Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Sep 22, 2019 11:09 am Having a roller coaster ride with my home build. Long story, very stressful. We are now decided to build with DFH and their contract standard conditions state that concrete surface cracks, impact marks, nail holes and machinery marks will not be considered as defects. I'm worried about the cracks. DFH is refusing to change or amend the contract terms stating that this is the standard contract they sign for all the their builds. After googling and some assistance from friends, I found that as per VBA, category 3 & 4 cracks are defective and category 1 & 2 need to be observed for 12 months. My mind thinks, they are a major builder and will not be in business for this long if their build isn't good enough. On the other hand, if things go wrong I'll be in the receiving end as I'm accepting that the concrete cracks aren't defects. Can someone provide some guidance whether I should accept their terms? Re: Concrete Crack Not to be Considered as Defects - DFH 2Sep 22, 2019 10:53 pm Well you can sign with someone else and your concrete will also have cracks within 12 months. It is unavoidable. The contract says "surface cracks" which is meant to mean non-structural ones. Their contract can't over-ride the building code standards so if you ended up with major structural cracking, you would surely have a case. They add that into the contract so that people cannot try to take action against them for the unavoidable and insignificant shrinkage / minor settlement cracks that nearly all houses end up with. For what it is worth, whilst I am obviously not a building inspector, I have seen dozens of brand new / near new homes and they ALL have very minor surface cracking in the concrete somewhere or other. If you think you are going to find a builder who will build you a perfectly crack free house, I doubt you are going to find one. Not for residential work at residential going rates. I know the very first house I owned from new had cracking in the concrete and being new to homes and building at the time I was extremely worried by it. That house still happily standing with zero issues 25 years later. For what it is worth, I built with DFH in 2017/18 and the actual slab / concrete / house part of the build was the best I have seen in a new home. The plumbing on the other hand.. Re: Concrete Crack Not to be Considered as Defects - DFH 3Sep 22, 2019 11:15 pm Rend, a contract cannot overrule your legislated rights. Mr. Sausage has given you good advice. 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: Concrete Crack Not to be Considered as Defects - DFH 4Sep 23, 2019 11:49 am Mr. Sausage Well you can sign with someone else and your concrete will also have cracks within 12 months. It is unavoidable. The contract says "surface cracks" which is meant to mean non-structural ones. Their contract can't over-ride the building code standards so if you ended up with major structural cracking, you would surely have a case. They add that into the contract so that people cannot try to take action against them for the unavoidable and insignificant shrinkage / minor settlement cracks that nearly all houses end up with. For what it is worth, whilst I am obviously not a building inspector, I have seen dozens of brand new / near new homes and they ALL have very minor surface cracking in the concrete somewhere or other. If you think you are going to find a builder who will build you a perfectly crack free house, I doubt you are going to find one. Not for residential work at residential going rates. I know the very first house I owned from new had cracking in the concrete and being new to homes and building at the time I was extremely worried by it. That house still happily standing with zero issues 25 years later. For what it is worth, I built with DFH in 2017/18 and the actual slab / concrete / house part of the build was the best I have seen in a new home. The plumbing on the other hand.. Thanks heaps for your time and response. It relieved me a bit. At this stage, moving out would be least preferred option. Them being the professionals, if they can explain why those conditions are imposed, that would give me confidence. But they were just "no, we don't change the contract conditions". I have asked again about this and waiting for their response. However, on the same email, I raised about the minimum insulation requirements explained on the manufacture Bradford's website (stating it is according to BCA guidelines). DFH explained it sighting that they meet the 6 star requirements and hence not required to adhere to location specific insulation. I agreed with it. Hopefully I'll receive a explanation soon. Re: Concrete Crack Not to be Considered as Defects - DFH 6Sep 24, 2019 1:59 am Just on the insulation side of things, I can't remember the exact figures, but I went up one grade for the roof and got the entire roof area covered including the garage. I also got all the garage walls insulated - even the B&D garage door (they have a factory insulation option). Having lived temporarily in a fairly new home without any garage insulation at all for 9 months while waiting for my DFH home to be completed, I was shocked at how much the internal garage temps (luckily I was out before the worst of summer) effected the house itself. Very cold in Winter and overly warm in Spring. And by the same token, I am amazed at how insulating the garage is in my DFH home. That extra money was some of the best money I spent on the build. Yes it was more expensive but I don't regret the extra cost at all. The good thing with the DFH homes is the garages all have proper walls (i.e brick / frame / gyprock) on all walls whereas many other builders just have bricks only on at least the far wall. So that affords the opportunity to add the extra insulation. Also, I'm not up with their latest designs but just check whether you get eaves all the way around. Nearly all the volume builders skimp on them these days. I think it only cost me another $2,400 to get eaves running all the way around the house. Yes, more long term maintenance (paint) but again, I just cringe at the thought of any Aussie house without eaves...unless you are building in Tassie!). Most likely poor foam installation and render installation, Joint covered with render, foam could be sitting on flashing. Do you have any render at house 4 9302 Hi All, I engaged a tradie to install concrete retaining wall 600-800mm high over 32 meters in Victoria. Sleepers are 200*75*2000 mm installed over 17 steel posts. I… 0 6882 1 9462 |