Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15741May 05, 2020 10:02 pm Hi, We are just starting our building journey with Wisdom Homes and this is our first experience at building a new home. We are building the Manhattan 34. I am just wondering what the tiles are like with the $35m tile allowance? Are they ok or will I need to upgrade? Does anyone have any photos of the $35 tile range or upgraded tiles and an estimate of what they paid to upgrade? I don't need anything fancy, just don't want them to look cheap. Thanks, Suzanne. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15742May 06, 2020 7:52 am SuzK Welcome to the forum! There are so many considerations building a new home. Take it slowly and carefully. I went with the basic interior tile package on my recent build which looks fine, not cheap at all. These were Chinese made tiles imported by National Tiles Company. Surfaces such as tiles are really such a personal thing however, and I don't think any photos (even the professional ones) can do them justice. In my case I really had to see and feel the samples first over a period of time to decide. I suggest you give the Wisdom Homes team a call and ask them for some samples to take home and contemplate size, colours and textures. They will be happy to assist you. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15743May 06, 2020 9:46 am Norfolk @SuzK Welcome to the forum! There are so many considerations building a new home. Take it slowly and carefully. I went with the basic interior tile package on my recent build which looks fine, not cheap at all. These were Chinese made tiles imported by National Tiles Company. Surfaces such as tiles are really such a personal thing however, and I don't think any photos (even the professional ones) can do them justice. In my case I really had to see and feel the samples first over a period of time to decide. I suggest you give the Wisdom Homes team a call and ask them for some samples to take home and contemplate size, colours and textures. They will be happy to assist you. Thank you so much! It is easy to get carried away with how beautiful the display homes are, and I was worried that with the allocated tile allowance it may end up not looking nearly as good. It is great to hear that the basic tile package looks good. I am just looking at the costs rising and was getting worried that once I got to Canvas Quarter I would completely blow my Budget! Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15744May 06, 2020 10:00 am SuzK Norfolk @SuzK Welcome to the forum! There are so many considerations building a new home. Take it slowly and carefully. I went with the basic interior tile package on my recent build which looks fine, not cheap at all. These were Chinese made tiles imported by National Tiles Company. Surfaces such as tiles are really such a personal thing however, and I don't think any photos (even the professional ones) can do them justice. In my case I really had to see and feel the samples first over a period of time to decide. I suggest you give the Wisdom Homes team a call and ask them for some samples to take home and contemplate size, colours and textures. They will be happy to assist you. Thank you so much! It is easy to get carried away with how beautiful the display homes are, and I was worried that with the allocated tile allowance it may end up not looking nearly as good. It is great to hear that the basic tile package looks good. I am just looking at the costs rising and was getting worried that once I got to Canvas Quarter I would completely blow my Budget! Hi Suz, Word of warning that you will blow the budget, I did not select high grade tiles but any extras quickly add up!! I decided that tiles and kitchen was the one place I would compromise as they are the most frequently renovated spaces in a home and I will likely want to refresh in 10 or so years anyway even if I did spend a fortune. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15745May 06, 2020 11:43 am Ambassador36 SuzK Norfolk @SuzK Welcome to the forum! There are so many considerations building a new home. Take it slowly and carefully. I went with the basic interior tile package on my recent build which looks fine, not cheap at all. These were Chinese made tiles imported by National Tiles Company. Surfaces such as tiles are really such a personal thing however, and I don't think any photos (even the professional ones) can do them justice. In my case I really had to see and feel the samples first over a period of time to decide. I suggest you give the Wisdom Homes team a call and ask them for some samples to take home and contemplate size, colours and textures. They will be happy to assist you. Thank you so much! It is easy to get carried away with how beautiful the display homes are, and I was worried that with the allocated tile allowance it may end up not looking nearly as good. It is great to hear that the basic tile package looks good. I am just looking at the costs rising and was getting worried that once I got to Canvas Quarter I would completely blow my Budget! Hi Suz, Word of warning that you will blow the budget, I did not select high grade tiles but any extras quickly add up!! I decided that tiles and kitchen was the one place I would compromise as they are the most frequently renovated spaces in a home and I will likely want to refresh in 10 or so years anyway even if I did spend a fortune. I think the standard range only goes up to 450x450 so if you want 600x600, that’s an upgrade Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15747May 10, 2020 1:07 pm We are in a quiet street pretty much dead end road. Everyone said no traffic management is required. But about a month ago, we suddenly received a building variation for traffic management taken place a year ago back in Jun 2019. We were not expecting this. We had a change in SS just about 2 months ago, and the previous SS told us we have paid all of our invoices up to date and no traffic management was required for our street. Wisdom told us they were disputing 2 out of the 4 invoices with the traffic management provider. We followed up with the CSR whether those were mistaken to another Wisdom customer, but she said there were video footage and invoices she could provide as proof. It had been another 2 weeks we have no update nor received any evidence nor invoices from Wisdom in regards to this matter. Has anyone else been in this situation? Should I be concerned that they will try to add this to the final progress payment? Or should I just assume everything is ok and been taken care of? Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15748May 11, 2020 12:36 pm Yara, Regarding your post on 10.05.2020 about an unexpected invoice for traffic control from Wisdom Homes - even if they exist, such emails, pictures, videos and suppliers' invoices mentioned by the CSR as 'proof' are not any basis for you to be suddenly legally or morally obliged to pay anything extra to Wisdom for traffic control services thy say were performed outside your block 1 year ago. You did not agree to traffic control and there is no agreed contract variation. It seems Wisdom Homes may have made an accounting mistake. These belated traffic control expenses could be for someone else's build and nothing to do with yours. Give Wisdom Homes a fair and reasonable opportunity to explain themselves. Your CSR has already checked internally and with the traffic control company so the information is there. Ask Wisdom Homes to explain themselves in writing. Send this request by registered mail, and as well as a pdf version attached to email. If your printer faxes send it this way as well. Your earlier post on 10.05.2020 about this is well written and is a good basis for your letter. Ask Wisdom Homes general manager to investigate the issue and respond with comments in writing within 3 working days for your further consideration. I am sure Wisdom Homes would want to clear this issue up quickly so they can direct their traffic control invoice to the correct customer and receive payment from them ASAP. If Wisdom Homes' other past and current customers have experienced similar issues this should be of concern to their management and their owner. If you receive no meaningful written explanation from Wisdom Homes regarding this issue this is definitely not OK, and I suggest consider taking appropriate actions, with appropriate 3rd parties, at an appropriate time after handover. As you reasonably question, has anyone else been in this situation? Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15749May 12, 2020 5:19 pm SuzK Hi, We are just starting our building journey with Wisdom Homes and this is our first experience at building a new home. We are building the Manhattan 34. I am just wondering what the tiles are like with the $35m tile allowance? Are they ok or will I need to upgrade? Does anyone have any photos of the $35 tile range or upgraded tiles and an estimate of what they paid to upgrade? I don't need anything fancy, just don't want them to look cheap. Thanks, Suzanne We did most of our tiles within that allowance (Hamptons styling). One exception we made was to get wood-look tiles instead of floorboards. Be mindful that you may have to pay extra labor costs if you buy large/heavy tiles (like my wood-look ones). This was a couple of thousand on top of the extra tile costs ($99m). Luckily, we had an additional P.A. in our tender for tiling! I can recommend that you visit a DiLorenzo showroom ahead of CQ. They have styling-boards on display that show you potential matches and colour options. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15750May 13, 2020 1:19 pm If you live in Sydney then Di Lorenzo tiles is where you want to go and have a preview (if they are opened). However not all their style boards are applicable to wisdom’s builders range. Archblds SuzK Hi, We are just starting our building journey with Wisdom Homes and this is our first experience at building a new home. We are building the Manhattan 34. I am just wondering what the tiles are like with the $35m tile allowance? Are they ok or will I need to upgrade? Does anyone have any photos of the $35 tile range or upgraded tiles and an estimate of what they paid to upgrade? I don't need anything fancy, just don't want them to look cheap. Thanks, Suzanne We did most of our tiles within that allowance (Hamptons styling). One exception we made was to get wood-look tiles instead of floorboards. Be mindful that you may have to pay extra labor costs if you buy large/heavy tiles (like my wood-look ones). This was a couple of thousand on top of the extra tile costs ($99m). Luckily, we had an additional P.A. in our tender for tiling! I can recommend that you visit a DiLorenzo showroom ahead of CQ. They have styling-boards on display that show you potential matches and colour options. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15751May 14, 2020 7:18 am Definitely take a look at Di Lorenzo, some of the other project home builders use them as well. I think their prices become more expensive for the really nice looking large tiles. It can make a house look really grand if you can afford it. I think almost everyone will do upgrades. Depends if you want to go floor to ceiling tiles in bathrooms too and the package you get. They probably are a bit more expensive than some other cheaper flooring companies. Probably if something goes wrong they can always fix it. Archblds SuzK Hi, We are just starting our building journey with Wisdom Homes and this is our first experience at building a new home. We are building the Manhattan 34. I am just wondering what the tiles are like with the $35m tile allowance? Are they ok or will I need to upgrade? Does anyone have any photos of the $35 tile range or upgraded tiles and an estimate of what they paid to upgrade? I don't need anything fancy, just don't want them to look cheap. Thanks, Suzanne We did most of our tiles within that allowance (Hamptons styling). One exception we made was to get wood-look tiles instead of floorboards. Be mindful that you may have to pay extra labor costs if you buy large/heavy tiles (like my wood-look ones). This was a couple of thousand on top of the extra tile costs ($99m). Luckily, we had an additional P.A. in our tender for tiling! I can recommend that you visit a DiLorenzo showroom ahead of CQ. They have styling-boards on display that show you potential matches and colour options. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15753May 14, 2020 7:22 am Definitely get them to inspect early or before on the day they pour. Some will also checl piering if required. malypetu Hi All, Does anybody have any information in regards to Independent inspector and the fact they inspect the slab only after it has been constructed? Seems pointless to inspect something that is very difficult to fix at that stage. Any suggestions? On another topic, We have the impression that things at Wisdom are moving very slowly, does anybody share this concern? Is there anything we can do to speed things up? Cheers Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15754May 14, 2020 7:24 am Lucky. Any pictures of your build? How is it progressing? Funk52 Home_17 Hi Funk52: I had same problem as you got.My brick fence and DA condition was not match.So I need to do S4.55 to get ride off fence.Did you get Wisdom or another company to do the change? Wisdom told me My case closed,I need get someone slse to do the plan change.It will get trouble with PCA? Thanks In my case I was actually advised by Wisdom earlier on "in writing" that I wouldn't have any issues with compliance if I chose not to put in the brick fence. Because of this they amended the plans and resubmitted to Council at no cost to me. I can't believe I have to go through this process again, which includes sending letters out to the neighbours, just to not install a front fence. One win I did have though is I noticed that only the driveway on the plans was in coloured concrete while the crossover was shown in plain concrete. SBAC would have expected me to follow the plan, but I checked with Council and they allowed coloured concrete all the way. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15755May 15, 2020 1:53 pm I felt very startled today. We had just completed flooring. I was asked to go in the house to take a look. It felt like I was being reprimanded in an angry tone. For a customer who is paying hundreds of thousands to have what felt like being talked to in such a rude and aggressive manner was just not acceptable. We have a new site supervisor and area manager near the end of the build. We have never been spoken like this from the previous Site supervisor, or anyone from Wisdom. We then had a conversation with the new area manager who said that the staff member was also short with them this morning, and apologised. The excuse was that the new SS was sick and really should not have been at work today. We were told there was dust inside and it needs to be cleaned. Fair enough. We can raise this with the flooring company, anyone can. But to have it as what felt like a rude reprimand to us personally did not feel like good customer service at all. This is happening after PCI. There are a number of things we are waiting on updates for. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15756May 15, 2020 5:19 pm Agree with Norfolk. It's probably a mistake. It's such a long time ago. They would have talked to you about it or sent a variation back then. Norfolk @Yara, Regarding your post on 10.05.2020 about an unexpected invoice for traffic control from Wisdom Homes - even if they exist, such emails, pictures, videos and suppliers' invoices mentioned by the CSR as 'proof' are not any basis for you to be suddenly legally or morally obliged to pay anything extra to Wisdom for traffic control services thy say were performed outside your block 1 year ago. You did not agree to traffic control and there is no agreed contract variation. It seems Wisdom Homes may have made an accounting mistake. These belated traffic control expenses could be for someone else's build and nothing to do with yours. Give Wisdom Homes a fair and reasonable opportunity to explain themselves. Your CSR has already checked internally and with the traffic control company so the information is there. Ask Wisdom Homes to explain themselves in writing. Send this request by registered mail, and as well as a pdf version attached to email. If your printer faxes send it this way as well. Your earlier post on 10.05.2020 about this is well written and is a good basis for your letter. Ask Wisdom Homes general manager to investigate the issue and respond with comments in writing within 3 working days for your further consideration. I am sure Wisdom Homes would want to clear this issue up quickly so they can direct their traffic control invoice to the correct customer and receive payment from them ASAP. If Wisdom Homes' other past and current customers have experienced similar issues this should be of concern to their management and their owner. If you receive no meaningful written explanation from Wisdom Homes regarding this issue this is definitely not OK, and I suggest consider taking appropriate actions, with appropriate 3rd parties, at an appropriate time after handover. As you reasonably question, has anyone else been in this situation? Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15757May 15, 2020 5:23 pm That doesn't sound good at all mate. They could have just called the other company. I hope it's not what happens because of PCI. Yara I felt very startled today. We had just completed flooring. I was asked to go in the house to take a look. It felt like I was being reprimanded in an angry tone. For a customer who is paying hundreds of thousands to have what felt like being talked to in such a rude and aggressive manner was just not acceptable. We have a new site supervisor and area manager near the end of the build. We have never been spoken like this from the previous Site supervisor, or anyone from Wisdom. We then had a conversation with the new area manager who said that the staff member was also short with them this morning, and apologised. The excuse was that the new SS was sick and really should not have been at work today. We were told there was dust inside and it needs to be cleaned. Fair enough. We can raise this with the flooring company, anyone can. But to have it as what felt like a rude reprimand to us personally did not feel like good customer service at all. This is happening after PCI. There are a number of things we are waiting on updates for. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15758May 15, 2020 5:26 pm How did it go in the end? Home_17 Funk52 CS199 What have you guys used the $5500 landscaping gift voucher on if not getting Wisdom to do the entire landscaping. There is so much markup in everything they do The other thing you have to watch out for is how easy it is to change the plans if you change your mind about what you want. For example I had a front brick fence in my plan but decided later on to make it a hedge instead. Because my original plan was approved under a DA this amendment has to go through a similar process, so could take a month or more to get approved. Bottom line is if you are not sure about something don't put it in the plan, or go with an option that is easy to change later. Hi Funk52: I had same problem as you got.My brick fence and DA condition was not match.So I need to do S4.55 to get ride off fence.Did you get Wisdom or another company to do the change? Wisdom told me My case closed,I need get someone slse to do the plan change.It will get trouble with PCA? Thanks Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15760May 20, 2020 5:13 pm Hello, anyone who used houspect as their independent inspector? Could you please let me know if they do the final inspection before PCI or after PCI. Our site supervisor is pushing back their request to have pci before houspect inspection. TIA Can someone please offer some advice? Im DESPERATE. Because I'm completely and utterly exhausted. How long are variations taking with other companies at the moment? We… 0 18470 In fairness nobody gave a crap about the ACCC and the gag clauses continued in the pro forma templates of a few other builders after the ACCC took on Wisdom, and more… 19 73480 Hi Everyone, I am exploring builder in NSW and received a very tempting quote from Wisdom home for their momentum series. I just want to know experience of building… 0 8240 |