SETTLING IN - Valeco - Polished Concrete + Monochrome

hi sammid are you building with valeco? what do you mean by being pro-active? what are you suggesting?

Have you had issues with them?

Sorry Guys so busy at work—I’ve just finished the build from hell with Valeco,I can’t go into details at the moment.my advice to you would be to get every stage independently checked,make sure that all defects are fixed not covered over, record every single item in writing and don’t assume that Valeco will act in a honest or professional manner.above all keep emailing them when they ignore you.Good luck with your builds.

I have no experience with them but googling their reviews sounds atrocious..

pandibabi i think if you are going out looking for bad reviews you're going to find them for any builder. I also know a few people that have built with Valeco and have nothing negative to say. it is normally dependant on the people/contractors working on your build. That is the same for every build. It's up to the site supervisor to make sure everything is done properly and to standard.

I wasn't going to post anything about our experiences with Valeco until our construction had ended as we wanted to give them every opportunity to rectify issues etc but I have been reading your forum and our experience is very similar so thought I would just join in here!! We are building a three story custom home in Brisbane North with Valeco. We started with them back in Aug/Sep 2016 and construction didn't commence until June 2017 due to multiple issues with pricing, working drawings, communication etc, we thought our experience up until that point was bad but little did we know what was to come. We are now up to our fifth site supervisor, our nine month build contract ends in less than a week and we don't even have plaster on the walls. We have had a recent inspection done through All Inspect with the findings not good. The inspector was talking about a build in Upper Kedron done by Valeco and I think it was one of yours!! There are numerous structural and non-structural issues including but not limited to twisted beams that need to be reworked, walls that are no longer structurally sound, sarking, render, paintwork, cladding, plumbing, roof linings, brickwork, windows, drainage and insulation that do not even come close to meeting minimum standards and have to be either re-worked or completely removed and re-done. Some of these issues date back to October last year and have still not been sorted as Valeco just completely buries their head in the sand and ignores us and our build. We have had to make numerous sacrifices due to the house not being constructed to even allow provisions for the ducted aircon and waste pipes which were on plans from day one. To invest everything we have in this project and see this happen is absolutely heartbreaking and I would never wish this experience on anyone. It has been emotionally draining and at some points physically draining the stress it has put on myself and my partner. At this point we don't have confidence that Valeco are even capable of rectifying the issues and completing the build. Given that the inside has not even commenced we have a long road of disappointment ahead! I would recommend anyone building with them to spend the money on multiple inspections to save yourself a lot of disappointment down the track. I would also warn that the turnkey marketing point is completely untrue. There have been thousands of dollars worth of variations that Valeco have tried to make us sign for essential things that were not bought up until during construction.The company has gone downhill rapidly in the last year or so. The bad reviews are coming through thick and fast, they have had two structural lodgements on their license in the last year and the staff turn over is ridiculous. If you look up articles about Valeco homes back in 2014 the whole selling point of their company was that the owners were always approachable and they would never get too big they would loose touch with the customer. The owners were all too happy to sit down with us prior to putting pen to paper and now they are no where in site to help with any of these issues. 90% of our emails/calls are ignored and the construction manager or owners could not care less. We actually had to take time off work and go and sit in the office to get someone to help us. The Sales Manager who seems to be a credit to their company is now trying to assist in getting all our construction issues sorted by doing site visits and organizing trades himself as he seems to be the only one that cares, the Sales Manager!! The Construction Manager has completely wiped his hands clean and won't even give us the courtesy of a response. Our build has been sitting completely untouched for more than half the construction period, so much so we have had neighbors approaching us asking if everything is okay. The site is also a complete mess and they dont even care that it is in a main road. We would give anything to take back the day we walked into their sales office. I really hope that we are just one of the few unlucky ones and this isn't happening on this scale to anyone else!!

I am SO sorry to hear of your stressful build with Valeco ashjade ... I can't even imagine!! Crossing all of my fingers and toes that they pick up their act and complete your build without any more major issues or delays! <3

[quote="ashjade"]I wasn't going to post anything about our experiences with Valeco until our construction had ended as we wanted to give them every opportunity to rectify issues etc but I have been reading your forum and our experience is very similar so thought I would just join in here!! We are building a three story custom home in Brisbane North with Valeco. We started with them back in Aug/Sep 2016 and construction didn't commence until June 2017 due to multiple issues with pricing, working drawings, communication etc, we thought our experience up until that point was bad but little did we know what was to come. We are now up to our fifth site supervisor, our nine month build contract ends in less than a week and we don't even have plaster on the walls. We have had a recent inspection done through All Inspect with the findings not good. The inspector was talking about a build in Upper Kedron done by Valeco and I think it was one of yours!! There are numerous structural and non-structural issues including but not limited to twisted beams that need to be reworked, walls that are no longer structurally sound, sarking, render, paintwork, cladding, plumbing, roof linings, brickwork, windows, drainage and insulation that do not even come close to meeting minimum standards and have to be either re-worked or completely removed and re-done. Some of these issues date back to October last year and have still not been sorted as Valeco just completely buries their head in the sand and ignores us and our build. We have had to make numerous sacrifices due to the house not being constructed to even allow provisions for the ducted aircon and waste pipes which were on plans from day one. To invest everything we have in this project and see this happen is absolutely heartbreaking and I would never wish this experience on anyone. It has been emotionally draining and at some points physically draining the stress it has put on myself and my partner. At this point we don't have confidence that Valeco are even capable of rectifying the issues and completing the build. Given that the inside has not even commenced we have a long road of disappointment ahead! I would recommend anyone building with them to spend the money on multiple inspections to save yourself a lot of disappointment down the track. I would also warn that the turnkey marketing point is completely untrue. There have been thousands of dollars worth of variations that Valeco have tried to make us sign for essential things that were not bought up until during construction.The company has gone downhill rapidly in the last year or so. The bad reviews are coming through thick and fast, they have had two structural lodgements on their license in the last year and the staff turn over is ridiculous. If you look up articles about Valeco homes back in 2014 the whole selling point of their company was that the owners were always approachable and they would never get too big they would loose touch with the customer. The owners were all too happy to sit down with us prior to putting pen to paper and now they are no where in site to help with any of these issues. 90% of our emails/calls are ignored and the construction manager or owners could not care less. We actually had to take time off work and go and sit in the office to get someone to help us. The Sales Manager who seems to be a credit to their company is now trying to assist in getting all our construction issues sorted by doing site visits and organizing trades himself as he seems to be the only one that cares, the Sales Manager!! The Construction Manager has completely wiped his hands clean and won't even give us the courtesy of a response. Our build has been sitting completely untouched for more than half the construction period, so much so we have had neighbors approaching us asking if everything is okay. The site is also a complete mess and they dont even care that it is in a main road. We would give anything to take back the day we walked into their sales office. I really hope that we are just one of the few unlucky ones and this isn't happening on this scale to anyone else!! /quote]

Such a terrible experience to go through! I hope this isn’t your first home, not a great way to start.
I hope things turn around for you quickly !


Our First Home - Building with Valeco in Brookhaven Estate

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Thanks Bree & Stacey. Unfortunately it is our first home so has definitely killed the first home excitement vibe!! We went all out and made our first home our dream home so it is a bit devastating. Keeping my fingers crossed for all of us!! Hopefully one day we will get into ours. I would say we will be at least a year and a half construction period by the time ours is finished but trying to stay optimistic!!

I couldn't help myself and did a drive by the house again today. Only a couple of phone pics to show..

The good news is.. as far as I can tell, everything is complete except for alfresco decking (half done, but more on that below), the fixing of the gaps, letterbox and landscaping.

From peaking through windows it looks like all the following is done: lights/switches/powerpoints, taps, door handles, wardrobes, appliances, carpet, aircon, blinds.

I'm pretty damn excited now. Even though we havent had updates or any word on PCI.. it can't be far away.

The facade is still missing the window hood. We decided to email our customer service person to raise that concern along with the battens issue and another issue with our alfresco decking..

When we met on site with the construction manager and supervisor, it was agreed that the bricks under the lip of our sliding doors would be removed so that the decking would sit flush against the doors to more accurately match our plans (this was something they messed up along with the gaps).

Every builder/products/company has bad reviews. Half the people out there only leave reviews when they are angry/unhappy. If they are happy, they don't spend the time to leave a review - myself included.

LoveLoveLove! Looks like a house straight out of a magazine. Loving the colour! I know you didnt like the grey, but in this shot, it looks great!

Love your house Stacey! It’s coming along beautifully. I hope everything is sorted with your decking, I would definitely be pushing for it as the flush finish will be worth it!

I agree with you sallz, unfortunately I hardly leave good reviews either, most people leave bad ones.

I personally have had a great experience with Valeco so far, everything has been easy, fingers crossed it will follow through when the build is well under way.

Yes, the grey has grown on me and I quite like it. However I still dont really like it as the battens colour. I wish they were monument so that it really contrasted against the white.

The window hood is also going to be white, again I think it might look better as monument but we will see how it looks and maybe paint it later.

Thanks for all the compliments and assuring words guys! Fingers crossed we get an update on PCI soon.

I think monument would look more striking but they grey looks nice too and ties in well. Defs can't be long now!

Just got a response, our window hood just hasn't been put on yet so that's a relief. They will rectify the alfresco asap. No update on the battens yet. But we should hopefully have PCI in a couple of weeks! Yay!!

How's everything going Stacey? Hoping that you've had PC and are getting ready to move!

Naww, thanks for checking in! Unfortunately we still have not had an update. We emailed them yesterday for an update, so hopefully soon we'll have some solid dates for PCI and handover.

Drove past the house again this afternoon because we haven't had any updates for 2 weeks (2 weeks ago they said PCI would be in roughly 2 weeks). We emailed them on Tuesday for updates and they still hadn't replied today, so I figured I may as well look myself.

The alfresco is still looking exactly the same: so they haven't even begun removing it to then start redoing it properly.

The gaps in the floor still haven't been fixed.

Window hood still not on yet.

I noticed we have a clothesline and a letterbox though, and floors were uncovered (but still dirty.. I will wait until they are cleaned and we can get inside before I take any photos).

I'm expecting the above alfresco and floor gaps issues to take a while to be completed so I'm not holding my breathe for a PCI date yet.

how annoying staceyrussell - especially when its so close of being completed. Hopefully you'll get action this week. We've had very little progress over Easter, and apparently a lot of materials were stolen from our site which again has slowed things. If there was more action on site, im sure things wouldn't go missing.

Where is that window hood?!