Browse Forums Building A New House Stair & window options for Sandringham 2Jun 17, 2014 9:07 pm Hi, We are about to start building with PD and confused on stair options. Has anyone done traditional stair option 4? Also how did people modify/change the window of bedroom 4 which is tiny on standard plan? Thanks. Building Porter Davis Sandringham 45 + alfresco + extra dining room Melbourne Inner East http://knockdownrebuildjourney.blogspot.com.au/ Re: Building a Sandringham by Porter Davis 3Jul 29, 2014 11:45 pm Lots of questions if anyone able to answer them. We've just had our Tender appt and now awaiting our colours, electrical and tiles appts next week. Anyone got tips? Im reading as many posts as I can and we were super organised but it didn't prepare me for last weeks lack of preparation PD did. What have people down for sound proofing between upstairs and downstairs? They said NO to insulation. I really don't want to hear our 4 kids walking above us, anyone got tips? Our Tender meeting was a disorganised long day that finished at 630pm and still wasnt right or finished; Im now really nervous about all the next appointments and what I should expect. Has anyone been told their build is a "big job" and then felt like PD hadn't prepared or done such a job before? We've accepted many things cant be done as PD have contracts with certain suppliers for their prestige homes but annoyed the sales team werent aware & suggested we should have them. FYI A&L doors cant be installed in prestige homes despite being lovely solid doors that lots of other PD houses have. Electrical appointment - those that did LED downlights do you get prewiring done or just get PD to do it all? anyone get extra heating vents in ensuite bathroom or laundry? extraction fans in toilets vented into walls, how will this work if insulation insitu? Do people talk via BC or just bypass them and go SS? So far Im vague as what BC actually does? We've added alfresco x2 and this has now changed our windows upstairs, what size windows have others had? Building Porter Davis Sandringham 45 + alfresco + extra dining room Melbourne Inner East http://knockdownrebuildjourney.blogspot.com.au/ Re: Building a Sandringham by Porter Davis 4Aug 27, 2014 8:31 pm Hi Sandy45! Just found this thread (sorry!). We are close to completing our Sandringham 45 so will post some feedback soon. Knockdown rebuild in zone 4 Sandringham 45 with Alfresco option Illinois Facade Re: Building a Sandringham by Porter Davis 5Aug 27, 2014 10:42 pm What stage are you at now? The Tender/Contract process is very tedious and frustrating, I agree. Make sure you check (and recheck) line by line. Don't let them skip ahead before you are ready to. That goes for the entire build process Also ask to talk to the right people. The knowledge gap we found was with anything outside of Electrical or Colours area, which would be referred back to the BC. For us, we noticed it most with our questions for the double glazing and cooling options. Don't expect the BC to have the technical knowledge on these things, that's not their field of expertise. You will save time and get further by speaking with the suppliers themselves then requesting a quote through your BC with your requirements. Our stairs are Contemporary Stair Option 2 glass - just like on display at Harcrest. We also did the void in glass. We left all window sizing as standard. We were okay with it being a smaller high window in Bedroom 4 as it will be a second study for us. Are A&L doors like the fancy one they have on display in the Lounge room? If so, we had that in our original quote but it was very pricey. We opted for "standard" cavity sliding doors instead and went for a configuration of 2x 820mm wide sliding doors. We added cavity sliding doors to all WIRs, the Pantry and the Ensuite. Our rule of thumb for downlights was 1) downstairs everywhere we wanted it, just do it now, rather than go through the hassle of doing it later. And we had heard it isn't always easy for an electrician to work with the ground floor electrical of a 2-storey home. So we have them downstairs everywhere, except Study and Laundry 2) upstairs anywhere that was "open planned" visually. So we have them in the activity room, stair void area, area between bedrooms, and over the vanities in the bathrooms. We opted for ice add on cooling. We found out that there are 6 outlets downstairs. There should be 2 in the family room. This didn't show up on the "standard" plan we were given but it was showing up on the plans that the heating/cooling installers had when we spoke with them to discuss our requirements. This means you can have have 2 zones downstairs. We added outlets to the bathrooms upstairs so we could zone the the activity room separate to the bedrooms. We also got a quote with a third party installer to get an idea of price for post-handover and it was not that much of a difference in the end because of all the provisioning PD had to do anyway. We didn't insulate between floors. We did however opt to get the highest category underlay for the carpet. Hopefully this reduces the noise. We added an extractor fan to the Laundry and it vents externally. All our fans are ceiling mounted. For ground floor, they are vented externally. The duct (flexi piping stuff) runs in bewteen the floors, to vent through an external wall. Hope that makes sense, as I am not sure of your question re: insulation. For the upstairs, the fans vent into the roof space. We have a whirly bird that meets the ventiliation requirements apparently. Knockdown rebuild in zone 4 Sandringham 45 with Alfresco option Illinois Facade Re: Building a Sandringham by Porter Davis 6Aug 28, 2014 11:05 am Thanks so much Newhouse101. Great info and advice. We have now survived our tender, selections and contract meetings. We have many things to say about how PD deal with things prior to Contract, lots of handballing to BC but BC never answers any questions until contract meeting which drove us mad. At our contract meeting the BC was able to do modifications as requested but because he didn't answer any of our questions before contract (give several weeks) it has left us with lots of post contract variations pending and costings pending. This is soooo frustrating because the ultimate decision to include, exclude extras is based on our budget which will still don't know what it is and its over a week post contract now.... tick tick boom goes the budget but bad luck if we can't afford it as we've signed now! Our contract meeting took 2 days as there just isn't time in that one meeting for BC to do everything. We've been asking for a single pane of glass in master ensuite shower instead of stegbar showerscreens since pre tender yet here we are after contract and they STILL havent done it. ANNOYING. Insulation we still haven't added extra as BC said to do as post contract variation just pre site build in case 6* energy rating adds more anyway. Electrical - wow we spent a lot and did downlights everywhere but left of security and intercom etc, just got prewiring done as so much cheaper post handover. Still waiting to check that smoke alarms on own electrical circuit as we are putting timer on lights so they turn off over shabbat automatically. Also in areas where they are forced to put sensor lights outside we are just doing junction points so we dont do sensor lights. In our alfresco and dining room (both added extra rooms downstairs) we are doing pendants lights and fans post handover. Windows - we ended up changed ALL windows to awning and many of them top opening awnings to make them look better in open areas out the back next to fireplace. Also got double glazing on every window, ouch that hurt the budget. The bedroom 4 which has to be opaque we made a big window and apparently post hand over can remove the glass and make it normal glass! Oh and we made sure ALL windows were centered especially the 2 bedrooms upstairs at the back of house. Because we have added a dining room and alfresco to downstairs these 2 bedroom windows were off center due to height of roofing below so we got them to drop the roof pitch on these 2 roofs to 18 degrees instead of standard 22 degree pitch. This allowed us to get bigger and centered windows in these back upper bedrooms. Sadly the A&L windows we were not allowed due to PD contract with Stegbar when building prestige homes. boo hoo. The new world of style was great but again pricing was handballed back to BC or is post contract variation. Electrical team were brilliant. Kitchen culture team good but expensive. How's your build going? Would love to see photos and to know of any tips along the way, hiccups or positive? Ive started a blog now for friends but feel free to look at it http://knockdownrebuildjourney.blogspot.com.au/ Building Porter Davis Sandringham 45 + alfresco + extra dining room Melbourne Inner East http://knockdownrebuildjourney.blogspot.com.au/ Re: Building a Sandringham by Porter Davis 7Aug 28, 2014 10:31 pm Hi Sandy45 Your experience sounds similar to ours. But it did all come together at the end. Will fix up my blog over the weekend so you can have a look at your future ha ha. A few things come to mind for what to look out for. One thing we missed was checking the bulkheads in our plans because of two reasons 1) we were only provided with drawings of our kitchen and laundry for the first time at our contract appointment and 2) we had asked for it to be like on display so didn't think to check the bulkheads and it isn't obvious on the plans. The kitchen on display at Harcrest has a bulkhead which is flush with the overhead cabinets. Our plans had it protruding past the cabinets. i.e. the cabinets are 320mm deep and the bulkhead is 400mm. The bulkhead frame also ran short a few mm when to the run of the overhead cabinets, so overall it looked ill fitting because on one hand it overhung and on the other it was short. That is when we noticed it, and it looked low quality. PD allowed us to have this fixed but at our cost due to the fiddly nature of the fix. We accepted the cost, as we did miss it in the plans. The laundry on display has a bulkhead which is flush with the overhead cabinets. Our plans had no bulkhead above our laundry overhead cabinets. And again we missed this because we had said "as on display". PD agreed to fix this at no cost to us, which was a nice gesture, largely because it was a simple fix. Also not sure if you considered this for your double glazing, but we also added Low E - so it was 4mm Low E (Planitherm) / 12mm gap (air) / 4mm Low E (Energy Advantage) on all stegbar windows and sliding doors. We also upgraded the glass on the Corinthian doors including the front door sidelights to have Low E. The feature opening in the Study - check to make sure the height of the opening is in line with the door frame height. We opted for 9 foot ceilings (not an inclusion at the time) and went for the taller doors, but the feature opening was left as it was in the standard plan and it's height was not automatically adjusted to be higher. We had this fixed. We also got them to ensure the height of the Ensuite / WIR openings aligned to the door frame heights also. If I think of anything else, I will post it. Knockdown rebuild in zone 4 Sandringham 45 with Alfresco option Illinois Facade Re: Building a Sandringham by Porter Davis 8Aug 29, 2014 10:48 am Great advice. I hadn't even thought about bulkheads, will go and look at plans now as thats really important in the kitchen as we changed a lot of it and extended. I didn't even know the options for double glazing beyond just double glazing, might be too late to change that. The feature openings we closed them all as the study will have full floor to ceiling bookshelves on one side and the other side is custom desk & overhead shleves. Also fully soundproofed that area. We also did increased ceiling heights to lower and upper levels. Didn't change door heights upstairs but changed all door heights downstairs where possible. Look forward to seeing your blog and our future! Building Porter Davis Sandringham 45 + alfresco + extra dining room Melbourne Inner East http://knockdownrebuildjourney.blogspot.com.au/ Re: Building a Sandringham by Porter Davis 9Aug 30, 2014 1:36 pm Uploaded some photos here http://ourhousebuild2014.blogspot.com.au/ I just uploaded some to show progress. If there is anything in particular you wanted to see, PM me and I will see if I have a photo of it I hope to get some really good photos of all the completed rooms soon. Knockdown rebuild in zone 4 Sandringham 45 with Alfresco option Illinois Facade Re: Building a Sandringham by Porter Davis 10Sep 09, 2014 10:54 am newhouse101 Uploaded some photos here http://ourhousebuild2014.blogspot.com.au/ I just uploaded some to show progress. If there is anything in particular you wanted to see, PM me and I will see if I have a photo of it I hope to get some really good photos of all the completed rooms soon. Wow great to see some pics of what we might be getting. How long was your block? Do you have much room at the back of the house? Im nervous we wont have as much room as I think we have & we have plans for a pool and garden area, nervous. We chose to do the Upperstairs Master bedroom option which closes off the void, I hope this doesn't make the downstairs area too dark, yours look lovely and bright. Currently Im negotiating with council for a setback of 8m rather than 9m and new laws have now made us change the pitch of our room, unsure yet but might have to make pitch of roof to 18degrees because house height must be under 8m now. annoying. Did they damage your fence during construction? I have to get new fence next week but worried they might destroy it during build. Building Porter Davis Sandringham 45 + alfresco + extra dining room Melbourne Inner East http://knockdownrebuildjourney.blogspot.com.au/ Re: Building a Sandringham by Porter Davis 11Sep 14, 2014 5:33 pm Hi Sandy45 Our block is about 45m deep. We have a 9m front setback.The back of the house to the rear fence is about 14.3m, and where the alfresco is, its 9.54m to the rear fence. We probably won't put a pool in. Just some grass for the kids and dogs to play on. We were very concerned about ensuring our house had plenty of natural light coming in so we kept the void. It would have been nice to be able to have the upstairs master floorplan WITH a void But we couldn't have both so went with the void. Good luck with the setback, I hope you are able to get your 8m. There is probably a good chance your new fence will get disturbed by the build if they need to work close up to it. Is there any chance your neighbour will let you put it in a little further inside their property boundary as a temporary measure, and move it back into the correct position after you build? Would recommend taking photos once it is installed, and keep an eye on it. If any damage occurs, raise it straight away. No progress to report on for our build PD say they are aiming to address the mistakes/damage/poorly finished items that we have pointed out to them, and finish our house by this coming Friday, ready for their quality inspection. I suspect it may take a few more weeks (and arguments about replace vs fix) to get there. We will have our independent inspection after that. We have started getting quotes for our driveway and paths around the house. I think we have decided to do exposed aggregate driveway and path along the front of the house. Coloured concrete for the paths along the sides/ rear of the house and decking on the front Porch and Alfresco. We also need to start thinking about what to do for our window furnishings. So much $$$.... Someone has left a damaged wheely bin on our nature strip this past week. It isn't ours (we checked). *Sigh* during the build so far we have had a queen size mattress, empty boxes, and other hard rubbish items dumped on our nature strip. Knockdown rebuild in zone 4 Sandringham 45 with Alfresco option Illinois Facade Re: Building a Sandringham by Porter Davis 12Sep 16, 2014 7:52 am Wow our blocks sound the same. I am worried about natural light issue too but the fact I wanted our room upstairs and no noise from downstairs coming up void means we lost the void. Fingers crossed enough light comes in as backyard north facing. Window furnishing are $$$ yet to decide on that. Thinking same driveway as you too. Our fence going up this week but tree stump not grinded enough do have to get that done again. Re: Building a Sandringham by Porter Davis 13Sep 16, 2014 10:02 pm We are "south facing" into the back yard, so you should be okay? We also added in wall lights either side of the ground level windows under the "void" as well, incase we found it too dark with downlighting. Knockdown rebuild in zone 4 Sandringham 45 with Alfresco option Illinois Facade Re: Building a Sandringham by Porter Davis 14Sep 25, 2014 9:31 pm I checked your blogs and they were quite informative. All the best of your journey. We are also doing a knockdown and rebuild of Sandrigham 45 in South East suburb. Currently demolishing is underway, happy to discuss any topic related to this house. Building Porter Davis Sandrigham 45 Check our journey @ http://sandringham45-pd.blogspot.com.au/ Re: Building a Sandringham by Porter Davis 15Oct 08, 2014 10:49 am Sandrigham45 I checked your blogs and they were quite informative. All the best of your journey. We are also doing a knockdown and rebuild of Sandrigham 45 in South East suburb. Currently demolishing is underway, happy to discuss any topic related to this house. Hi, just saw your post. How is your KDR going? I've just discovered so much that needs doing between the demolishment and before they start. Make sure you keep in contact with BC that 2nd soil survey done as soon as your house gone. Also get a reestablishment survey done which checks boundaries and datum levels. Oh united energy are SUPER SLOW at doing anything so keep a check on the dates of how long its taking to get your electrical pit application quote and then for it to be dug. Building Porter Davis Sandringham 45 + alfresco + extra dining room Melbourne Inner East http://knockdownrebuildjourney.blogspot.com.au/ Re: Building a Sandringham by Porter Davis 16Dec 03, 2014 4:00 pm I have updated the blog with current process. The site cost has increased by $12,000 after second soil test. Does not know how they managed to under-quote so much? Building Porter Davis Sandrigham 45 Check our journey @ http://sandringham45-pd.blogspot.com.au/ Re: Building a Sandringham by Porter Davis 17Dec 03, 2014 5:33 pm Sandrigham45 I have updated the blog with current process. The site cost has increased by $12,000 after second soil test. Does not know how they managed to under-quote so much? Hi they just started our site on fri and we still didn't have site costs until Monday despite 2nd soil test over a mth ago. Same costs for us. Bugger re yours, how low was initial quote? We have flat land but a bit sandy I think. Still waiting for insulation variation. Every meeting at every stage we've been hand balled re extra insulation and it's still happening. Hope we get it before it's too late. Re: Building a Sandringham by Porter Davis 18Dec 04, 2014 12:30 pm My extra insulation was part of my second last PCV - I had to ask my BC for a quote on it, specifying what I wanted. Email them with a 'please quote me for xR in walls and yR for ceiling insulation upgrade' type of thing? Good luck with it - the Sandringham 45 was my favourite plan for ages, I had to give it up and downsize to the Hoffman in the end but still have Sandringham envy. Land settled May '14. Building the PD Hoffman39: 5/11=site start, 13/11=slab pour, 26/11=frame complete, 10/12=roof on, 12/12=bricking started. Blog: http://jyndeira.net/blog/ Re: Building a Sandringham by Porter Davis 19Dec 04, 2014 5:25 pm dragonchild My extra insulation was part of my second last PCV - I had to ask my BC for a quote on it, specifying what I wanted. Email them with a 'please quote me for xR in walls and yR for ceiling insulation upgrade' type of thing? Good luck with it - the Sandringham 45 was my favourite plan for ages, I had to give it up and downsize to the Hoffman in the end but still have Sandringham envy. Yes I have no idea really what insulation I want but I know standard isn't much. And I really want floors roof done. Not sure why I'm stressed over having PVCs it seems like more errors possible the more you have. I love sandringham too especially as we have narrow block and lots of others wouldn't fit. Re: Building a Sandringham by Porter Davis 20Feb 02, 2015 8:23 pm Sandrigham45 I have updated the blog with current process. The site cost has increased by $12,000 after second soil test. Does not know how they managed to under-quote so much? Hi Sandringham45, I checked your blog. Have they started the frame yet? Interestingly, we are building Sandringham 45 in the same suburb as yours. We are in the Essex Heights area - you? PM me if interested. We are behind you in build but I have a close mate who did a PD build so have some feedback from him. We have our WOS appointment next week. Just getting frustrated with the BC perceived lack of help. She just flobs us off to tender stage. So frustrating trying to gauge a price as we are entertaining the idea of installing a pool. Really not sure her role yet. Anyway good luck with it all. Keep in touch would be great to watch your progress. Have a feeling it will keep us all sane. Will try get a blog up myself. cheers AJ Three options 1 Ask the liquidator 2 Find another PD customer and ask the source of their report 3 Pay for new report 3 12345 go upvc window frames ensure insulation under colorbond. not just sarking, lighter color roof also not sure if you have seen this viewtopic.php?t=5823 last couple of pages… 4 110592 |