Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Anyone built with Switch homes?? 2Dec 17, 2015 1:36 pm Haven't built with them but looked at some of their designs - I love some of the kitchens they do! Highbury gets good reviews as a two storey builder, have you looked at them? Our Custom Dale Alcock build in the Village at Wellard https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=78620 Re: Anyone built with Switch homes?? 3Dec 18, 2015 12:43 am I am currently build with Atrium homes. Everything is a breeze of fresh air, no stresses. The work that they done to my house so far are very good and fast. They leave the site very clean a bobcat come at every stage of the build to tidy up the site.
Re: Anyone built with Switch homes?? 4Dec 22, 2015 10:31 pm Currently building with switch and while the quality of work currently is of great standard they are incredibly poor with communication and slow as anything. Haven't been particularly happy with other "costs" that have cropped up and the site is treated like a pig sty. I doubt others are any better but I had high expectations and have definitely been disappointed. Re: Anyone built with Switch homes?? 5Jan 05, 2016 9:55 am We are building with them, and everything up until now has been fantastic....so once the slab goes down it may be a different story. But our choice came down to a builder that was actually willing to build our house! APG said it was "too hard" because there were boundary walls, In Vogue would tell us what we wanted to hear but then could never deliver so we gave up on them. We spoke to a couple of others too. So Switch was a breath of fresh air in the end! The house behind my parents have built with Highbury, because we were going to look at them, but they told us not to touch them. They have had nothing but issues.....for example the tradies reversed into their wall! And they constantly keep putting piles of sand and tools and cars in front of my parents garage so they can't get out. So in the end......I think it really depends on the house and the supervisor and the timing. In all honesty you never know what you are going to get! And fast doesnt always mean better! We made our decision on design and who could give us what we wanted, and who actually LISTENED! Re: Anyone built with Switch homes?? 8Feb 05, 2016 9:56 pm We are building Highbury - amazing experience, had our PCI today infact! Pics on my thread Re: Anyone built with Switch homes?? 9Feb 10, 2016 11:46 pm I just say your post and feel I have to jump in to tell you my experience and hopefully its not too late. The sales, contract and pre-start stages were not great but what's been the most frustrating part is the actual construction. The Switch contract for my 2-storey house stipulates 375 working days which works out to about 18 calendar months. We are now 15 months into construction and we haven't even reached lock up. We have not caused Switch any delays. They have not given us any good reasons for the delay and even at this late stage have not committed to a handover date. There have been weeks where little or no work takes place on site. We've had to endure month after month of frustration and effectively put our lives on hold. All the evidence points to Switch not being able to build 2-storey houses in a timely manner. And I haven't even started on the design/construction mistakes we've suffered at their hands. I will get down to writing a detailed description of our entire ordeal with Switch but in the meantime I hope this helps. ps. 2 other cons to let you know about is that Switch charges a $750 variation fee and they take a 3 week year end break when nothing whatsoever gets done in either the office or on site. Re: Anyone built with Switch homes?? 10Feb 11, 2016 10:25 am I have a friend who is about to get her keys building with switch - soooooo many nightmares, they've had to rip up the garage floor, some of the brickwork needs to completely be redone on walls but they've settled for render to cover the ** work (they refused to paint it though cheeky buggers another cost for my friend!!), they put windows in the wrong spot!!! So much more that I can't think of but she is exhausted mentally I would not recommend them EVER Re: Anyone built with Switch homes?? 11Feb 11, 2016 5:24 pm We've been building with Switch and we've had a really positive experience so far! Design, contracts, pre-start all went smoothly - we had started with another project builder and refused to sign their contracts after reading them, so started over again with Switch and found it much more reasonable and hold a lot more confidence in them than I did the other. We had slab down in early June and apart from three weeks over Christmas (when as far as I can tell the entire industry shuts down) there appears to be have been solid and consistent progress. I don't think we've had any other week where nothing has happened. It's my first build so I have nothing to compare to, but we must be approaching lock up within a few weeks would make it 9 months or so since slab, and that seems in line with our estimates and a two-story build. Hubby is in a related-industry and seems happy with the timeline so I'll accept his word for it. We haven't discovered any errors or stuff ups as yet, the walls and windows appear to be where they are meant to be, our site super seems great and keeps it moving, and we get updates at least fortnightly from our client liaison or weekly if there is something notable. Our original sales person still checks in from time to time too. IF all continues according to plan we will be in by start of July (our deadline as we're renting and our lease will be up) and probably have some time to spare on that too. I guess we're the lucky ones as it's so far removed form what you are describing! Fingers crossed it stays that way!! Re: Anyone built with Switch homes?? 13Feb 11, 2016 6:42 pm Yes you seem to be the exception! My colleague at works daughter also built recently with them and has just sold the house because they were so unhappy with the quality, they also had nothing but issues unfortunately Re: Anyone built with Switch homes?? 14Feb 11, 2016 7:17 pm brinchess We've been building with Switch and we've had a really positive experience so far! Design, contracts, pre-start all went smoothly - we had started with another project builder and refused to sign their contracts after reading them, so started over again with Switch and found it much more reasonable and hold a lot more confidence in them than I did the other. We had slab down in early June and apart from three weeks over Christmas (when as far as I can tell the entire industry shuts down) there appears to be have been solid and consistent progress. I don't think we've had any other week where nothing has happened. It's my first build so I have nothing to compare to, but we must be approaching lock up within a few weeks would make it 9 months or so since slab, and that seems in line with our estimates and a two-story build. Hubby is in a related-industry and seems happy with the timeline so I'll accept his word for it. We haven't discovered any errors or stuff ups as yet, the walls and windows appear to be where they are meant to be, our site super seems great and keeps it moving, and we get updates at least fortnightly from our client liaison or weekly if there is something notable. Our original sales person still checks in from time to time too. IF all continues according to plan we will be in by start of July (our deadline as we're renting and our lease will be up) and probably have some time to spare on that too. I guess we're the lucky ones as it's so far removed form what you are describing! Fingers crossed it stays that way!! How long did the paper work side of things take and are you north or south of the river ?? Re: Anyone built with Switch homes?? 15Feb 12, 2016 10:24 am Reddevil - the 375 days sounds right, we're not looking like that will be an issue, and unsure about the liquidated damages as I don't have it on hand, it was pretty much the standard MBA contract. Petad - we had our first meeting and initial design in mid to late August, full working drawings late October and then had the contracts and signed mid-November. So I guess three months all up from our first enquiry to contracts. During that time Switch also arranged demolition quotes for us and we chose the tiles as well so it didn't seem too long, there was a lot going on. Pre-start was late Jan, so another two months for that, but at that time we were still in the house that needed to be demo'd. I guess if I had an empty block ready to go then I might have been more worried about timing! June for slab down seems a while now if we had contracts in Nov, I know it didn't seem unreasonable at the time. With moving out, baiting and council permits and the demo companies being booked up I know removing the old house took ages, there was also asbestos on site so having that removed delayed it too. We needed a fair bit of leveling and retaining done. So it did take a while to get to slab, but nothing within Switch's control and as soon as they block was ready they started. We're north of the river - Morley. It is a small-ish block so we had to build up, and they were happy to squish the design we chose to make it work with council zoning requirements. Re: Anyone built with Switch homes?? 16Feb 16, 2016 12:47 pm reddevil I just say your post and feel I have to jump in to tell you my experience and hopefully its not too late. The sales, contract and pre-start stages were not great but what's been the most frustrating part is the actual construction. The Switch contract for my 2-storey house stipulates 375 working days which works out to about 18 calendar months. We are now 15 months into construction and we haven't even reached lock up. We have not caused Switch any delays. They have not given us any good reasons for the delay and even at this late stage have not committed to a handover date. There have been weeks where little or no work takes place on site. We've had to endure month after month of frustration and effectively put our lives on hold. All the evidence points to Switch not being able to build 2-storey houses in a timely manner. And I haven't even started on the design/construction mistakes we've suffered at their hands. I will get down to writing a detailed description of our entire ordeal with Switch but in the meantime I hope this helps. ps. 2 other cons to let you know about is that Switch charges a $750 variation fee and they take a 3 week year end break when nothing whatsoever gets done in either the office or on site. Oh my goodness this sounds exactly like our experience. Nice to know it's not just us but seems it's obviously a systemic issue and poor management. Any electricians here please help. 1) Will the Fan need separate switch to ON/OFF/Speed eventhough it comes with Remote 2) how about… 0 1147 wondering anyone built with omaxe homes and care to share their experiences. thanks 0 13782 Hi we are looking to talk to people who have built with them recently. We have signed mid range built contract but identified that a lot of things are not included.… 0 631 |