Metricon - Liberty 38 with Provincial facade - Ryde

Hi everyone,

We plan to build Liberty 38 with the provincial facade in Ryde.
M has done and approved our compliance check on 22 Nov and offered for us to go straight to contract (i.e. skipping tender process), which we accepted so we are currently awaiting contract and have scheduled a contract review meeting with M New Homes Advisor (NHA) 14 Dec.
We reckon we captured all of our basic requirements in terms of structural changes and must-have wants.

Below are items that we have captured during cost and layout change with M NHA:
- Adding bedroom, ensuite and WIR on ground floor
- Ground floor height to 2700 mm and 1st floor to 2550 mm
- Extend outdoor room, include eave 390D
- Include driveway concrete and council cross over
- Butler pantry
- Hebel render
- Added toilet on 1st outside toilet
- Tile on ground and carpet on 1st which we plan to change to timber and our sales consultant provision $5k for us
- 80m island bench and waterfall on both side
- Provide gas connection
- Change electric induction cooktop to gas
- Tile to ceiling on all wet area except laundry
- Upgrade most windows to size to 2100 mm instead of 1500 mm
- Upgrade entrance to 2340H x 1200W Hume Savoy Pivot entry door
- Change and add a couple doors to sliding door (gosh this one really adds up !)
- Change hot water system to Thermann 6 Star 26L 50 degree gas continous flow hot water system

We are quite happy with the draft plan from compliance because we only have to step down garage to 333m, compare to worst-case scenario of having steps inside the house. We only have to cut 800 mm and fill 700 mm. NHA has provision $25k for this so really looking forward to how much will this actually cost since we only have to step garage down.

I am looking forward to advice and encouragement from all of you, the KDR or new build warriors!
Excited but anxious at the same. Cheers

Hi, following this thread. We are also looking into the Liberty. Your add ons and upgrades are fairly identical to what we are looking at. Can I ask if you went ahead and if so, how you have found the process with M? Are you doing KDR or is it existing land.

Really nervous about the unknown costs of a KDR and you see an indicative price for the house, but no idea where we will land with the extras. Not sure if this is frowned upon or if you are comfortable, but how did the cost come in?

Thanks!

Hi bnhm
We signed the contract and in the process of preparing DA lodgment.
Metricon is getting busy again, not "a couple years ago busy" but enough to hammer the admin team so expect delays....

We are KDR and a bit overwhelmed with the cost.
Just bear in mind that demo cost alone budget 25k-35k. This is to cover if they find your site to be contaminated with asbestos (under the concrete), it could be $10k ish

First, we were quite comfortable with contract cost but we had surprises upon surprises.
The thing that upset me is the unforeseen cost to comply with BASIX.
Now M only "noted" BASIX in contract so they don't provision this.
I am not sure whether this is to bring the contract cost down and make it more attractive for you to go with them.
This has blindsided us because a component of BASIX is glasses for your windows.
This costs us an additional $22k and this is not all the windows.
Some could say it's that much because we chose to go with double glazed, another option is SP10 but the quality is worst.
M will do the the BASIX calculation after you sign the contract and before you lodge to council or CDC.
If we are suppose to upgrade the glass to comply with BASIX, then this item needs to be flagged with us.
This is not a luxury to be discussed during Studio M appointment, but a requirement for the build.
Hence I would prefer to know the cost in advance.

Anyway, just my two cents rants about window glasses, still not over it.

We thought we covered a lot of upgrade that we want, but boy oh boy, we are over $48k already with upgrade.
So yeah, don't be fooled with their standard and just set your level of expectation right.

Go and visit Studio M first, have a tour and see their standard inclusion and see whether you can live with it.

Good luck!

Phoenix77 After I received a similar BASIX surprise to you 3 years ago. Metricon assured me they would change their 'loose' procedures to more accurately provision for BASIX compliance in their contracts. It seems they haven't done this. Others take note, and require Metricon includes accurate compliance cost information in their tender that you are paying them for. If they refuse ask them why they can't. Failure to disclose these costs is deceptive and misleading.

Beware that its a common trick for some demolition companies to claim extra payment from customers for hidden asbestos before they will issue your site's clearance certificate. An extra $6K or so for the "hidden asbestos" seems to be the sweet spot and most people will just pay up. Possibly some extra disposal costs @ $600 / tonne, extra manual labour @ $100 / hour to 'Emu Pick' the fragments hidden under the slab / buried in the soil... and disposal bags costs etc? Asbestos is mysterious, scary, and you need the clearance certificate ASAP for the builder to start work. The "hidden asbestos" may or may not be real.

I recommend you ask your demolition company to confirm in writing they will provide you with the EPA Wastelocate consignment tracking number to check the details of your job. It is a legal requirement for the asbestos disposal companies to follow the NSW EPA’s app system. This consignment tracking number can be checked by anyone online. https://wastelocate.epa.nsw.gov.au/ and any company following this mandatory legal process will have nothing to hide.

In addition to checking the consignment with the EPA Wastelocate tracking number, I recommend getting it clearly in writing within the demolition agreement as to what the agreed procedure will be if they find the "hidden asbestos", and if they don't follow that process you are not liable to pay any extra.

Ideally when they find the "hidden asbestos", you are provided reasonable warning time by the demolition company to leave your workplace and travel to the site, to properly inspect, and take your own photos etc. Perhaps also plan to stay around to observe and document the additional works required (see the workers wearing appropriate protective clothing and equipment) to remove and safely package the "hidden asbestos". They should have nothing to hide. Be wary of the demolition company's multiple photos sent to you remotely as their proof, which of course will show some asbestos.

If any demolition company quoting your job won't confirm a reasonable & transparent "hidden asbestos" process to your satisfaction then find another more strait forward company that will. Their quote may be little higher than others, who may sus you out and deliberately under quote to win your job, confident they will more than make it up later! Be careful you don't end up accepting the higher quote from the "trustworthy" demo company without this transparency in the agreement, however.

By all means listen to, but don't just rely on any builders' demolition "partner" recommendations or similar (it's not their money!), anonymous online forum 5 star reviews (mostly faked), or the demolition companys' overt assurances of their unique in the industry ”honesty and trustworthy-ness” (these type of assertions as well as denigrating industry competitors are a real warning sign). Also be considerate of some smooth & subtle confidence trick grooming tactics used after you have signed up. Many 1st time KDR customers have trusted demolition companies then have happily parted with their $6K, blissfully unaware and actually thanking the demo company for promptly managing their site’s non existent ”hidden asbestos” in the least expensive way compared with bulk dumping of mixed asbestos waste.

Deleted

Hi all new to this forum and we plan to build liberty 38 provincial facade in Thornleigh - any tips and watch outs along with recommended add ons / upgrades / changes would be much appreciated from those who have been down this path before

Hi there, we did pretty much upgrades that i mentioned above.
Is Thornleigh a part of Hornsby council? I heard they are pretty strict in terms of everything so maybe budget more in terms of BASIX, storm water and trees.
I can’t stress enough to carefully check all the documents, variations they ask you to sign. All the pricing and be meticulous am about the wordings because you and them will refer back to these documents again and again. M employees don’t seem to last long, I’m on my 3rd per site manager so having the documents and knowledge of what you are signing is paramount.
Admin stage is very long because it involves a lot of teams in M and they seems to be incompetent or just don’t care about their work so you gotta make sure you check their work. Not the best customer experience.

Make sure you budget $30k for demolition, hopefully it will be less.
If you or your neighbours have plenty of trees in the properties, then all the best. Trees will suck your money...
Good luck

Demolition completed. Just waiting for M to hand me over to Construction Manager and dates of when they will start construction.

Thanks for your advise - excited to see that your demo is completed - keep us posted on progress

can i ask a silly question? I have been doing research and visited council website checking the DA and costs lodged in our suburb. I noticed quite a few cost summaries included a item" Preliminary and margin" which takes roughly 20% of total, and GST on top of all subtotal. For eg, Metricon 38sq floorplan end up totals close to 700K, in which roughly 130k goes to " Preliminary and margin", and 60k goes to GST.

Are those all mandatory and I should budget them in my KNR? It just goes higher and higher.....

is the cost summary submitted to council normally the final figure or just a higher estimation?

I am not sure with what you are referring above. Did you just go to council website and look at the est cost of lodged DA? If yes, then not sure whether you should rely on those numbers to budget your KDR.

From my experience, my contract price consists of :
standard price of the house model +
facade (provincial cost more) +
site works +
additional known cost to build the house (structural /external / window / floor / landscaping, etc) +
any upgrades that you can identify prior to signing contract +
provision for Studio M upgrade +
provision for storm water

I believe this contract cost will be given for DA submission.
Your Studio M upgrades can be as little or high as your want/need.
What I can say is things like double glazing and insulation which I reckon needs to be captured in the beginning because it is a requirement for BASIX, should be handled during contract so we will not be blindsided by the cost.
I was told that double glazing will be required and these "upgrade" cost $ 22K which I am not impressed with.

Maybe budget 5 - 10% for Studio M upgrade from your contract price. But again we have tried to capture all the upgrades that we wanted during contract and we still have $58K (9%) upgrade from Studio M. If we have not captured our considered essential upgrade prior contract then no doubt, Studio M upgrade amount will be a lot more.
So do your homework carefully and have a think of your essential upgrade to be included in contract.

Once DA is approved, you still have costs that you need to pay to your council. In my case with Ryde council, we still need to pay:
security bond (will be refunded at the end of the build assuming all good by council) +
Ryde infrastructure restoration and administration fee +
Ryde Enforcement levy (0.178% from development cost)

If you build a duplex, this will be way more, I heard around 20K or up.

Mybe Metricon just estimated a very rough percentage to submit for DA approval. Would you say 20% is close to include those (demolishing, compliance, council)? I think landscaping and drive way are normally separate as most builder don't do it.

Do we need to pay GST on top of Metricon standard price ?

I hope you have a smooth journey with Metricon.

Drove past this morning and site is already fenced with Metricon fence and banner.
There is also the LOOOOOOOOOOO

I am officially passed to Construction today also but have not heard anything from the construction team.
So we wait.

At least the loo is there.....

Let the fun begin!

Things are getting done pretty quick.
Slab was poured this Monday and frames are already going up on Thursday.
I don't know whether this is normal but I do know I missed my private slab inspection due to this and it needs to be combined with frame inspection now.

Hi curious to know how your build has progressed. We are supposed to get prelim contract in early Jan after paying $1500 deposit 3 months ago. Very slow progress with Metricon, however have been told that house build will be faster than normal

Hang in there. I reckon with the $25K government grant, they are getting are busy. Are you applying for this grant? If not maybe you need to consider postponing before you put more $$$$.

My build is stuck due to roof company is stuffing Metricon hence stuffing me. M still pressed on with insulation and plaster though and now I have mold on BED 1 on 1st floor and garage ceiling. I wonder why.