Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jun 30, 2016 2:23 pm Hi all We just started building with a major builder and everything already started with a nightmare. For our site cost, we were quoted over 80k, for a flat land in an established suburb. Obviously for that much money, we want to ensure that the slab is done properly and to our satisfaction. Therefore, we engage an independent inspector to do our pre-slab inspection. After rescheduling it twice, finally we have our pre-slab inspection last Tue at 4pm, and the whole thing finished at 4.30pm. My husband was very upset and wasnt very happy with the quality of the work. It was messy, sloppy, you could tell that they rushed and cut corner. The site supervisor sent an email asking that night if it's okay to go ahead with the concrete pouring on the next day, cos the concreter is fully booked in teh next 4 days. We replied saying "we want to wait for the private inspector's report. so pls do NOT pour the concrete" My husband drove past the property on the next day at 7.50am, and they were pouring the concrete! Apparently the site supervisor called the concrete contractor that night, but he didnt pick up the phone. So he left a message NOT to pour the concrete. However the conctractors decided to go ahead anyway. They claimed they have the signed off from their own builder surveyor and thus the slab is compliant. They took a lot of pictures, that to date, we still ahvent received. What options do we have? I mean, the inspection finished at 4.30pm, and the concrete was being poured at 7.45am in the morning, whats the chance that they rectified anything? (some of the feedback was to redo some part of the slab) It feels like we are being robbed. We have to pay 80k for something we werent happy and comfortable with, for sloppy job and completely rude and unprofessional behaviour. Our hearts are broken to pieces. Is there any option for us to change builders? Is it a valid case to take them to VCAT/court, whatever? Or as a customer, we have no right and just have to hand them the money...? We were paying a lot for the private inspector too Re: Pre-slab nightmare - Please help. 2Jun 30, 2016 9:33 pm That's crazy 80000 for a slab. My advice is talk to your building company immediately, construction manager, then if you're not satisfied. Go to your lawyer or do both at the same time. You poor things, not a great start. But it won't be long till it's finished. viewtopic.php?t=81752 Pre-slab nightmare - Please help. 3Jun 30, 2016 10:47 pm I would say the slab is compliant considering it was approved by the relevant building surveyor. Wouldnt stress about it
Re: Pre-slab nightmare - Please help. 4Jul 01, 2016 8:26 am Narrewarren01 I would say the slab is compliant considering it was approved by the relevant building surveyor. Would stress about it I am afraid that you cannot assume this. Our slab was passed as compliant when, in fact, it was not. You cannot rely on Victorian Building Surveyors to oversee your build. To the OP, I suggest you take a lot of photos and get in an independent building consultant to check your slab for you. If there are huge issues, now is the time to fix them before the frame goes up. Just be careful in your choice of inspector as you need no qualifications to set yourself up as a building inspector in Victoria. Choose somebody who is experienced and can give you recent and past references. Re: Pre-slab nightmare - Please help. 5Jul 01, 2016 9:06 am Thanks for the advice guys. From what we have seen it was really sloppy and rushed jobs so quality is definitely in question. When i checked out other people's building blogs, their pre slab preparation is so neat and tidy. Mine was nothing like that... We are going to escalate the issue to the state manager. The builder itself is very apologetic, but we certainly dont want this to happen again. Re: Pre-slab nightmare - Please help. 8Jul 01, 2016 12:19 pm 80K is a lot of money for flat block even if it is "P" class because of KDR? Did you have pre contract review? if not why not? Anyway its too late you signed off on 80K How qualified is your independent building inspector? and why isn't he advising you? From what you posted so far you don't yet have grounds for VCAT action and your slab may still be OK 80K will buy a lot of reinforcing steel and that will make your slab strong even if its rough. A more serious scenario is that the rough start you have had is just a foreplay of things to come, make sure your consultant is up to it. Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: Pre-slab nightmare - Please help. 9Jul 01, 2016 12:39 pm 80k site cost may include other things like traffic management, etc. you would have to see the contract before stating 80k is high in my opinion Re: Pre-slab nightmare - Please help. 10Jul 01, 2016 1:32 pm Hi Thanks for all the feedback. Yeh, 80k is the total site cost. Still pretty high tho right..? I think the slab itself is 27k, the rest is traffic management, etc etc. We didnt know we could do pre-contract review, so we didnt do it. With the site cost, we had asked a friend who is a structural engineer to verify, but nothing formal. I will try to post pictures later when i am at home. Even if the slab is compliant, where is customer care? Re: Pre-slab nightmare - Please help. 11Jul 01, 2016 1:37 pm i thought my site cost for knock down rebuild was high. almost triple of mine with over a meter of slope and lots of concrete piering. mine they just fix it immediately as the inspection went. nothing major. maybe this is how they usually do it? but yeah won't stress about it. they should have their own inspection before the pour i learnt. Re: Pre-slab nightmare - Please help. 12Jul 01, 2016 4:01 pm How is a slab right selection of flooring system for this type of site? Surely previous dwelling was just BV with strip footings and stumps and lasted 50+years. There is provision in NCC that you can do dwelling extension with similar footings provided it was fine in service. Analogously, why could not have it been priced as BV with timber floors? Probably because there was no 80K in it to be had. This has nothing to do with the best choice of flooring system and everything to do with over engineering for big profits. Just my two bob. Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: Pre-slab nightmare - Please help. 13Jul 01, 2016 4:17 pm kdring i thought my site cost for knock down rebuild was high. almost triple of mine with over a meter of slope and lots of concrete piering. mine they just fix it immediately as the inspection went. nothing major. maybe this is how they usually do it? but yeah won't stress about it. they should have their own inspection before the pour i learnt. Kdring, how much is your site cost if you dont mind sharing.. This is our first time building so we dont konw whats normal.. Re: Pre-slab nightmare - Please help. 14Jul 01, 2016 4:46 pm boysenberry2014 kdring i thought my site cost for knock down rebuild was high. almost triple of mine with over a meter of slope and lots of concrete piering. mine they just fix it immediately as the inspection went. nothing major. maybe this is how they usually do it? but yeah won't stress about it. they should have their own inspection before the pour i learnt. [/quote]Kdring, how much is your site cost if you dont mind sharing.. This is our first time building so we dont konw whats normal.. [/quote] i signed with 50k allocated for site work. came down significantly to about 35k after 2nd soil test and engineering. i won't have sign for 50k if my builder doesn't have 25 years warranty on the slab. asked many builders, they usually quote around 40-50k provision for site work. knock down rebuild is so much more expensive than new estate and we still get waffle slab. 27k is about right for the slab i guess? Re: Pre-slab nightmare - Please help. 17Oct 22, 2018 2:15 pm What was your outcome with the escalation to the state manager? We've had the offer of a short term tenant whilst waiting for CDC/DA home approval and demolition for our knock down rebuild. It would achieve a pretty low rent as it's… 0 13750 The fastest thing a builder will do is bank your cheque, those systems work perfectly with lightning speed, everything else is slow burn. Just the way it is. 1 8705 Just to makea point about this, an approach that some people have found sucessful in negotiating these rises down, Is to provide some workings to the builder, specifying… 4 81692 |