Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Feb 21, 2016 12:19 pm My husband and i had a pretty bad experience with Rendition/Affordable homes so have cancelled with them and looked at our other options. We are only building a small house in the inner north western suburbs of adelaide. We came prepared with our own plans and engineering reports and amongst a few other problems received a footings report of 26.5k for a 150sm house. There was no explanation just an expectation that we should accept and move forward. Fortunately for us we have done a lot of research and knew that a lot of builders try to charge you through the roof for things like footings because every house needs a slab! We decided to get a quote from Fairmont Homes and so far have found them to be excellent. Our sales rep is wonderful and i explained the issues we had with the other builder. Does anyone have any feedback on Fairmont homes? We are lucky to have building approval from the council already so have made a few steps in the right direction but once trust was lost with the previous builder we couldn't proceed any further Re: Is or has anyone built with Fairmont Homes SA? 2Feb 21, 2016 7:28 pm We have been in our house at Seaford Meadows for 6 months now and are loving our Fairmont home Really really happy with it. Re: Is or has anyone built with Fairmont Homes SA? 3Feb 21, 2016 8:01 pm Thanks the slaters for your response. How was the build with Fairmont? How was the price overall? I know that some builders will try to make money by overcharging with footings....did u have any trouble with this? ? Re: Is or has anyone built with Fairmont Homes SA? 4Feb 21, 2016 8:03 pm I have noticed a few people saying that Fairmont were slower with the build itself....did you have any holdups? Re: Is or has anyone built with Fairmont Homes SA? 5Feb 21, 2016 10:26 pm Check out the Fairmont Homes SA thread. I'd say most people are generally happy with the standard but complain they are slow. Re: Is or has anyone built with Fairmont Homes SA? 6Feb 22, 2016 10:10 am We only had holdup with the end because of the weather Paving can't be done on soggy soil. It took 7 mths to build last year. Price was good but we did a lot of extras Like stone benches glass splashback which adds up .. Re: Is or has anyone built with Fairmont Homes SA? 7Feb 22, 2016 10:11 am Footings were $700 more than first quoted before soil test so that was ok too Re: Is or has anyone built with Fairmont Homes SA? 8Feb 22, 2016 10:42 am Thank you TomCat and The Slaters for your response. We are right at the early stages having just met our sales rep after email corrospondance for a week. They are doing up the preliminary agreement and plans this week (we have supplied our own) and have said by the end of the week we should have an agreement to sign. Our sales rep is excellent so far and seems to know a lot about the business. I think its great that Fairmont own a few other businesses to assist with building a house. I just hope that our initial footings price doesn't go up to much!! Re: Is or has anyone built with Fairmont Homes SA? 9Feb 22, 2016 12:33 pm We're currently building with Fairmont. Contract was finalised in May 15, slab poured mid October 15 and we are currently at lock up with tiling to start this week. We had some issues with our footings cost and this was mainly due to an error made by Fairmont and their engineers. Basically we were given a final footings cost in June 15 and then mid August they came back and said an error had been made and that the cost would increase. The biggest pain about this was that finance had already been approved based on the first variation. Overall the actual cost was just under $24k and the initial allowance in the contract was for $22k. Another builder quoted us an allowance of over $30k for a similar sized house with the expectation of the actual cost coming in at around $27k so in comparison Fairmont were cheaper for the footings. I do think footings is one of those costs that you can't control and maybe best if you have concerns to ask sales person to increase their initial estimation to give you some room to move if it does increase. I've found overall cost to be very good and we have ended up doing things that I never thought we would be able to afford. I think we are around $820m2 cost for the build and this includes alot of extra's/upgrades such as all flooring, ducted reverse cycle air conditioning, icnreased celiing height, stone benches to kitchen and bathrooms, upgraded insulation to ceiling and all internal walls, overhead cupboards in kitchen, cabinetry fitout of butlers pantry just to name a few. This also includes the cost of septic system as we are not connected to mains sewer. From what I can see the quality of the build has been good so far (but I'm no expert on building!). I have been impressed with some trades with the job they have done and how neat and tidy it was. I did initially have concerns with using Fairmont that the job would be a bit slap and dash due to low price and the quantity they build but all has been good so far. Haven't found them too slow yet. Our finish date is 29th June but SS has advised that he expects to be finished by June. Good luck with your build! Re: Is or has anyone built with Fairmont Homes SA? 10Feb 22, 2016 12:46 pm Thanks for the reply Lewiston2015. Im guessing by your title your building at Lewiston? What size house are you building eg is it two stories and the square metres? The allowance for the footings is fairly lean but we had already had engineering reports done before we engaged in a builder so they looked at those reports to give us more of an idea. "Mentally" we have allowed for the fact that they may go up but that was one of the issues to do with the other builder. They were trying to charge us for footings for a house being built in a suburb like Athelstone or ingle farm and our soil is pretty good in our area. We have building approval from the council so are a few steps in the process already. We have heard horror stories from people about the footings and although I agree with you that we cant control I do know for a fact that some builders will take advantage of that when pricing you up. Your price is great...usually ppl say to allow for a thousand dollars per square metre so you have done really well. We have decided to do some of the turnkey options ourselves. Our house is small and I have already received a few quotes for things like aircon that have come in over a thousand cheaper than what the builder would charge. I am super excited about selections but also worried because It will just be my luck that the things I want are not included in the standard! How exciting about your process. Not long now! Re: Is or has anyone built with Fairmont Homes SA? 11Feb 22, 2016 1:18 pm HI 1stTimeBuild We are building with Fairmont. Our admin stage has been VERY slow with errors being made and lack of communication. We signed up a few weeks before Lewiston but our slab did not go down until 6 weeks after theirs, mainly due to Fairmont dragging their feet with our build. We were quoted 25k for our footings. Like you we already had soil and engineering reports, which we provided to them. I did not feel this was enough as the previous builder we signed for had put the estimate at around 35-38k. So I requested an additional allowance of 8k to be put in as insurance. My salesperson reassured me that 25k was enough, showed me a house near our area that had a footings bill of 20k, but we still wanted the additional allowance in. They did their soil testing and engineering, and the price came back at 40k!!!! We complained and they reduced it by 3k. They seemed to forget that their original estimate was only 25k as they kept referring to the 33k allowance included. We had a number of things incorrectly quoted - stormwater, septic tank allowance etc as apparently the salesperson did not use the correct price for the size of the house. We were not informed of this until the final interview. In that interview the price went up around 6k, and we only added about 1.5k worth of upgrades then, the rest were costs that had not been disclosed to us until that point. Our build seems to be dragging a bit - compared to damien_lanni and Lewiston who had tradies there over the Christmas break! Our slab was laid at the start of December and the roof has only just been put on. We are expecting brickies to be there sometime in the next week according to the SS. Having said that, we are getting our dream home at an affordable price and from everything I have heard about Fairmont, the quality will be good. I would still go with them again if we had to decide all over again. Just do not expect great, or even adequate communication once you sign up, and go in with the expectation that it will take longer than you think! Re: Is or has anyone built with Fairmont Homes SA? 12Feb 22, 2016 1:28 pm Hi Bobbin Wow. Sorry to hear they have been slow and errors have been made. I hope that their new years resolution was to pick up the pace!! The footings are scaring me. We are only building a 150 square metre house inc garage and alfresco (we have a small block but its nice and close to the city!) I hope that the footings comes in close to their allowance but I guess time will tell. I hate the waiting but so far they have replied fairly quickly. We have a young sales guy who seems to go above and beyond even calling me on the weekend for information so that he could put the information in today. Hopfully this excellent service continues. Which suburb are you building in? I think its great you summed it up that your getting your dream home. Its great to be able to see the positives in any situation! Re: Is or has anyone built with Fairmont Homes SA? 13Feb 22, 2016 1:48 pm We are building in Modbury North - terrible soil, and it is a KDR which makes it worse! Our house is also 340sqm including alfresco and garage, so a bit bigger than yours. Even with the increase in footings price, we still paid around the same amount for the house that we would have with Sekisui, and we got a bigger house, MUCH bigger alfresco, stone benchtops, deluxe ensuite with double shower, walk in pantry, full height tiling etc which we could not afford with Sekisui, so we are still happy with our choice of builder, the process is just frustrating. Also, the lack of explanation of footings costs, lack of open communication about costs overall etc is a systemic issue in the building industry. Most builders do it, and because most builders do it, there is nothing that consumers can do about it! I hated it. Re: Is or has anyone built with Fairmont Homes SA? 14Feb 22, 2016 2:39 pm I could imagine Modbury north being tricky with soil and a kdr would definatley not help! That's great you were looked after with price. I hear you about the building industry. Gone are the days where they run their show from the trade site....they all have fancy offices now so there really should not be any excuse! Thanks again for your information. I really appreciate it! Re: Is or has anyone built with Fairmont Homes SA? 15Feb 25, 2016 11:30 am 1stTimeBuild 16 Thanks for the reply Lewiston2015. Im guessing by your title your building at Lewiston? What size house are you building eg is it two stories and the square metres? The allowance for the footings is fairly lean but we had already had engineering reports done before we engaged in a builder so they looked at those reports to give us more of an idea. "Mentally" we have allowed for the fact that they may go up but that was one of the issues to do with the other builder. They were trying to charge us for footings for a house being built in a suburb like Athelstone or ingle farm and our soil is pretty good in our area. We have building approval from the council so are a few steps in the process already. We have heard horror stories from people about the footings and although I agree with you that we cant control I do know for a fact that some builders will take advantage of that when pricing you up. Your price is great...usually ppl say to allow for a thousand dollars per square metre so you have done really well. We have decided to do some of the turnkey options ourselves. Our house is small and I have already received a few quotes for things like aircon that have come in over a thousand cheaper than what the builder would charge. I am super excited about selections but also worried because It will just be my luck that the things I want are not included in the standard! How exciting about your process. Not long now! Hi 1stTimeBuild 16, yep we're building at Lewiston. This is our second home but first build and we are building a 370m2 single story home including garage and alfresco. That's great you already have council approval and should hopefully mean that they can start on your build pretty quickly. Having a good sales person is fantastic but I will warn you once you sign up with them the contact with the sales person then is very limited and you start to deal with head office. You mentioned about things you want that may not be standard and my biggest piece of advice would be to get them to quote on those items you want now before you sign. Don't be afraid to do this, we basically got our sales person to quote about 4 different times before we signed. It also gave our sales person a really good understanding of what we were trying to achieve and they suggested things that we hadn't thought of. No matter how small you think the cost would be for example upgrading doors and door handles talk to your sales person about them now as you will find that these costs add up quickly. Basically we started the quote with everything we needed, wanted and wished for and then took things out from there until we were at a price we were comfortable with.There were still things that were added at the final interview such as brick upgrade and garage door upgrade but at final interview we were only about $5k over the original quoted price and about $1800 of this was due to the footings increase. When we were signing up they had a promotion for free evaporative air and we chose to upgrade to reverse cycle but we received a $4500 credit back for not taking up the aircon promo so don't be afraid to ask your sales person for credits back. I agree 100% with Bobbin about there being no open communication in regards to pricing, I especially remember having this conversation with hubby after our selections appointment at Direct Interiors as I found them the worst at this and it will leave you feeling frustrated. But Supreme Kitchens are fantastic as is Clipsal if you choose to do an electrical plan with them. Good luck again and look forward to seeing your build progress Re: Is or has anyone built with Fairmont Homes SA? 16Feb 25, 2016 8:38 pm Slaters how are you getting on at Seaford Meadows? We are currently building there at the moment and are moving from the west side of the city. Other than the awesome beaches and the nice views we are unfamiliar with the area to an extent. Is it a good community to live in? Re: Is or has anyone built with Fairmont Homes SA? 17Feb 25, 2016 9:02 pm We are loving it The expressway is good Shopping is great Woolies so close can walk to grab things Walk to train station All of our neighbours are nice Loving our new house Life is a beach. Re: Is or has anyone built with Fairmont Homes SA? 18Feb 25, 2016 9:36 pm Sounds fantastic Slaters that is exactly what I wanted to hear. The expressway really sold us also. We are very much looking forward to adding to those list of nice neighbours. Thanks! Re: Is or has anyone built with Fairmont Homes SA? 19Feb 25, 2016 9:43 pm Im currently building right at the end of the freeway at huntsfield heights and while its good it wont be that way forever the more they build out this way the more traffic that will clog it up that being said a co-worker of mine built a huge house in seaford meadows with fairmont homes last year and his process was relatively painless like the old saying goes happy customer say nothing the angry ones make a big racket. I choose sterling homes as another co-work built with them and her house was issue free there head office also around the corner from work so i can pop in anytime i want to bust there balls if need be which is a big plus for me. Re: Is or has anyone built with Fairmont Homes SA? 20Feb 25, 2016 9:52 pm Hey 1stTimeBuild 16 , we are also building with fairmont out north in adelaide. I agree with the others, sales people are amazing , definately don't be frightened to keep quoting and making all the changes you want as later it can't be done without paying a price. We just had our slab laid and what I can say is there is a clause in the contract that basically says even after you sign your footings variation you can still be hit with more site costs if they encounter difficulties, we received a letter saying to expect an invoice due to digging issues extending site works out by a day which we are liable for. Was disappointed this wasn't pointed out more obviously earlier but something to be mindful of, really read the contract and ask questions! Also depending on your block it may pay you to have it levelled prior to footings as fairmont will only cut and fill the parcel they are building on, we are on a 656sqm block and building the baxter 300m2 house so we have some serious land to level now which so far has cost 1000 and that was luck finding someone so cheap. Also, if you have purple water and want any mains water that is an extra charge around 300 and then 17 per metre from nearest mains water, power point to Island bench is extra, lights on brick piers there is a surcharge, heaps of upgrading to lights and power points, if you want termite protection to the whole house that's an upgrade and for us was 1500. I trust they will build a good home but I feel they are missing an after sales area, the ladies in the office are nice but not the ones in construction dept. footings was our biggest concern too they originally allowed 22 we were worried so it went up to 24, or variation was for 27800 so it went up and now we potentially have more due to issues digging trenches. One of those things I guess. I hope you enjoy selections, make sure your bathroom is bug enough to take a bigger bath should you not like the standard 1500 one, I regret not checking that one! Hope thus helps you while you are in quoting, I feel like we are safe with fairmont just wish communication was better, take care 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.… 0 744 Hi All, we are starting to think of building with Masterpiece Builders in Victoria, has anyone had any feedback or experience with them 0 13603 I haven’t. But have a Lowe Design home. Not only did I find Matt Lowe patronising and a bully, but the home is NOT TO CODE. I have water coming through the bricks… 1 14408 |