Rawson Homes - General Thread

Salfield · Nov 01, 2018 10:07 am

We had Eleanor. Unfortunately she gave us more incorrect information than correct information. Did you have Julie for your colours etc. she is very good. I’d try and get a second opinion. They may have changed but as late and others have said we were allowed to pick anything as long as it was from winnings

JiMb00 · Nov 01, 2018 11:41 am

DR-JEKL

One thing we have to plan for is electrical (how many extra PP's) downlights downstairs by RH, and just get prewire upstairs and install by our own electrician after handover (Im just tempted to get them all done by rawsons TBH) prewire for security camera system, ambient lights in hallways,stairways, external lighting etc..

Tiles is another big one for us to wrap our heads around, so much variety to choose from (well outside the standard range!)

If it's any help we just did exactly that for the down lights on our Chifley 42, put all single power points anywhere we wanted them as will likely change the type of powerpoint after handover to a different range and doubles and some with USB so no use paying the pricey Rawson price for something that is just going to be replaced later. Our electrical still came out at about $12k even with the free 20 downlights in the current promo, all the rest of the downlights downstairs just pre-wired and only the 1st light from a switch upstairs pre-wired so we'll still need to get any of the pre-wire light installed as well as wiring and light install for the extra 3 lights in each room upstairs after the 1st pre-wire to switch.

Got them to do double external power points as there was only $10 between a single and a double and don't plan on changing them but just did pre-wire to junction boxes for any external lights & for a ceiling fan in the alfresco.

One thing that caught us out was the extra power and light circuits they said they would now need over the tiny number they give you standard. I think we needed an extra 7 or so circuits at $330 each!?

Our tiling cost also came back at about $26k which is for an upgraded wood look tile downstairs, porch & alfresco (to be done after handover), full height tiling in all bathrooms, and some slightly upgraded tiles in the master ensuite & shower niches.

luxbuild · Nov 01, 2018 3:39 pm

Did you or anyone put any dimmer switches in, I think those 20 downlights are dimmable?

Also, did you get the $4k tile allowance?

Did anyone upgrade carpets and what was the price like? What sort of cost is it above the standard range?

Melos · Nov 01, 2018 5:23 pm

luxbuild

Did you or anyone put any dimmer switches in, I think those 20 downlights are dimmable?

Also, did you get the $4k tile allowance?

Did anyone upgrade carpets and what was the price like? What sort of cost is it above the standard range?

Assuming nothing has changed you will select your tiles at tilesdirect. The allowance range is pretty basic.
Prices of tiles vary from $29 to $100s per sq mtr. That doesn’t include the laying price. Large tiles cost more to lay, rectified tiles cost more to lay, French or herringbone lay cost more to lay. Work our how much your budget is and go from there. Ask when you are selecting your tiles if they would cost more to lay. Have fun with your selections.

Salfield · Nov 02, 2018 10:11 am

luxbuild

Did you or anyone put any dimmer switches in, I think those 20 downlights are dimmable?

Also, did you get the $4k tile allowance?

Did anyone upgrade carpets and what was the price like? What sort of cost is it above the standard range?

We got one dimmer switch for the media room and it cost $118. That is installed of course.

We didn’t get an allowance we just got to pick from the standard range at tiles direct. We upgraded a few tiles but only did floor to ceiling in our ensuite only so it was only a few thousand over.

We didn’t upgrade the carpet as we felt any carpet is going to wear as we have small children, so we figured we would be replacing eventually anyway at some stage. We were pretty happy with the carpet we chose. They will try to get you to upgrade the underlay
but I think that is a rort. I’ve been to Kate and dukes and they didn’t upgrade underlay and it was very nice to walk on.

KateAndDuke · Nov 02, 2018 10:21 am

Salfield

luxbuild

Did you or anyone put any dimmer switches in, I think those 20 downlights are dimmable?

Also, did you get the $4k tile allowance?

Did anyone upgrade carpets and what was the price like? What sort of cost is it above the standard range?

We got one dimmer switch for the media room and it cost $118. That is installed of course.

We didn’t get an allowance we just got to pick from the standard range at tiles direct. We upgraded a few tiles but only did floor to ceiling in our ensuite only so it was only a few thousand over.

We didn’t upgrade the carpet as we felt any carpet is going to wear as we have small children, so we figured we would be replacing eventually anyway at some stage. We were pretty happy with the carpet we chose. They will try to get you to upgrade the underlay
but I think that is a rort. I’ve been to Kate and dukes and they didn’t upgrade underlay and it was very nice to walk on.

FYI our carpet is called Hollywood Nights. Like Salfield we didn’t upgrade the carpet or underlay as we will have young kids on it in the next few years and didn’t think it was worth the money.

And we did the same as Salfield re: tiles. Included was the standard tile range and we upgraded as we liked.

G1NOSAUR · Nov 14, 2018 11:33 am

Hi Guys,

Just wondering if anyone's had a similar experience to me and what they did about it.

I have a corner that's meant to be just a normal regular plain corner. However, after my first site visit, the site manager has said that there now has to be a duct that's going to be boxed in. The first photo below is the duct and the second photo is what it will look like. Now I think about it, I think they've made an error. There was already a duct located in the WIR which I think they've forgotten. I'm not very happy about this as it wasn't in the finalised plan submitted to the council, if we were to do this kind of change by request, Rawson would've charged us a drafting fee with a few delays.

Has anyone complained and had the layout changed to suit the air duct?

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NDDreamHome · Nov 14, 2018 12:11 pm

1NOSAURG

Hi Guys,

Just wondering if anyone's had a similar experience to me and what they did about it.

I have a corner that's meant to be just a normal regular plain corner. However, after my first site visit, the site manager has said that there now has to be a duct that's going to be boxed in. The first photo below is the duct and the second photo is what it will look like. Now I think about it, I think they've made an error. There was already a duct located in the WIR which I think they've forgotten. I'm not very happy about this as it wasn't in the finalised plan submitted to the council, if we were to do this kind of change by request, Rawson would've charged us a drafting fee with a few delays.

Has anyone complained and had the layout changed to suit the air duct?

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Hi,

Similar thing happened to me as they had to move the duct to one corner like yours. But for me it did not appear to be issue as it was from right corner (as per plan) moved to left corner.

Talk to your SS if there is any alternative, sometimes they can't get access because of structural obstruction, which is obviously their error for not considering in design stage.

Cheers,
ND

luxbuild · Nov 14, 2018 2:15 pm

I know they say ducting location is up to the installer, but if you haven't changed the house design too much, you'd think they would have sorted this sort of thing out by now.

If the assigned ACD is empty, maybe you can reclaim that corner.
Did you upgrade carpet?
Does it affect your electrical layout/lighting?

How big is the robe on the other side, would it take too much space if you put it in there?

AIB · Nov 14, 2018 3:43 pm

Hi guys
Just 5 days or so after I payed "Internal linings" bill, I received "Fix-out" bill straight away. Does anyone has similar experience?
Also how about the last payment for "Practical completion"? Can I hold it for a while before they fix most of defects? Thanks.

Cheers
Aib

luxbuild · Nov 14, 2018 8:08 pm

According to the contract, 21.3, you give the builder written notice of things that need doing for practical completion. They can accept it or reject it.
Remember the air conditioning or hot water (or some other appliances) don't need to be installed to meet contractual practical completion.

How is the house looking? Has all the work been done?

AJW · Nov 14, 2018 8:09 pm

AIB

Hi guys
Just 5 days or so after I payed "Internal linings" bill, I received "Fix-out" bill straight away. Does anyone has similar experience?
Also how about the last payment for "Practical completion"? Can I hold it for a while before they fix most of defects? Thanks.

Cheers
Aib

You cannot withold any payment as per the contract for almost any reason what so ever.

The contract is heavily in favour of them n

AJW · Nov 14, 2018 8:26 pm

G1NOSAUR

Hi Guys,

Just wondering if anyone's had a similar experience to me and what they did about it.

I have a corner that's meant to be just a normal regular plain corner. However, after my first site visit, the site manager has said that there now has to be a duct that's going to be boxed in. The first photo below is the duct and the second photo is what it will look like. Now I think about it, I think they've made an error. There was already a duct located in the WIR which I think they've forgotten. I'm not very happy about this as it wasn't in the finalised plan submitted to the council, if we were to do this kind of change by request, Rawson would've charged us a drafting fee with a few delays.

Has anyone complained and had the layout changed to suit the air duct?

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Has similar. But in my case they took the wardrobe space behind. I was not happy to say the least. However if they did what they have at your place I would go off my nana big time.

And as the poster below said you would think with their standardised designs provided you didn’t make any big changes they should be able to make the structure such that the ducts can can where they need as per tha plan.

My opinion the a/c installers do what ever is easy for them not what is best for the client or the long term.

AIB · Nov 14, 2018 11:47 pm

luxbuild

According to the contract, 21.3, you give the builder written notice of things that need doing for practical completion. They can accept it or reject it.
Remember the air conditioning or hot water (or some other appliances) don't need to be installed to meet contractual practical completion.

How is the house looking? Has all the work been done?

Hi Luxbuild
So far so good. Kitchen in, staircase installed, doors installed and first round of paint finished. As far as I can see, things still outstanding are drive way, tiles and flooring... etc. Hopefully handover before Xmas. BTW, does anyone have a general checklist for handover? Also I assume Rawson will have IOC ready before H/O. Thx.
Best regards
Aib

luxbuild · Nov 15, 2018 5:54 pm

Hi AIB,

I've been thinking about your ducting problem, and I can't believe Rawson think that is acceptable and presented it to you, instead of solving the problem and building it as agreed.

For myself, I surprised that I am dealing with a builder that can't build to their plans.
I would be interested to know why this happened. If the ceiling went up before the a/c guy came in and did the ducting, well they should have held off on the ceiling so something like didn't become the 'solution'.

I think altering the room layout like this is really poor on Rawson, obviously they'd never accept it in their display home.

Why didn't they use the allocated space? How could they miss something like this at design stage?

robw17 · Nov 20, 2018 11:50 pm

DR-JEKL

Were just getting the contract signe dnow, and will be having our electrican interior colour selection in a few weeks time. When initially choosing rawsons they said for newcastle they source through winning appliances, to upgrade appliances it can easily be done through them.

Now were being told that no this is not possible, Rawsons use westinghouse, electrolux & AEG exlcusively..

For some items I'd be happy with the aforementioned product ranges, but their inbuilt rangehoods are severely lacking and I'd prefer neff oven and induction cooktop...

So may I ask for those whom have been in this predicament before, am I best to say accept included appliances, source my own after handover and have them fitted then? In the contract it did state that items such as hot water A/C and kitchen appliances may be installed after handover..

Regarding the apppliances, the short answer is, that from our experience, if you want something non-standard or even if you want to supply/fit your own appliances after handover, then just dig your heels in and stand your ground... you'll eventually get your way.

The longer version is that our appliances saga started when we enquired about an upgrade to an induction cooktop. Firstly they told us we could choose from a westinghouse, electrolux or an AEG but they flat out refused to say the upgrade price until the internals appointment. We looked at the models on offer and didn't like them so we researched (here at H1) and found previous customers who were either allowed to choose anything from Winnings or were allowed to supply and fit their own appliances after handover. We pursued the latter option. First response was that they were "required to install all units and appliances in order to get an OC". This I assure you is BS. So we told them so, with reference to customers who previously did this and still managed to get an OC. Second response was that "this is an option that we use to offer but we no longer do as it caused too many issues, this will not be possible". To which we said, rubbish, we're not proceeding until this BS is sorted out. The third response was "OK, you can supply your own appliances after handover, but you will need to give us all make and models of all supplied appliances". This process took 26 days to work through.

DR-JEKL · Nov 21, 2018 10:23 am

luxbuild

Did you or anyone put any dimmer switches in, I think those 20 downlights are dimmable?

Also, did you get the $4k tile allowance?

Did anyone upgrade carpets and what was the price like? What sort of cost is it above the standard range?

You can install your own dimmers after handover I believe (my old man use to be a sales rep for Clipsal and he advised me to do it after handover - were doing bulk of our electrical after handover!)

Hmm unsure on the tile allowance TBH (I cant recall an exact figure I'm guessing the exact amount would vary on what house you're building (smaller house require less tiles thus lower tile allowance factored in?)

We're going to try and use mostly tiles from the standard range (We really like tiles direct their stock has changed a bit in the last 6 months) and just use some upgraded tiles for feature wall, splashback in kitchen etc

We're going for an upgraded carpet just awaiting for the price variation but...

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DR-JEKL · Nov 21, 2018 10:36 am

robw17

DR-JEKL

Were just getting the contract signe dnow, and will be having our electrican interior colour selection in a few weeks time. When initially choosing rawsons they said for newcastle they source through winning appliances, to upgrade appliances it can easily be done through them.

Now were being told that no this is not possible, Rawsons use westinghouse, electrolux & AEG exlcusively..

For some items I'd be happy with the aforementioned product ranges, but their inbuilt rangehoods are severely lacking and I'd prefer neff oven and induction cooktop...

So may I ask for those whom have been in this predicament before, am I best to say accept included appliances, source my own after handover and have them fitted then? In the contract it did state that items such as hot water A/C and kitchen appliances may be installed after handover..

Regarding the apppliances, the short answer is, that from our experience, if you want something non-standard or even if you want to supply/fit your own appliances after handover, then just dig your heels in and stand your ground... you'll eventually get your way.

The longer version is that our appliances saga started when we enquired about an upgrade to an induction cooktop. Firstly they told us we could choose from a westinghouse, electrolux or an AEG but they flat out refused to say the upgrade price until the internals appointment. We looked at the models on offer and didn't like them so we researched (here at H1) and found previous customers who were either allowed to choose anything from Winnings or were allowed to supply and fit their own appliances after handover. We pursued the latter option. First response was that they were "required to install all units and appliances in order to get an OC". This I assure you is BS. So we told them so, with reference to customers who previously did this and still managed to get an OC. Second response was that "this is an option that we use to offer but we no longer do as it caused too many issues, this will not be possible". To which we said, rubbish, we're not proceeding until this BS is sorted out. The third response was "OK, you can supply your own appliances after handover, but you will need to give us all make and models of all supplied appliances". This process took 26 days to work through.

Hmm only just had our electrical appointment yesterday... Haven't signed anything yet but..

TBH my wife wasn't keen on upgrading any of the kitchen items (trying to keep build costs down) but I hate cheap crap appliances and I think its ludicrous to spend $550-600k on a house build and just leave standard cheap appliances in..

Yes getting prices for the upgrades was somewhat difficult, had to choose the model etc then ask for it (anything AEG was crazy miele type pricing almost lol) we'd been advised beforehand that the westinghouse induction was no cost, electrolux MW with grille no cost and electrolux pull out rangehood $225.

Found out the induction cooktop was extra same with the microwave with grille. They gave us the MW upgrade for free (due to the error on their behalf) told them to wack in the WH electric cooktop as included in standard range, as I've checked the dimensions I can get a Neff induction 90cm cooktop to drop in for ~ $1500.

Thing that really annoyed me was the standard rangehoods, absolute crap and upgrade range isn't that great.. I'd much prefer a decent integrated qasiair or something similar.. These are obviously somewhat more difficult to DIY 'upgrade' after handover. Not really keen on a pull out, but it was the only one that I could live with whereas the AEG was $1450 and I couldn't find any positive reviews on it..

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AJW · Nov 21, 2018 11:06 am

Out of interest Westinghouse, Electrolux and AEG are all the same company and some products are identical. They must do a good deal with Rawsons for them to be the standard gear.

What I don’t follow is if they use Winning Appliances why don’t they just say your budget is X from any item at Winning.

I would have much rather had Bosch in my place.

DR-JEKL · Nov 21, 2018 11:26 am

AJW

Out of interest Westinghouse, Electrolux and AEG are all the same company and some products are identical. They must do a good deal with Rawsons for them to be the standard gear.

What I don’t follow is if they use Winning Appliances why don’t they just say your budget is X from any item at Winning.

Suppliers offer cash rebates to the building Co's to use their products. (my old man use to be with clipsal and mentioned they'd do this for the building Co's they have exclusive suppliers to)

So if you use the aforementioned brands, Rawson would get a cash rebate on them I'm guessing, and winning appliances are just merely the retailers for the AEG group.

In this scenario if you were to get a Bosch item through winning's Rawson dont get a cash rebate from AEG?