Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Aug 22, 2014 7:06 am Hi Seeking advice and experience from anyone who had Rawson do both their knockdown and rebuild. I know Rawson will place builders margin on knockdown however see benefit in having one responsible builder, one tender where knockdown is included. An architect friend also strongly suggests this due to any potential issues down the track regarding the site being incorrectly prepared or warranty claims. The CSO we have dealt with doesn't seem too keen for Rawson to do the knockdown however this occurring with a reasonable quote will be a condition for us. Any experiences? Thank you. Re: KDR with Rawson 2Aug 22, 2014 8:08 am Leksie5000 Hi Seeking advice and experience from anyone who had Rawson do both their knockdown and rebuild. I know Rawson will place builders margin on knockdown however see benefit in having one responsible builder, one tender where knockdown is included. An architect friend also strongly suggests this due to any potential issues down the track regarding the site being incorrectly prepared or warranty claims. The CSO we have dealt with doesn't seem too keen for Rawson to do the knockdown however this occurring with a reasonable quote will be a condition for us. Any experiences? Thank you. We built with Rawson and we told to do the same - the sales person we spoke to said they will do it but they'll just add 20% so it was in our best interest to do it ourselves. He even gave us the number of the person they use. Now we've built and seen others do the same I 100% agree - there is no point in paying your building 20% more. You can use that money at internal selections phase. Its very easy and very little risk - just dont get some backyard person to do it, engage a proper business and you'll be fine. Once they're done they provide the builder with a certificate saying the land is ready. All you need to do is organise is the DA to knock down (call your council for help on this, it can take 4 weeks + so you can do it at any time and I think it lasts for 12 months or something). Once you have DA approval and have picked who is knocking the house down all you need to do is disconnect your gas before they knock down - they do water (cap it) and electricity. Start getting quotes now - they can range from 12k up depending on what and where your knocking down etc. Once youre happy its just a matter of timing the knockdown (and moving out before you diconnect the gas - takes 2 to 4 weeks for this). The council and the people knocking down the house will help you along the way, dont worry. The only thing to really need to remember is DONT knock anything down until you have DA approval for the knock down AND the new build - Rawson will tell you once the drawings are approved. Re: KDR with Rawson 3Aug 22, 2014 11:44 am Addendum to what rawson_k said; you can also go via CDC for the demolition, which can be easier & faster to organise than a council DA. We asked Alkira for whoever was doing the CDC on our house so we could get them to do the demolition as well; Rawson will most-likely have a preferred private certifier for your area, Leksie5000, so you could ask them for their recommendation. Re: KDR with Rawson 4Aug 22, 2014 1:55 pm Thanks for your replies. Certainly what you are saying does make sense and I appreciate the input. It does ease my mind somewhat. My only concern would be the 'what if' scenario - what if something goes wrong. The advice we have sought said the 20% extra is peace of mind as if the land is not prepared correctly, or an issue is later raised with the footings any claims you have or mitigation against price increases on the original contract will be much easier to defend if the project builder has also done the knockdown. ie one builder, one site, one tender, one place for the buck to stop. Any other contributions or anyone who did choose for Rawson or another project builder to do their knockdown? many thanks! Re: KDR with Rawson 5Aug 22, 2014 2:02 pm rawson_k Leksie5000 Hi Seeking advice and experience from anyone who had Rawson do both their knockdown and rebuild. I know Rawson will place builders margin on knockdown however see benefit in having one responsible builder, one tender where knockdown is included. An architect friend also strongly suggests this due to any potential issues down the track regarding the site being incorrectly prepared or warranty claims. The CSO we have dealt with doesn't seem too keen for Rawson to do the knockdown however this occurring with a reasonable quote will be a condition for us. Any experiences? Thank you. We built with Rawson and we told to do the same - the sales person we spoke to said they will do it but they'll just add 20% so it was in our best interest to do it ourselves. He even gave us the number of the person they use. Now we've built and seen others do the same I 100% agree - there is no point in paying your building 20% more. You can use that money at internal selections phase. Its very easy and very little risk - just dont get some backyard person to do it, engage a proper business and you'll be fine. Once they're done they provide the builder with a certificate saying the land is ready. All you need to do is organise is the DA to knock down (call your council for help on this, it can take 4 weeks + so you can do it at any time and I think it lasts for 12 months or something). Once you have DA approval and have picked who is knocking the house down all you need to do is disconnect your gas before they knock down - they do water (cap it) and electricity. Start getting quotes now - they can range from 12k up depending on what and where your knocking down etc. Once youre happy its just a matter of timing the knockdown (and moving out before you diconnect the gas - takes 2 to 4 weeks for this). The council and the people knocking down the house will help you along the way, dont worry. The only thing to really need to remember is DONT knock anything down until you have DA approval for the knock down AND the new build - Rawson will tell you once the drawings are approved. Interesting you say that. Both places (businesses) we have quoted with specifically said they don't do electricity. Maybe I need to keep looking. They also specified "extra for large amounts of concrete" but didn't say in their quote exactly what concrete is not "large" or "excess". Re: KDR with Rawson 6Aug 22, 2014 4:00 pm I just tried applying a demolition DA from council myself,surprisingly find it's easier and faster and cheaper! I just supplied the paper documents that demolition company gave to me, paid the fees, filled the form last Friday on council counter. I got the DA approved by email yesterday. BTW, the council is Baulkham Hills. Re: KDR with Rawson 7Aug 23, 2014 3:17 am Thanks for your reply. Good to know it was easy for you. I am not worried about application so much as the possible outcomes. Maybe I am being overly concerned re future warranty claims or other issues based on the advice I was given. I know of course Rawson will apply 20% margin but my architect friend has seen more than one warranty claim problem when it was done by someone else other than main builder. The extra isn't much over the whole build. Re: KDR with Rawson 8Aug 23, 2014 8:32 am If your demo cost is $15k the extra 20% is $3k which in the overall cost of the build is a small sum. Those who have KDR before without issue might say that the $3k is better spent elsewhere but what you're saying is that you see it as a type of insurance that would allow you to avoid being stuck in the middle if the builder blamed the demo company and vice versa if an issue later arose. There might be other ways to resolve these types of disputes but this minimises the chances or hassle if it does. As a first time builder spending that extra $3k would likely still represent value to me. Best of luck with your decision. http://camdenbuild.blogspot.com.au/ by invite only please pm me Re: KDR with Rawson 9Aug 23, 2014 3:39 pm Another thing with getting the builder to do the demolition is that it becomes part of your build, and they'll schedule it. I'd be surprised if it didn't reduce the length of the whole process for that reason. 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