Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jun 13, 2017 12:19 pm Hey all, we've just finished building a house, and thought this info could be of some benefit to those starting out. Obviously others will have different experiences/more to add - but here are our lessons learned. Before you sign the building contract: Who are you building with? The company on the sign out the front? A person? A franchise company? Don't assume that the name on the sign and the person in charge of your build are one and the same. Consider asking the parent company to co-sign the build, so they are liable if things go bad and may do more if your builder goes off the rails a bit. Ask to see some of the builder's work (not the display home by the parent company - the actual builder!). Ask to speak to clients that particular builder has built with. Ask the builder if they've ever been involved in litigation. Do a google search - are they amenable to being reviewed online, or can you only find fluff advertising pieces? Watch how they speak about past clients. Our builder's wife called the council administration officer a "witch" - this was very telling with how she dealt with people in general. Are you happy with the projected timeline of the build? Did you builder tell you they would build within a certain time but then the contract says something different? Have it changed to the agreed timeframe. Have you input liquidated damages to cover your costs if the building timeline goes over? If a builder is genuine about meeting their deadline, they won't take issue with this. In what circumstances can the builder have an extension of time? (Consider inserting a clause that an extension of time may only be applied where you have agreed to it a request from the builder in writing. Consider specifying a finite possible extension in the contract - a maximum amount of time before liquidated damages are owed). Are earthworks covered? If not, how much money have they allocated to earthworks? Is this a reasonable amount? There is a saying "once you're out of the ground you're in the clear", but there's no reason earthworks costs should be a huge surprise. Ask your builder to get a reasonable quote before signing off on the allowance provided - you may need to increase the allowance for earthworks, but at least you know before they start digging. (Consider inserting a clause that earthworks must not exceed a certain value without written permission from the owner. Had we known the extent of the earthworks planned for our build, we would have torn up the contract before we even began). Do you have unfettered access to the site? (Consider inserting a clause that you have access to the building site at any time, and that upon the build reaching lock up stage, you are to be given a key. If you can keep an eye on things, issues can be resolved quickly and easily - before the build progresses too far - which is better for everyone). Do you have a right of set-off for money owed to you under the contract? If, for example, you are intending to use allowances instead of itemising all cabinetry, tiles and bathroom fixtures and fittings, consider stating that upon the build reaching practical completion, you are able to retain the remaining value of the allowances from the final payment. Other instances that may require set off is where the the house or some part of it is damaged and/or works are incomplete. Prime Cost and Provisional sum items - although legally the builder is required to provide you with receipts for the items purchased with the remaining sum to be returned to you, this was not something our builder felt they needed to do. (Consider inserting a clause that prior to the building requesting the final drawdown, they must provide you with all invoices relating to prime cost and provisional sum items). Check what you're getting in the quote. Variations are a pain in the proverbial. Either plan to have to spend more than the amount in the ironically named fixed price building contract, or make the contracted price and all it covers as specific and as reasonable as possible, so unforeseen costs don't blow your building budget out of the water. Check the details. What is your tile allowance? Carpet allowance? Are allowances for fittings realistic? How many lights and powerpoints are you entitled to? Read the window schedule and ensure that the windows you think you're getting are the windows they are going to order. Does the contract include any external lights or powerpoints? Is the power to be gas, electric, solar or a mix of these? Do not assume that any discussions you've had will be represented in the contract. Check everything is there in black and white. You can talk till you're blue in the face about all the outdoor lights you're planning, but if the contract says 10 indoor downlights, that's all you're getting. (Consider selecting all fittings and fixtures before receiving your quote, and requesting that they be itemised in the contract) Who gets to keep the leftover materials? Most contracts state the builder, but you've rightly paid for it. Consider inserting a clause that certain remaining items are to be left onsite. We watched full sheets of colourbond roofing, a pallet of bricks, and all sorts of timber get carted away that could have used in other projects or in landscaping. House possession is where most people run into trouble. You don’t want the house to be held over your head in an attempt by the builder to get additional funds. Consider amending the Contract so that in the event of a dispute, possession of the house by the owner will not be a breach of contract where 95% of the contract purchase price has been paid (all but the final draw down). Alternatively, make that final drawdown a big one, so that the builder is a little more eager to finalise things as quickly as possible. Our builder held the keys to our house for 7 months after the contract date had ended and the house was completed. It took two applications to NCAT before they finally relented and sent us keys. Even if liquidated damages are in the contract, you have to engage in litigation to have any hope of acquiring money to cover costs. Which means whileever you're in dispute, you're bearing the costs of your living situation, plus the mortgage on the house you've built that you can't live in. The building timeline - lessons learned (and things to micromanage) From DA approval on - 1. Site cut survey This is huge. Tell your builder you want to be there. Be onsite. Discuss the house site location, even if you think they understood where you wanted it, even if the plans show exactly where it should go, do not assume anything. After pegging out the site, ask exactly how much inside of that area will be subject to earthworks. Then ask your builder to get several earthworks contractors out for quotes to do the work. Confirm all of this in writing, Lesson learned: Our builder moved the house site location approximately 50m to the left, and levelled about 1000m2. On a town block, this would mean our house would have been in the neighbours yard and levelled the two neighbouring houses. 2.Earthworks If there is anything in the contract to intimate that earthworks costs of any sort may be passed on to you - take the day off work and set up a camp chair. Check in regularly with what they are doing, where costs are at, any problems they foresee. Do not assume anyone will be doing anything to save you money here. Earthworks is generally listed as an additional charge. Lesson learned: Our builder moved the house site location to a rocky area and had earthworks contractors spend two days levelling what turned out to be an extremely excessive area of land. They then attempted to pass this cost on to us, even inventing a "provisional sum" for earthworks that was not in the quote or contract. 3. House site survey Do you know the difference between Magnetic North and True North? We'd never heard of it. True North is what a lot of site surveyors use, and you need to specify which North you're working to - especially if, like us, you're orienting the house for privacy. There's close to 15 degrees difference between Magnetic and True North. So 15 degrees off Magnetic North is actually pretty close to True North, and you may just end up facing your private back deck straight into your neighbors veranda. Lesson learned: We asked for the house to be 15 degrees off North. North according to a compass on our phones. We got out there after the house site had been pegged out and the drains laid and according to a compass it was very close to due North. We repeatedly inquired about how this had happened, and the builder played dumb. No one mentioned that the house site had been planned according to what would have been 15 degrees from True North. 4.Drains and Slab Check the plans for where you want drains. Between laying the drains and having the slab go down, check where they've put the drains and raise any concerns. Ask what type of slab they're using, and the type of aggregate - especially important if you're doing polished concrete floors. Lesson learned: It sounds simple enough, but it was only once the slab was laid that we realised the builder's draftsperson had, when inserting a window, also moved the kitchen sink from an island bench to the wall. All of our plans for strip drains in showers also went out the window, as our builder simply put in normal floor waste. Our builder also used a waffle pod slab, which is no good for polished concrete floors. If you are getting polished concrete, it should be polished by a professional, before the frames go up. Our builder dry hired a machine and polished the floors himself, waiting until the after cladding the house to do the polish. This means the polish is awfully inconsistent (as would be expected for a DIY job) and the edges weren't able to be polished properly. 5. Frames Frames for off the plan houses are pre-made and simple put together onsite by your builder. Lesson learned: Our fully qualified and licenced builder somehow managed to put some frames in back the front, so window holes which should have been to the left of the frame were reversed and on the right. We also noticed that, again, the builder's draftsperson had taken it upon themselves to move and change the sizes of windows without authorisation. Thankfully, we caught this early and managed to have most of it rectified. Interestingly, the builder sought to pass the cost of these changes onto us later on, but I'm hopeful not all builders are this ridiculous. 6. Trusses, gutters, roof, fascia 7. Damp proofing walls 8. Windows This is where you'll see if the Frames have been lined up correctly, and if the windows ordered were as requested. Lesson learned: We ended up with some windows on the wrong side of the room, and a window where the plan showed a door. Given an earlier request for awning windows, we assumed that's what we were getting. Not so. Most of the windows in our house are sliding windows. Read the window schedule and ensure that the windows you think you're getting are the windows they are going to order. 9.Plumbing and gas rough in 10. Electrical wiring Draw a plan of where you would like lights to go and which power points they should match up with. Then ask to meet with the electrician and confirm he understands the plan. Lesson learned: We still ended up with a random assortment of lights with no rhyme or reason to their installation (apparently no one had a ruler to measure a straight line that day) as well as some requested lights and power points that are simply no where to be found. 11. Cladding and plaster I'm not sure too much can go wrong with brickwork and cladding. If you're going with brick - double check the colour of the brick and the grout. If cladding, ensure that the builder remembers to clad under doors. Once the cladding is up, check where they've cut holes for lights and fans. Ensure they are in a straight line (if that's what you want). Lesson learned: Our builder did not clad under the sliding doors. Our downlights are basically unusable because they're so crooked we can't use them without highlighting (pun intended) how haphazardly they've been installed. `12. Architraves, skirting boards, doors 13. Tiles and flooring Draw a plan of where you would like tiles and feature tiles to be placed. Send it to the builder. Then send it another two times when he claims he hasn't got it, only to go out and find his tiler has missed putting any feature tile in an entire room. Lesson learned: Sigh. Also check floor tiles in the bathroom and run water over the tiles in the shower to ensure the fall is correct (we have a flood effect in our main bathroom due to incorrectly laid tiles which makes that shower obsolete). 14. Kitchen cabinets The builder will have a preferred cabinet supplier, but if you have a kitchen allowance, you can choose who supplies your kitchen. Get quotes for kitchens and choose the best one for you, then send the quote to your builder. If it's an allowance, he must provide you with the invoice for the actual cost of the kitchen, and and money above of below that amount is money owed under the contract. Lesson learned: We went with our builder's cabinet maker. We requested a quote from the cabinet maker and received nothing. Several days later we received an email from the builder stating that the kitchen "looked great"... hmm. Together our kitchen and laundry cabinetry budget was $14000 but to this day we have no idea how much either cost, except that it was obviously under budget because if it was over budget, we would have heard about it. 15. Painting Check that the painter hasn't missed spots, particularly under the eaves and around downpipes. Then go to each glass door and window and see if there are any paint splatters. Make a note of these and request that this be rectified. Lesson learned: We have so much paint on our glass. It's not even funny. 16. Fit off So close! Nearly there. Now go and find your own building inspector and go over the whole house, inside and out, with a fine tooth comb. Lesson learned: Some additional things we picked up on - the shower door was installed lopsided and scrapes against the floor tiles, a mirror was put up sideways, no holes were drilled for washing machine or dishwasher hoses, the oven door couldn't be opened due to an incorrectly placed cupboard, the latch on the pantry was already broken, internal doors don't latch properly, wall marks and paint mishaps, scratched or bent door and window frames, the wrong size gas water heater was installed, the external gas point was missing, For us, none of these things were rectified. As far as our builder was concerned, once he realised he couldn't get any more money from us, he was done. But an honorable builder will fix these things. Good luck! Re: building timeline and tips for those starting out 2Jun 13, 2017 7:03 pm My gosh. What a horrible building experience you've had, you poor thing!! I hope you still enjoy your new home. I feel a bit bad for my complaints now, as I haven't had to go through half of this. Re: building timeline and tips for those starting out 3Jun 13, 2017 10:37 pm Brilliant, I second what you have said, most your points are how we built so successfully, most people unfortunately will have blinkers on, and will consider that visiting numerous display houses is a great amount of research, when in fact if that's all that is done you have done almost nothing. You must learn learn learn, and at least speak to others who are building with your builder, by leaning more you won't be fooled as easily. Re: building timeline and tips for those starting out 4Jun 14, 2017 10:43 pm Thank you for taking your obviously painful build experience and doing something positive with it, in this case helping others learn. Re: building timeline and tips for those starting out 7Jul 31, 2017 11:40 pm Thanks for sharing. Yesterday we went through our contract with our builder and we came out of the meeting with items we want them to update and align with what's in the plan versus the contract. They said, "Sign the contract and your changes will be part of your post contract variation." I'm hesitant to sign the contract if it's not complete. After reading this I will go with my gut, thanks for sharing in detail your personal building experience. Hope things are much better now. https://form.jotform.com/240284569218058 Please spare a moment to fill out this survey form for a project. You stand a chance to win a digital gift voucher. Legitimate… 0 1057 Just be careful with building stability during construction, that is when the structure may be weakened, refer to your engineering drawings for stability methodology. 1 6196 |