Hi all
I noticed that there has not been much discussion about Urbanedge of recent times. We built the Santena 34 with Urbanedge and our experience was, and continues to be, extremely poor. It's been a horrible and stressful experience for us. I'm interested to know how others have fared, particularly those that have finished the building process and are in the warranty stage.
For those that are interested, I've included our story below as it appears on product review...
Our building experience with Urbanedge was riddled with errors, broken promises, poor communication and most disappointing of all, incredibly poor workmanship. The former I can deal with, unfortunately it seems to go with the territory. But it's the lack of quality controls that blew me away.
Fortunately for us, I engaged New Home Inspections to attend the frame, pre-plaster and final inspections and produce a defect report on our behalf. This is one of the best decisions that I've made in my life and I credit them with salvaging our home. To give you an idea, for each of the stage inspections there was significant non-compliance with the Australian Standards, the Building Code of Australia, the Building Commission's Guide to Standards and Tolerances, relevant Manufacturer's Installation Guidelines and even the site specific engineering drawings. Total numbers of non-compliance for each stage is as follows:
a. Frame Inspection - 34 items
b. Pre-plaster Inspection - 31 items
c. Final Inspection - 53 items (of which some were cosmetic)
Alarmingly, this was non-compliance with minimum standards. I might have been excused for expecting something more given Urban Edge's marketing that focuses on quality. There was a complete lack of supervision of trades which at the end of the day is largely what separates the volume builders. Some of the issues included:
a. upstairs floor not level in places
b. alfresco ceiling not level
c. kitchen overhead cabinets had shadow line of 60mm - meant to be 20mm (entire kitchen had to come out reluctantly...)
d. sections of upstairs cornices not level
e. a number of arcs crooked (the door to the upstairs bathroom won't even stay ajar)
f. front projection to our upgraded facade was severely bowed
g. bricks out of level to the alfresco
h. bricks to the rear wall were either the wrong colour or not blended properly
i. window to bedroom 2 was crooked
j. render to front facade was the wrong colour
k. wrong heating unit installed (not compatible with add on cooling as instructed)
l. painter sprayed when bathroom tiles were exposed (had to be cleaned with methylated spirits)
m. front panel to dishwasher took nearly a month after handover to arrive
n. incorrect door hardware was fitted to many of our doors, including the front door which had to be replaced entirely as the holes were in the wrong spot (It then took 3 attempts to paint the front door property as they put the new door locks on first!)
I don't intend to detail the rest of our experience in chapter and verse, but here's a brief snapshot:
(a) Before contract signing, we were assured that we would be in before Christmas the following year as build time was 6-7 months. This was really important to us. After considerable jumping up and down, and missing the agreed pre-Christmas date, Urbanedge reluctantly agreed to us moving in 10 months after site start;
(b) The pre-contract and contract stages were riddled with errors. Make sure you take your time here and take plenty of file notes, I had a number of mistakes rectified at this point but inevitably some slip through. As an example, the heating unit provided, and the installed duct work, was not compatible with add-on cooling notwithstanding that I had specifically confirmed with Urbanedge that it would be. The sales consultant had even deleted evaporative cooling from the contract for this purpose and completed the 3 phase power application on my behalf.
(c) Urbanedge's building surveyors missed a height measurement in the planning process which was only detected by a neighbour during pre-plaster stage. Dispensation was applied for and the same neighbour objected - we were facing the real possibility of significant rectification work to comply. I had to chase up the building surveyor myself for updates as they were not forthcoming from Urbanedge. This was an incredibly stressful time as it had the potential to alter the finished product and our timelines significantly. The lack of communication was really disappointing, at one stage our site supervisor falsely informed us that our neighbour had appealed Council's decision for retrospective approval to VCAT;
(d) Without fail, all invoices were sent to me before the relevant milestone was actually met (I even received the slab invoice before the slab was poured!);
(e) Our site supervisor for the majority of our build was appalling. He was never on site, failed to organise and supervise trades and single handedly blew our timeline out. He knew exactly what to say but never delivered (e.g. he agreed to meet the tiler on site to make sure he was clear on the lay direction. Suffice to say, I turned up to meet the tiler and our trusty supervisor wasn't there as promised. The tiler had laid our ensuite tiles in the wrong direction..
(f) In the context of the above issues, it's most important for the client to be able to pick up the phone and discuss with the site supervisor. Unfortunately, Urbanedge doesn't share this view. Emails to the on-site coordinator went unanswered for days and voicemail messages were not returned. Adding to the frustration is the fact that contact with anyone else more senior has to firstly go through the on-site coordinator (who isn't contactable!);
(g) I was given an undertaking at handover that all items in the final inspection report would be rectified within 3 weeks. The warranty team don't communicate with me unless I hound them and even then have limited information as apparently they are too poorly resourced. I have even been accused of 'badgering' them! Even when they try to do the right thing and pay for a membrane coating to our facade they stuff it up by forgetting to have it caulked beforehand...I'm exhausted.