Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Oct 02, 2019 5:44 pm Hi all We are looking for a builder to build a double-storey home and trying to decide between Thomas Archer or GJ Gardner (Inner East franchise) and wondering if anyone here has had any experience with either builder (reviews are light on for both). Thomas Archer seems to have a nice design element (but less clear re build quality), and GJ Gardner seems to have good reputation for build quality (although I don’t like their designs as much). Any info welcome. TIA Re: Thomas Archer, GJ Gardner (Inner East) 2Oct 19, 2019 5:02 am We have spoken to them as well. The work seems nice however there are different starting price points if you want one of their designs (with mods) or want true custom. Problem with all of these semi volume builders (they say they build under 100 homes pa) is that they will push you towards their design in all cases. You can make mods but you still need to stay in their space. Which is fine if you like the original. I have received detailed pricing from Thomas Archer and it is in-line with others like Hallbury. The other thing to note is that they build with Hebel. Brick is extra bottom and top. Re: Thomas Archer, GJ Gardner (Inner East) 3Oct 19, 2019 1:02 pm Thanks Storewall, good point re Hebel! I’ll have to see how much extra it costs to do brick... I don’t mind starting with one of their designs if they are happy to modify it. The people we are dealing with seem to have solid design capability which helps when you start playing around with their standard floor plans. It seems like there’s this new market out there with the likes of Hallbury, Thomas Archer, etc. Re: Thomas Archer, GJ Gardner (Inner East) 4Oct 19, 2019 1:28 pm Yep, brick up top is about $10k. Yep Julian and Gabe are both nice people and easy to talk to. Re: Thomas Archer, GJ Gardner (Inner East) 5Oct 21, 2019 12:12 pm storewallAU Yep, brick up top is about $10k. Yep Julian and Gabe are both nice people and easy to talk to. Did you choose Hallbury stonewallAu? Interested to hear your decision process. We spoke with both H and TA. cheers https://thomasarcherbuild.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html - Thomas Archer Homes - Custom Nouveau 41 Re: Thomas Archer, GJ Gardner (Inner East) 6Oct 21, 2019 1:06 pm Hi guys,
Just thought to write this if it would be helpful for your journey. I have been through the same exercise during the last 12 - 16 months. Talking to different builders ranging from Volume, designer builders ( like TA, Hallbury, Carter grange) , Architect builders ( like single owner operated smaller businesses ) . What I came to realise is the middle tier builders like Hallbury and TA has a better value for money. But we have to be really careful here as if you exceed your cost 13500 - 14000 AUD per square figure, you may be getting an overpriced product. ( This is just the house + site cost without extras like driveway, curtains etc ) . For a decent build they are about 1000 AUD per sq expensive than a volume builder like Arden, Boutique homes. Carter grange is over priced for what they offer. With Hallbury and TA you have a better chance of getting a well finished house if you like to spend that extra over a builder like Arden. Cheers Re: Thomas Archer, GJ Gardner (Inner East) 7Oct 21, 2019 7:26 pm Blacktea2sugars storewallAU Yep, brick up top is about $10k. Yep Julian and Gabe are both nice people and easy to talk to. Did you choose Hallbury stonewallAu? Interested to hear your decision process. We spoke with both H and TA. cheers Not yet still evaluating our options. I am speaking to about 4 of them and continue to do so. Re: Thomas Archer, GJ Gardner (Inner East) 8Oct 31, 2019 9:42 am Thanks everyone for your comments! Our prelim quote is coming in at around 15k per square, and I was wondering what people thought about that given the quality of specs for TAH. We havent chosen anything yet, just a lot of allowances for various types of likely upgrades, but I noted airwolfs comments re paying around 14k per square... Having said that, I'm not sure theres much to do about it as the Carter granges and L37 are at least 20k per square! Re: Thomas Archer, GJ Gardner (Inner East) 9Oct 31, 2019 10:00 am Hi Wewu, Some of the costs may be related to your particular block ( due to fall of land, storm water connection, electrical etc) so please keep that in mind when you are comparing quotes as well. One thing I can say is TA is much better value over carter grange like products. If you are really happy with the spec and design of the house and allowed for lot more upgrades, 15k per sq price tag is not too bad. My original thought was, if you are going with one of their pre-designed plans ( which starts around 10500 K per sq ) , then you should be able to get a really good spec by pushing up to 14k per sq figure provided that you don't do costly structural changes . (again, there's a lot to do with personal preferences here. so please take my price guide as just an indication. It's all about how we perceive the value based on the investment we make. if you are spending over 14-15k then you may get a better value by going fully custom. ). From the sound of it you must have allowed for lot of changes so you may end up with a lower price point than expected in the end. Re: Thomas Archer, GJ Gardner (Inner East) 10Oct 31, 2019 10:08 am oh I forgot to mention that there's this new player in the market called Semore homes, I only found about them last week. I am still researching on them. looks much similar to the early stages of TA. Small staff , few number of houses per year. Run by a former co-founder of Sienna homes. Do a bit of a research and see if that is a good option too. If you have the budget , my personal preference is TA. Re: Thomas Archer, GJ Gardner (Inner East) 12Oct 31, 2019 12:58 pm Wewu Thanks so much airwolf! Really helpful to bounce these points off someone! Some very sound advice in this thread. Our journey began with Carter Grange, transitioned to Hallbury, and we are now in the hands of Thomas Archer, colour selections completed only very recently. CG has sub par customer service after initial hook, and were very flippant, dismissive and vague with us, hence we walked away after their initially ridiculous PSQ. Gabe from Hallbury has some fabulous ideas and creativity. He designed us a custom home that was visually stunning, but not the practicality of what we required. Also some question marks with build time, site start and finish quality saw our search continue. TA seem to fit us perfectly atm. They have gone above and beyond to meet our requirements, modify as required and look to provide a high level of quality build that we are after. We don't have a cost per square per se at this stage, we have upgraded A LOT.. At this stage, we feel that we have the "high end personal design" that we were after with a custom spec, but it will come in at a reasonable price for what is included. Even quite "generic" things like HWS, heating/cooling, door handles etc, their S1 range is still a very good product, and we only upgraded to S3 or S4 on "important" wow items. Our site cost not set yet either, but we are Bayside, Class P (KDR),. https://thomasarcherbuild.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html - Thomas Archer Homes - Custom Nouveau 41 Re: Thomas Archer, GJ Gardner (Inner East) 13Apr 03, 2023 2:54 pm airwolf oh I forgot to mention that there's this new player in the market called Semore homes, I only found about them last week. I am still researching on them. looks much similar to the early stages of TA. Small staff , few number of houses per year. Run by a former co-founder of Sienna homes. Do a bit of a research and see if that is a good option too. If you have the budget , my personal preference is TA. HI Airwolf, Did you get any feedback about Semore homes? Thanks, Re: Thomas Archer, GJ Gardner (Inner East) 14Apr 04, 2023 9:04 am I have inspected a few TA homes during building stages and generally no major issues. Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog We spent close to 2 years in a process with TA. It was horrible..... we got to tender, and the first cut was 50% over our budget which "they care such about meeting ". We… 18 27288 May I ask why you chose not to use GJ Gardiner? I'm actually meeting with one of the sales guys tomorrow for an appointment. Definitely not signing anything yet… 3 13251 Hi I live in a 100yr old semi and my neighbour added an additional floor last yr and our architect has advised that we can knock down our semi and build a free-standing… 0 37715 |