Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Building the Waldorf Grange by Porter Davis 362Jun 29, 2017 2:23 pm Instagram blog: https://www.instagram.com/ourforevertonhome/ Re: Building the Waldorf Grange by Porter Davis 366Jun 29, 2017 6:49 pm djblurr Hello all! My wife and I are in the process of deciding whether we want to build a house or renovate an existing property. We have been leaning towards the new build after discovering Porter Davis and the Marriott Grange (we are in QLD, I think this is identical to the Waldorf that you are all building)! I'm sorry in advance as I have a heap of questions that I am hoping some of you may be able to help me with. I recently visited a display home and had hoped to get some clarity on pricing... The house is listed as "from 420k~", and they've told me that clients usually spend 550-650k on this build. That's a good starting point, but a 100k variance (on average) is obviously quite a lot, and 230k above the base price is significant. I had hoped they'd be able to take the time and sit down with me to give me a bit more information on this, but they basically said I can't do that until I have a block of land. It's a bit of a catch 22, because like I said, we're still trying to work out if we want to build or renovate, so I'm hardly going to buy a block of land only to sit down with them and discover that the house I want to build ends up costing 800k. I've had a look at the basic "inclusions" document that they have, but it really doesn't go into much detail at all. How has everyone else handled this process and did you go into it blindly without knowing EXACTLY what you're going to get/pay? Would anyone be willing to post a copy of their full quote, so that I can get a better picture of what was actually included and the pricing that each item roughly added? Adding 200k in extras seems like a lot, and outside some major add-ons like extra alfresco/decks, I'm curious how you get to such a higher price. A couple more adhoc questions I had if no one is willing to show a full quote: - How much does it cost to add the timber ceiling to outdoor areas? - Are the vijay walls in the hamptons style a standard inclusion or does it cost to add this? - What sort of price increases are there on flooring as you go up in categories? The documents relate to "category 1" flooring, but I have no idea whether these are rubbish and what the next level up would cost? - Some of the comments in this thread imply people are paying for render of the lower level of the house. Is this right?? I would have thought the render would be a must on this house and a general inclusion! - A lot of people are saying they didn't get a price when making all of their choices. How does this work? How can they not give you a price when you are selecting, this is a huge factor in selections! Thank you all for your help! We had a helpful sales consultant that gave us the full price list with every possible inclusion in the Greenvale display home and then said let's work backwards and cross off what you don't want. We then were able to draw a line through anything we definitely did not want before our walk through. During the walk through the sales consultant pointed out all the structural upgrades and we could tick or cross off knowing the exact price. It was very helpful. We then visited the World of Style showroom about 5 or 6 times before our consultation and looked at what standard inclusions were compared to upgrades for things like tiles, cabinets, carpets to get an idea of further price increases. - View my blog at www.waldorfgrangebuild.wordpress.com Re: Building the Waldorf Grange by Porter Davis 367Jun 29, 2017 8:52 pm djblurr Hello all! My wife and I are in the process of deciding whether we want to build a house or renovate an existing property. We have been leaning towards the new build after discovering Porter Davis and the Marriott Grange (we are in QLD, I think this is identical to the Waldorf that you are all building)! I'm sorry in advance as I have a heap of questions that I am hoping some of you may be able to help me with. I recently visited a display home and had hoped to get some clarity on pricing... The house is listed as "from 420k~", and they've told me that clients usually spend 550-650k on this build. That's a good starting point, but a 100k variance (on average) is obviously quite a lot, and 230k above the base price is significant. I had hoped they'd be able to take the time and sit down with me to give me a bit more information on this, but they basically said I can't do that until I have a block of land. It's a bit of a catch 22, because like I said, we're still trying to work out if we want to build or renovate, so I'm hardly going to buy a block of land only to sit down with them and discover that the house I want to build ends up costing 800k. I've had a look at the basic "inclusions" document that they have, but it really doesn't go into much detail at all. How has everyone else handled this process and did you go into it blindly without knowing EXACTLY what you're going to get/pay? Would anyone be willing to post a copy of their full quote, so that I can get a better picture of what was actually included and the pricing that each item roughly added? Adding 200k in extras seems like a lot, and outside some major add-ons like extra alfresco/decks, I'm curious how you get to such a higher price. A couple more adhoc questions I had if no one is willing to show a full quote: - How much does it cost to add the timber ceiling to outdoor areas? - Are the vijay walls in the hamptons style a standard inclusion or does it cost to add this? - What sort of price increases are there on flooring as you go up in categories? The documents relate to "category 1" flooring, but I have no idea whether these are rubbish and what the next level up would cost? - Some of the comments in this thread imply people are paying for render of the lower level of the house. Is this right?? I would have thought the render would be a must on this house and a general inclusion! - A lot of people are saying they didn't get a price when making all of their choices. How does this work? How can they not give you a price when you are selecting, this is a huge factor in selections! Thank you all for your help! Hi diblurr! We're building the Stradbroke 36 in Queensland and are due to begin construction in November. So far we've had two appointments with our sales consultant to nut out our design and budget allocations and have paid our $2000 deposit. We have our contract appointment in 4 weeks to finalise our design and pay our 3% before heading down to Melbourne for our World of Style appointment. As we are building a two-storey home, Porter Davis will fly us to Melbourne in the morning the day before our appointments so we can visit WOS to browse around. They will then put us up at the Oaks for two nights so we can attend two full days of appointments. Render to the house is not included. It is costing us $6000 to get render to the bottom floor as well as the top sections that don't have the feature boards. My biggest piece of advice is so far would be to budget A LOT for upgrades. Practically nothing in the display homes is standard (category 1). In fact, most of it is category 4 or 5. We are attempting to recreate the Hamptons look of the display home in Rochedale and have been warned to set aside over $10000 just for kitchen and galley upgrades alone. Another thing that will sting you is electrical with downlights costing upwards of $120 each! We have been doing as much research as possible seeing as we can't just roll into WOS and so far we have visited SIlestone in Yatala to look at benchtops (I can send you a PDF of categories if you like) where they will give you samples. We have also spent a lot of time at National Tiles looking at tiles and laminate. I'm planning of starting my own thread/blog once we have visited WOS so I will attempt to take as many photos as possible and collect as much information as I can on categories. I hope this helps and if you have any questions, let me know Re: Building the Waldorf Grange by Porter Davis 368Jun 29, 2017 9:22 pm Here are the list of defects from the pre-plaster inspection https://wordpress.com/post/waldorfgrang ... ss.com/787 So glad we are using Darbecca but it is a shame so many things are not done to standard the first time around. Re: Building the Waldorf Grange by Porter Davis 369Jun 29, 2017 10:00 pm Waldorf_Grange_Build Here are the list of defects from the pre-plaster inspection https://wordpress.com/post/waldorfgrang ... ss.com/787 So glad we are using Darbecca but it is a shame so many things are not done to standard the first time around. I hope your meeting with the SS goes well tomorrow, I'd be interested to hear about it. I wonder what the excuse will be for blatantly ****** about fixing the defects. Re: Building the Waldorf Grange by Porter Davis 370Jun 30, 2017 5:55 am Waldorf_Grange_Build Here are the list of defects from the pre-plaster inspection https://wordpress.com/post/waldorfgrang ... ss.com/787 So glad we are using Darbecca but it is a shame so many things are not done to standard the first time around. Presumably the tradies know that there is an independent inspector coming and yet they still don't do their jobs right? Or have enough pride in their work to do it right regardless of whether it will be inspected or not? Building a Kew 28 with Porter Davis Re: Building the Waldorf Grange by Porter Davis 371Jun 30, 2017 9:32 am Hurrow Waldorf_Grange_Build Here are the list of defects from the pre-plaster inspection https://wordpress.com/post/waldorfgrang ... ss.com/787 So glad we are using Darbecca but it is a shame so many things are not done to standard the first time around. Presumably the tradies know that there is an independent inspector coming and yet they still don't do their jobs right? Or have enough pride in their work to do it right regardless of whether it will be inspected or not? Exactly, and it's not like we are being overly picky. The defects listed are because they are not compliant with the current building codes in Australia which should be the minimum standard. Re: Building the Waldorf Grange by Porter Davis 372Jun 30, 2017 9:46 am stradbroke36 My biggest piece of advice is so far would be to budget A LOT for upgrades. Practically nothing in the display homes is standard (category 1). In fact, most of it is category 4 or 5. We are attempting to recreate the Hamptons look of the display home in Rochedale and have been warned to set aside over $10000 just for kitchen and galley upgrades alone. Another thing that will sting you is electrical with downlights costing upwards of $120 each! We have been doing as much research as possible seeing as we can't just roll into WOS and so far we have visited SIlestone in Yatala to look at benchtops (I can send you a PDF of categories if you like) where they will give you samples. We have also spent a lot of time at National Tiles looking at tiles and laminate. I'm planning of starting my own thread/blog once we have visited WOS so I will attempt to take as many photos as possible and collect as much information as I can on categories. I hope this helps and if you have any questions, let me know Hi, that would be fantastic! I've taken a look at a couple of the blogs on here, but that would be terrific if you could share some info from the WOS!! I had a quick look at the stradbroke and it doesn't appear as though it's part of the "prestige" range, so I'm wondering whether some of the expensive upgrades they've locked you into might be standard inclusions at the higher price the Marriott Grange has? Outside of say flooring, what else did you notice wasn't a standard 'category 1' inclusion? Re: Building the Waldorf Grange by Porter Davis 373Jun 30, 2017 10:14 am djblurr stradbroke36 My biggest piece of advice is so far would be to budget A LOT for upgrades. Practically nothing in the display homes is standard (category 1). In fact, most of it is category 4 or 5. We are attempting to recreate the Hamptons look of the display home in Rochedale and have been warned to set aside over $10000 just for kitchen and galley upgrades alone. Another thing that will sting you is electrical with downlights costing upwards of $120 each! We have been doing as much research as possible seeing as we can't just roll into WOS and so far we have visited SIlestone in Yatala to look at benchtops (I can send you a PDF of categories if you like) where they will give you samples. We have also spent a lot of time at National Tiles looking at tiles and laminate. I'm planning of starting my own thread/blog once we have visited WOS so I will attempt to take as many photos as possible and collect as much information as I can on categories. I hope this helps and if you have any questions, let me know Hi, that would be fantastic! I've taken a look at a couple of the blogs on here, but that would be terrific if you could share some info from the WOS!! I had a quick look at the stradbroke and it doesn't appear as though it's part of the "prestige" range, so I'm wondering whether some of the expensive upgrades they've locked you into might be standard inclusions at the higher price the Marriott Grange has? Outside of say flooring, what else did you notice wasn't a standard 'category 1' inclusion? Hi djblurr, You're right, the Stradbroke is part of the Lifestyle range while the Marriott Grange is in the Prestige range. Within the Lifestyle range there are add on packages that we've added that pretty much take us up to what you get with the Prestige range (just in a smaller house). Most fit-outs are a category 1 to start with eg. all flooring, laminate cabinets, stone benchtops (which doesn't even come in your extra ensuites and some other rooms at all - it's just laminate). Going Prestige gives you a bigger home and some slight upgrades in sinks, taps, baths and staircase but I believe that is still only a cat 2 or 3 at best. If you PM me your email address, I can send you some PDFs that show what you get as standard and what are upgrades (I can't attach PDFs on here). Cheers Re: Building the Waldorf Grange by Porter Davis 374Jun 30, 2017 10:22 am djblurr stradbroke36 My biggest piece of advice is so far would be to budget A LOT for upgrades. Practically nothing in the display homes is standard (category 1). In fact, most of it is category 4 or 5. We are attempting to recreate the Hamptons look of the display home in Rochedale and have been warned to set aside over $10000 just for kitchen and galley upgrades alone. Another thing that will sting you is electrical with downlights costing upwards of $120 each! We have been doing as much research as possible seeing as we can't just roll into WOS and so far we have visited SIlestone in Yatala to look at benchtops (I can send you a PDF of categories if you like) where they will give you samples. We have also spent a lot of time at National Tiles looking at tiles and laminate. I'm planning of starting my own thread/blog once we have visited WOS so I will attempt to take as many photos as possible and collect as much information as I can on categories. I hope this helps and if you have any questions, let me know Hi, that would be fantastic! I've taken a look at a couple of the blogs on here, but that would be terrific if you could share some info from the WOS!! I had a quick look at the stradbroke and it doesn't appear as though it's part of the "prestige" range, so I'm wondering whether some of the expensive upgrades they've locked you into might be standard inclusions at the higher price the Marriott Grange has? Outside of say flooring, what else did you notice wasn't a standard 'category 1' inclusion? Oh, and I also just thought about tiles. You get cat 1 tiles to wet areas only (no floor to ceiling). Cat 1 is ceramic in a smaller standard size (300 x 300). You have to go up categories to go up to porcelain and larger sizes. There is also an extra laying charge if you want feature tiles in a brick or herringbone lay. Re: Building the Waldorf Grange by Porter Davis 375Jun 30, 2017 10:24 am djblurr stradbroke36 My biggest piece of advice is so far would be to budget A LOT for upgrades. Practically nothing in the display homes is standard (category 1). In fact, most of it is category 4 or 5. We are attempting to recreate the Hamptons look of the display home in Rochedale and have been warned to set aside over $10000 just for kitchen and galley upgrades alone. Another thing that will sting you is electrical with downlights costing upwards of $120 each! We have been doing as much research as possible seeing as we can't just roll into WOS and so far we have visited SIlestone in Yatala to look at benchtops (I can send you a PDF of categories if you like) where they will give you samples. We have also spent a lot of time at National Tiles looking at tiles and laminate. I'm planning of starting my own thread/blog once we have visited WOS so I will attempt to take as many photos as possible and collect as much information as I can on categories. I hope this helps and if you have any questions, let me know Hi, that would be fantastic! I've taken a look at a couple of the blogs on here, but that would be terrific if you could share some info from the WOS!! I had a quick look at the stradbroke and it doesn't appear as though it's part of the "prestige" range, so I'm wondering whether some of the expensive upgrades they've locked you into might be standard inclusions at the higher price the Marriott Grange has? Outside of say flooring, what else did you notice wasn't a standard 'category 1' inclusion? I think you should start a new post for these questions, or consider asking in a PM to avoid derailing Waldorf_Granges build thread. Instagram blog: https://www.instagram.com/ourforevertonhome/ Re: Building the Waldorf Grange by Porter Davis 376Jun 30, 2017 10:30 am stradbroke36 djblurr stradbroke36 My biggest piece of advice is so far would be to budget A LOT for upgrades. Practically nothing in the display homes is standard (category 1). In fact, most of it is category 4 or 5. We are attempting to recreate the Hamptons look of the display home in Rochedale and have been warned to set aside over $10000 just for kitchen and galley upgrades alone. Another thing that will sting you is electrical with downlights costing upwards of $120 each! We have been doing as much research as possible seeing as we can't just roll into WOS and so far we have visited SIlestone in Yatala to look at benchtops (I can send you a PDF of categories if you like) where they will give you samples. We have also spent a lot of time at National Tiles looking at tiles and laminate. I'm planning of starting my own thread/blog once we have visited WOS so I will attempt to take as many photos as possible and collect as much information as I can on categories. I hope this helps and if you have any questions, let me know Hi, that would be fantastic! I've taken a look at a couple of the blogs on here, but that would be terrific if you could share some info from the WOS!! I had a quick look at the stradbroke and it doesn't appear as though it's part of the "prestige" range, so I'm wondering whether some of the expensive upgrades they've locked you into might be standard inclusions at the higher price the Marriott Grange has? Outside of say flooring, what else did you notice wasn't a standard 'category 1' inclusion? Hi djblurr, You're right, the Stradbroke is part of the Lifestyle range while the Marriott Grange is in the Prestige range. Within the Lifestyle range there are add on packages that we've added that pretty much take us up to what you get with the Prestige range (just in a smaller house). Most fit-outs are a category 1 to start with eg. all flooring, laminate cabinets, stone benchtops (which doesn't even come in your extra ensuites and some other rooms at all - it's just laminate). Going Prestige gives you a bigger home and some slight upgrades in sinks, taps, baths and staircase but I believe that is still only a cat 2 or 3 at best. If you PM me your email address, I can send you some PDFs that show what you get as standard and what are upgrades (I can't attach PDFs on here). Cheers Looks like I can't PM, maybe I dont have enough post history yet Maybe if you PM me yours I can then send you an email and go from there? Thanks heaps!!!!! Re: Building the Waldorf Grange by Porter Davis 377Jun 30, 2017 10:30 am No worries. Already working on the PM/email option. I only joined homeone this week and it was my first time posting a reply Re: Building the Waldorf Grange by Porter Davis 378Jun 30, 2017 10:34 am djblurr Hi, that would be fantastic! I've taken a look at a couple of the blogs on here, but that would be terrific if you could share some info from the WOS!! I had a quick look at the stradbroke and it doesn't appear as though it's part of the "prestige" range, so I'm wondering whether some of the expensive upgrades they've locked you into might be standard inclusions at the higher price the Marriott Grange has? Outside of say flooring, what else did you notice wasn't a standard 'category 1' inclusion? As a generalisation pretty much anything in display kitchens has been upgraded, so thicker and deeper benchtops, extra lightings, fancier tiling etc are all extras you would need to add on, plus the cabinetry has normally been upgraded as well, if there are pot drawers those are an upgrade. Similarly any wooden floor you see is probably not Cat 1, same with carpets which are probably Cat 3 or 4 and have more expensive underlay as well. In the bathrooms unless they have very boring taps and sinks those are upgrades, if you have anything beyond a basic mirror that is an upgrade as well, so if you have a medicine cabinet for example that is probably another couple grand. Shower alcoves are an upgrade, tiles on the walls are normally an extra cost, same with any shelves you see there. In the laundry anything beyond a metal tub in the corner is an upgrade, as a rough indication putting in a benchtop will cost you at least $1,000, more if you want cupboards, hanging rail etc and tiles are an extra here as well. Higher ceilings seem to be standard in most display homes and are an extra, maybe a couple thousand bucks for that? Eaves are also an extra on most houses now as well, not sure how much that costs. If you are using Hebel which is pretty common on double story homes that will be an upgrade too as will render. Any landscaping you see is an extra, if there is a wooden deck or tiles in your al fresco that is an upgrade as well. The doors to this in most display homes seem to be the stacker doors, which as you may have guessed by now are also an upgrade. Flyscreens on any of the doors is also an upgrade. If you want more than one powerpoint in each room that's an upgrade, same with if you want more than one TV or data point generally. in Victoria a heating system is standard but an air conditioner is extra, I'm guessing it is the other way round in Qld and may not be necessary. That's about all I can think of off the top of my head but hopefully you get the idea that there are masses of upgrades in the display homes beyond the structural changes and you can easily spend a hell of a lot of money on these things. Building a Kew 28 with Porter Davis Re: Building the Waldorf Grange by Porter Davis 379Jun 30, 2017 10:38 am Hurrow djblurr Hi, that would be fantastic! I've taken a look at a couple of the blogs on here, but that would be terrific if you could share some info from the WOS!! I had a quick look at the stradbroke and it doesn't appear as though it's part of the "prestige" range, so I'm wondering whether some of the expensive upgrades they've locked you into might be standard inclusions at the higher price the Marriott Grange has? Outside of say flooring, what else did you notice wasn't a standard 'category 1' inclusion? As a generalisation pretty much anything in display kitchens has been upgraded, so thicker and deeper benchtops, extra lightings, fancier tiling etc are all extras you would need to add on, plus the cabinetry has normally been upgraded as well, if there are pot drawers those are an upgrade. Similarly any wooden floor you see is probably not Cat 1, same with carpets which are probably Cat 3 or 4 and have more expensive underlay as well. In the bathrooms unless they have very boring taps and sinks those are upgrades, if you have anything beyond a basic mirror that is an upgrade as well, so if you have a medicine cabinet for example that is probably another couple grand. Shower alcoves are an upgrade, tiles on the walls are normally an extra cost, same with any shelves you see there. In the laundry anything beyond a metal tub in the corner is an upgrade, as a rough indication putting in a benchtop will cost you at least $1,000, more if you want cupboards, hanging rail etc and tiles are an extra here as well. Higher ceilings seem to be standard in most display homes and are an extra, maybe a couple thousand bucks for that? Eaves are also an extra on most houses now as well, not sure how much that costs. If you are using Hebel which is pretty common on double story homes that will be an upgrade too as will render. Any landscaping you see is an extra, if there is a wooden deck or tiles in your al fresco that is an upgrade as well. The doors to this in most display homes seem to be the stacker doors, which as you may have guessed by now are also an upgrade. Flyscreens on any of the doors is also an upgrade. If you want more than one powerpoint in each room that's an upgrade, same with if you want more than one TV or data point generally. in Victoria a heating system is standard but an air conditioner is extra, I'm guessing it is the other way round in Qld and may not be necessary. That's about all I can think of off the top of my head but hopefully you get the idea that there are masses of upgrades in the display homes beyond the structural changes and you can easily spend a hell of a lot of money on these things. Re: Building the Waldorf Grange by Porter Davis 380Jul 03, 2017 6:19 pm Got an email from our building co-ordinator today with another error that has been picked up. "We have received onsite communication from our Electrical Suppliers that our Clipspec Selection Document has a mistake where we had inserted 3phase power supply instead of Single Phase Surge Protection. We do apologize for the inconvenience caused by the mistake, I have had your Clipspec Selection Document updated to reflect correct Electrical item of Single Phase Surge Protection. Amendment: - Removed 1No. 3 Phase for AC - Added 1No. Single Phase Surge Protection I will have a building variation through for sign off, which includes a credit of $304.00" Glad to see they will be crediting the amount we have been incorrectly charged. Three options 1 Ask the liquidator 2 Find another PD customer and ask the source of their report 3 Pay for new report 3 12336 We spent close to 2 years in a process with TA. It was horrible..... we got to tender, and the first cut was 50% over our budget which "they care such about meeting ". We… 18 27275 |