Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Dec 30, 2016 5:29 pm My husband is a Quad so we really need a wheelchair friendly builder.
He built with another company before but most of the house is inaccessible, they underestimated sizes so he can only go in two rooms and spent the last 15 years in his bedroom, and lots of non working fittings, taps don't work, fittings inserted back to front etc. Although I am unsure what his mum installed post build. I was very impressed with display homes by this company lately so they may have improved. Hard to tell what's the builder vs what is inexperienced home owners. We have been trying to build with A large project home builder for the past 8 months but it's like pulling hens teeth. Starting with all my house ideas and CAD drawings being completely ridiculed by the salesperson and any idea we have is basically hosed down and I walk out of every meeting feeling smaller than a cockroach. Communication between departments is painful with the simplest requests to move a toilet for access or change an exterior having the fight every single step of the way. We still don't know what they submitted to council and they keep ignoring our change requests or then told no sign here now and you can change it later, oh but you can't change that later that's a variation fee. We haven't signed the final contract. The saleslady knows her job and seems on our side, but she won't be building the house for us and every other department seems to have different rules and long waiting times. Finally after 7 drafts a plan that is very close to my first drawings that I was told were useless. It feels like everything is a no... This isn't our dream house it feels like an obligation now. I'm currently looking at the possibility of owner builder but I work 7 days a week plus as a carer. Or maybe another company that can give us the features we need. I don't see the point of building a house I will hate. We may as well stay in the rental. I feel like a very small number in a large organization. The Sales times were flexible but any other appointments are very difficult to make. They have good reviews, lots of awards. maybe I am too fussy or expect to much. Maybe every builder will be the same and it's just the normal stress of building. I've hated every step of this build and we don't even have a cleared block yet. Fighting for what we need which isn't complex. Being questioned at every turn or told what we like is ugly and unsuitable. I'm not sure what to do there is none of the creativity and flexibly of building your own home that I expected. Re: New wheelchair accessable build 2Dec 30, 2016 7:22 pm Geez that sounds ridiculous. I would dump them like a sack of **** and go find a small local builder. We have tried to make our house wheelchair friendly as you never know what the future might bring. Can I ask what things you wanted in your house to make it more quad friendly?? Re: New wheelchair accessable build 3Dec 31, 2016 12:22 pm Wheelchair, I'm with Craigasaurus - these people most definitely do not deserve your money! Any representative of a company who makes value judgements on YOUR house and what it needs to be requires some re-education pretty quickly. If you haven't already, I'd suggest contacting the Independent Living Centre nearest to you http://www.ilcaustralia.org.au They should be able to provide you with some information about appropriate contractors to assist you to build appropriate accessible housing. With such an important process as building a home, you really need to have someone you are able to communicate with easily, and regards your views as paramount. Goodluck with your build. Variegated Re: New wheelchair accessable build 4Jan 01, 2017 4:00 pm Thanks guys, biggest thing is large enough passages, rooms etc. But then it is also space under benches, sinks, heights of windows, fittings eg sliders without base locks, assesssble fittings eg seperate hot and cold taps rather than mixers or positioning of washing machines and appliances he can use. Unfortunately they only have certain deals with certain companies and those companies don't always have anything suitable so if we need one fitting from somewhere else we have to supply every other fitting and our own installers. Thank you so much everyone. This all makes a lot of sense. I guess when you talk to a builder who butters up everything to look very polished, you get to start believing… 7 17588 A person needs to be licensed to offer financial advice. Surely the accountant you use would have been chosen for his/her expertise in this field. Have you asked your… 1 6732 |