockers who hold VBA registration not reviewed on your… 0 2713 |