Browse Forums Building A New House BRICKS Valeco Homes - Polished Concrete + Monochrome 281Dec 09, 2017 5:51 pm Fly screens and sliding screen doors are included but if you wanted barrier or security these are an upgrade. I also hate them lol Re: BRICKS Valeco Homes - Polished Concrete + Monochrome 282Dec 12, 2017 9:18 pm We had a meeting with our new SS today. It turns out he is only temporary and won't be our SS after Christmas - he lives up at the Sunshine Coast and was just filling in (as it seems our original SS quit Valeco with no warning). So anyway, he has most things scheduled to take us up until Jan, and whoever we get as our SS after that will schedule the rest. He expects us to be at lock up prior to Christmas, and some fit out stuff starting to happen in Jan. Although he can't say for sure, he thinks we might be complete at the end of Feb. We will probably ask our real estate to extend our lease until end of March or early April to be safe. I didn't take any photos today, as there isn't much visually different at the moment. They were working on our rendering today. Our polished concrete floors are done - but covered up for protection so we couldn't really see them. They have put plaster boards on the roof, and walls will happen soon. We questioned the gap between the slab and recessed sliding doors, and his response was "yes, well what they SHOULD have done... and what they HAVE done... are two different things". Basically they f*d it up...he wasn't around when they did it, but he noticed it too and told Trent (whoever Trent is? haha) and now they will need to fill the gap in some way. He said the best solution is probably an aluminium piece, which I agree is probably the best solution. But we're still pretty angry (particularly my partner) because we made a pretty big deal about our flush floors, recessed sliding doors and decking etc. We even had them include an elevation drawing so we could see how it was all supposed to be done... and this is not what was shown on the elevation. Other than that, we're happy with how things are travelling. It's just concerning that our SS keeps changing.. which makes it hard to receive updates and we hope it doesn't slow things down or cause any hiccups because they haven't had as much time to be familiar with our build. Re: BRICKS Valeco Homes - Polished Concrete + Monochrome 283Dec 12, 2017 9:24 pm staceyrussell We had a meeting with our new SS today. It turns out he is only temporary and won't be our SS after Christmas - he lives up at the Sunshine Coast and was just filling in (as it seems our original SS quit Valeco with no warning). So anyway, he has most things scheduled to take us up until Jan, and whoever we get as our SS after that will schedule the rest. He expects us to be at lock up prior to Christmas, and some fit out stuff starting to happen in Jan. Although he can't say for sure, he thinks we might be complete at the end of Feb. We will probably ask our real estate to extend our lease until end of March or early April to be safe. I didn't take any photos today, as there isn't much visually different at the moment. They were working on our rendering today. Our polished concrete floors are done - but covered up for protection so we couldn't really see them. They have put plaster boards on the roof, and walls will happen soon. We questioned the gap between the slab and recessed sliding doors, and his response was "yes, well what they SHOULD have done... and what they HAVE done... are two different things". Basically they f*d it up...he wasn't around when they did it, but he noticed it too and told Trent (whoever Trent is? haha) and now they will need to fill the gap in some way. He said the best solution is probably an aluminium piece, which I agree is probably the best solution. But we're still pretty angry (particularly my partner) because we made a pretty big deal about our flush floors, recessed sliding doors and decking etc. We even had them include an elevation drawing so we could see how it was all supposed to be done... and this is not what was shown on the elevation. Other than that, we're happy with how things are travelling. It's just concerning that our SS keeps changing.. which makes it hard to receive updates and we hope it doesn't slow things down or cause any hiccups because they haven't had as much time to be familiar with our build. omg! that's so crap about your sliding doors.. i think the same thing is happening to us. I'm questioning it now. They should rectify it the way you want it. You shouldn't have to settle for something else. Maybe they were concerned about damaging your polished floor. You guys are flying along though - looks like your current SS is doing a good job. Lock up stage before xmas is perfect. I just want to have the roof on, but not sure that will happen. Re: BRICKS Valeco Homes - Polished Concrete + Monochrome 284Dec 12, 2017 9:47 pm gr8ly omg! that's so crap about your sliding doors.. i think the same thing is happening to us. I'm questioning it now. They should rectify it the way you want it. You shouldn't have to settle for something else. Maybe they were concerned about damaging your polished floor. You guys are flying along though - looks like your current SS is doing a good job. Lock up stage before xmas is perfect. I just want to have the roof on, but not sure that will happen. Yours is probably fine, so don't worry! It's due to us having the actual slab as our floor. If you have tiles or whatever the gap gets filled and tiled over. But because we're having polished concrete, the typical method would make it look ugly as f*. There isn't really any way to fix it, because its the slab being cut too far in and you can't redo the slab. If they fill it with concrete it will look weird and not seamless which is why we think the best solution is probably an aluminium transition so it will look more like a piece of the door, and not a weird thin strip of concrete thats different. Our current SS seemed great - he just scheduled a bunch of stuff and is all "full steam ahead". Hopefully the next SS is the same. Re: BRICKS Valeco Homes - Polished Concrete + Monochrome 285Dec 21, 2017 10:57 pm Made a quick stop by the house on my way home from work today... didn't have my camera with me, but took some snaps on my phone. Will hopefully take proper photos in the new year when we have a meeting with Trent (who I think is the Construction Manager?) to chat about our options for that gap between the doors. Anyway, here are the photos... we have walls and a garage door, yay! Plus it looks like internal doors have been delivered and baseboards I think. FacadeLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Bedroom 2Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Study Nook from Kids RetreatLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Kids RetreatLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ LivingLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ LivingLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ LivingLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ LivingLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ OfficeLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ OfficeLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Office/AlfrescoLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Alfresco from OfficeLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Master BedroomLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ EnsuiteLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: WALLS/LOCKUP Valeco Homes - Polished Concrete + Monochro 286Dec 22, 2017 5:19 pm staceyrussell woah! how awesome does it all look! Love the facade - your living room looks even bigger now. I actually can't wait to see how your floor ends up looking.. we have frames, but not complete they ran out of time. Re: WALLS/LOCKUP Valeco Homes - Polished Concrete + Monochro 287Dec 22, 2017 7:04 pm gr8ly @staceyrussell woah! how awesome does it all look! Love the facade - your living room looks even bigger now. I actually can't wait to see how your floor ends up looking.. we have frames, but not complete they ran out of time. Ah, damn! Shame they didn't get to finish your frames. Hopefully it is full steam ahead in the new year and our houses will be complete in a couple of months! Re: WALLS/LOCKUP Valeco Homes - Polished Concrete + Monochro 288Dec 22, 2017 9:21 pm staceyrussell Ah, damn! Shame they didn't get to finish your frames. Hopefully it is full steam ahead in the new year and our houses will be complete in a couple of months! haha i wish! we've been told maybe the end of June, early July.. although will be here soon enough Re: WALLS/LOCKUP Valeco Homes - Polished Concrete + Monochro 289Jan 05, 2018 7:31 pm Not happy with them myself. Our sales consultant was awesome and colour selection great but for small lot specialists they missed a lot for us. Firstly told us after contract signing that we needed a $3500 engineered retaining wall. Also after contract signing got told that we had to pay for a temporary power pole. Furthermore to build our home they didnt tell us that they had to accesss all over the neighbours side yard. Whilst one would think that one would allow that to be inviting to the neighbourhood, our neighbours did not. So much so that they called police out multiple times and also got lawyers involved against Valeco. To their discredit we were asked by our SS to deal with them ourselves to allow them access. Its at lock up now. Lots of defects, but our SS (who only responds when he wants to) says itll be fixed. We are currrently holding off on our next payment because our timber bifold doors have been put in wrong and dont have recessed tracks like whats in our contract and specifications. Not currently happy. If it turns out to be a well built house, ill amend this post. Re: WALLS/LOCKUP Valeco Homes - Polished Concrete + Monochro 290Jan 06, 2018 11:25 am Shelmac Not happy with them myself. Our sales consultant was awesome and colour selection great but for small lot specialists they missed a lot for us. Firstly told us after contract signing that we needed a $3500 engineered retaining wall. Also after contract signing got told that we had to pay for a temporary power pole. Furthermore to build our home they didnt tell us that they had to accesss all over the neighbours side yard. Whilst one would think that one would allow that to be inviting to the neighbourhood, our neighbours did not. So much so that they called police out multiple times and also got lawyers involved against Valeco. To their discredit we were asked by our SS to deal with them ourselves to allow them access. Its at lock up now. Lots of defects, but our SS (who only responds when he wants to) says itll be fixed. We are currrently holding off on our next payment because our timber bifold doors have been put in wrong and dont have recessed tracks like whats in our contract and specifications. Not currently happy. If it turns out to be a well built house, ill amend this post. Where abouts are you building shelmac? Re: WALLS/LOCKUP Valeco Homes - Polished Concrete + Monochro 292Jan 06, 2018 2:14 pm We are building in Brisbane inner southside. SS is S. I sometimes feel maybe they are given way too many houses to oversee at once as I can imagine its very hectic. He is a nice guy and has answered a lot of our questions. Just a communication issue but I think he gets held up a lot as his waiting on management to get back to him so its probably not even his fault. I didnt list all the issues weve had and I do want to point out that they do build very lovely homes and ours does look pretty amazing so Im sure once the errors are corrected we will have a stunning house. Ive just found it a very stressful build and wish most of the problem solving wasnt left to us. I highly recommend Tracey at Yarrabilba. She literally went above and beyond. Candice at colour selection was great. Tammy was very helpful when we found out our site had no water or sewer pipes on it (can you believe our solicitor didnt tell us this when conveyancing)!! Tammy helped co ordinate it all to be done from start to finish so that was amazing. Kim in the office and Gaye in accounts are also really helpful. Tbh they are all really lovely. I will be greatful when they come back next week if they can assurenus our bifolds will be pulled out and redone as it was such a massive cost to us. They left us hanging right over the xmas break when they were suppose to let us know before the break. That I find really disappointing and unfair. I am trying to stay positive and remain optimistic and point out their strengths as I do believe they have a lot. I guess when your on the other end the negatives really stick out too. I hope once its done I can right a review thats fair and honest and I anticipate itll all come together in the end and we will be very happy. We are up to variation 15 now I think. I biT of advice is if you dont think a variation you get lumped with out of the blue is fair and just, put your point across, check your contract and say something because they can get adjusted. For instance we got aa 50% discount on the retaining wall because we wernt told we needed it until the start of the build, even after we got a survey done. Also they tried to charge us an extra $900 for site cut out- I argued that and got it wiped. Special mention goes to their tiler Tom. We provided our own feature tiles and he met with us to discuss what we wanted then even called me and sent pics of the tiles loosely laid out to make sure it was exactly what we wanted. He was a real gem and did a perfect job! The electrician met with us also to go ovef where we wanred our 3 pendant lights positioned over the kitchen bench and he really went out of his way to make sure we got what we wanted. Its certainly getting very exciting now we are so close to completion! Re: WALLS/LOCKUP Valeco Homes - Polished Concrete + Monochro 294Jan 06, 2018 4:59 pm Shelmac Btw who was the SS who quit? Hey Shelmac! So sorry to hear of all the dramas with your build, glad you argued your stance and got the discount/waived fees on those few things! Hopefully they pull through and fix all of your issues! We are still waiting for Valeco to open back up after xmas break so that we can arrange a meeting on site with the constructions manager to discuss our options for their stuff up with our slab rebate / sliding door / alfresco area. I don't think they will be able to do anything to make us happy about it... it's wrong and it cannot be fixed to what it was supposed to be - they can only offer solutions. We were so particular about this area of the house - even asking them to include an elevation drawing of this section - and its a major shame that it won't be how we envisioned it. The only other things we could complain about so far are: 1. When we did our custom design we always had a butlers pantry from the get-go. We were under the impression that the bench/cabinets indicated on our sales plan when we signed the contract was included in the base cost (because benches and cabinets are standard for a kitchen and some standard valeco designs have butler pantries), but they told us it should have been a variation. We argued this and got a discount. 2. The change over in Site Supervisors. Which isn't their fault, but at the same time we're still left in limbo and have no assigned site supervisor (we only got a temp one to schedule jobs up until the end of January)... so we don't have that connection with anyone to discuss our build. Apart from those few things everything has been great. Our first site supervisor was P.T and then our temp was P.S (temp because he lives at sunshine coast, so was just overseeing the builds that P.T left behind when he quit). We don't know who our site supervisor is yet from this point on... Re: WALLS/LOCKUP Valeco Homes - Polished Concrete + Monochro 295Jan 06, 2018 5:07 pm We have done a butlers pantry too. We dont have any shelves or cabinets in it either. It was going to cost way too mucn. Did you think youd have cupboards in the BP as part of the base cost? Re: WALLS/LOCKUP Valeco Homes - Polished Concrete + Monochro 296Jan 06, 2018 5:20 pm Shelmac We have done a butlers pantry too. We dont have any shelves or cabinets in it either. It was going to cost way too mucn. Did you think youd have cupboards in the BP as part of the base cost? Yes, because we indicated from the get-go that one side was to have bench/cabinets and the other side would be shelves. It was drawn on our sales plan and we then figure it was included in the base cost... because it was a part of our kitchen design from the get-go we didn't realise that particular bench and those particular cabinets should have been listed separately on the variation. There was nothing to tell us it should have been listed separately/wasn't included in the base cost quote as a part of the "kitchen". Re: WALLS/LOCKUP Valeco Homes - Polished Concrete + Monochro 298Jan 07, 2018 2:50 pm Shelmac Oh ok gotcha, we are doing half benches and half shelves too. Yes you should have been given a price straight away. do you have a PCI or handover date? Re: WALLS/LOCKUP Valeco Homes - Polished Concrete + Monochro 300Jan 07, 2018 3:04 pm Shelmac Yes its sometime in late Feb I think. Will have to check. Oh cool, what stage are you up to at the moment? To my understanding early saw cuts are to control shrinkage cracks, so doing them now would be pointless. Control joints may reduce ugly cracking during periods of soil… 3 9863 Hi all I need a guidance on how far I need to space expansion joints in the concrete driveway and its type (keyway/foam.) Contraction joints are at 3m max for a 125 slab. Thanks 0 10943 |