Clarendon Parkhill 36 in Coomera Retreat. HAND OVER!!

EmKaralyn · Feb 20, 2015 4:26 pm

Hi there,

We're building a soho with plantation and have paid our deposit but we're a bit worried about site costs blowing out as a lot of plantation homes blogs have the site costs around $20k.. We got quoted $5000 and have allowed $10k in the budget. We have flat land and had a good soil test but I just wanted to see how much you got quoted for site costs and if you're fixing your site costs? Thanks so much and good luck with your build!!

Crazyk · Feb 20, 2015 8:34 pm

What was the result of your soil report?

EmKaralyn · Feb 21, 2015 9:27 am

It's an m/h soil class - the previous owner of our land had a soil rest done just before selling us our block and provided us with the soil report which we gave to the builders.

Despite this, plantation will probably do the soil test again.

Crazyk · Feb 21, 2015 6:57 pm

M or H ? If it's m then the costs are probably about right.

tj9630 · Feb 21, 2015 9:41 pm

H and m make a big difference! Yea plantation will do the test all over again

Roomeat · Feb 21, 2015 10:08 pm

EmKaralyn

Hi there,

We're building a soho with plantation and have paid our deposit but we're a bit worried about site costs blowing out as a lot of plantation homes blogs have the site costs around $20k.. We got quoted $5000 and have allowed $10k in the budget. We have flat land and had a good soil test but I just wanted to see how much you got quoted for site costs and if you're fixing your site costs? Thanks so much and good luck with your build!!

Most people "think" they have flat land but truth is most blocks have some fall in them. Ours has a minimal 600mm fall from back to front, enough for PH to justify extra site costs.
Our site costs are $9525.00 with a additional $4500.00 in provisional costs that I have no doubt at all will be used, even if they are not used.

Roomeat · Feb 21, 2015 10:11 pm

Oh and ours is M class

Crazyk · Feb 22, 2015 6:37 am

Roomeat

Oh and ours is M class

What are your provisional sums for?

EmKaralyn · Feb 22, 2015 8:04 am

The soil test came back as a mix between m and h hence m/h so on the boundary between the two I believe?? I assume they would probably just charge us h price.

Where are you building room meat? We are in north brisbane.

I'm trying to decide whether to take something out of our budget to cover the cost of potential site costs...

Are the site costs fairly fixed when plantation have done the soil tests and you've signed the contract?

Roomeat · Feb 22, 2015 9:15 am

LOL.. Sorry.. I don't think ANY price is "fixed" with Plantation.
Provisionals are:
Additional safety scaffolding $1500.00
Allowance for additional construction costs due to rock excavation $3000.00
The so called "rock" is over 2 meters down.

Crazyk · Feb 22, 2015 12:01 pm

How can scaffolding be provisional? Don't they know what house they are building?

I'd fight that one.

With respect to the rock provision have they broken it down? Or just lump sum? How will they charge if it is more?

Be very careful of provisional sums.

tj9630 · Feb 22, 2015 12:42 pm

Yea from our quote to tender price went up due to engineering by 8k

We also have provisional sums on rock removal which wasn't used, soil removal and access costs

EmKaralyn · Feb 22, 2015 6:13 pm

Um roommeat, you can actually fix your site costs with plantation if you read other forums but this ends up costing more usually unless you've got an extremely site which is fair enough from plantations point of view....

WHAT I was referring to was.... Were the site costs at quotation similar to that at contract?

We have discussed with plantation today whether or not we can flatten out our land to minimise the cost and they are fine for us to do this. Although they will do it at no extra cost as we've got less than 500 ml, they only flatten the area which they will build on, so we want to do it first to even out the backyard.

$1500 for scaffolding is a joke... I'd be fighting that as well.

Roomeat · Feb 22, 2015 7:41 pm

Hmmm that's interseting. I was only thinking today about getting a mate in with his bobcat and tipper to scrape the site to the level PH want. This would also alleviate the BS they tare trying to throw at me for retaining walls (300 cut 300 fill). Complete and utter rubbish.

Roomeat · Mar 14, 2015 1:24 am

Slow ahead... watch this space for BIG changes about to happen!!

PEARZ · Mar 14, 2015 2:10 pm

Uh oh, not going too well with plantation?

Roomeat · Mar 14, 2015 4:34 pm

Hi Pearz,
No it's not. We have wasted over 2 months arguing with them that we do not need retaining walls.
2 months down the track and they have finally confirmed that yes, I was in fact correct, we do not need any retaining walls and all costs associated (including $715.00 in extra council fees) will now be removed.
They then asked us if we wanted to go to contract or have it re-tendered.
Well sorry.. but I'll have it re-tendered thanks.
That's now going to take until 25th of this month to have completed.
I really had to laugh at that as I just cant comprehend why it takes them so long to do a quote. After all, that is all it is.. a quote. They always leave room for prices to change AFTER you pay them a deposit.

Sooo.... up to present day..
Have been in negotiations with a couple of different builders and now have a couple of different designs and prices. Just trying to work out now which one to go with.
Was hoping to make that final decision today but the builder that has the home I favour is checking on a couple of items for me and will have answers for me Monday. So till then... we wait

Roomeat · Mar 14, 2015 4:38 pm

Oh.. and I tend to believe you guys down south have got it so so so much better dealing with Henley then what we have to work with up here.
Have done many comparisons and QLD gets the raw end of the deal on so many items. Items that are STD in other states are complete upgrades here in QLD.

TraceyWayne · Mar 14, 2015 4:49 pm

Hi Roomeat,

For what it's worth take your time. We swapped builders in the end, went custom and although we 'lost' $1500 we did get to keep the soil report and haven't regretted the change for a minute. Good luck whatever you decide to do :-)

Glennc74 · Mar 14, 2015 5:35 pm

Hi Roomeat like TraceyWayne we are about to forgo a slightly larger deposit with the henly group rather than have to deal with them for one more second , another builder has a similar design but with higher quality inclusions for a competitive price and so far are not treating us as though we are just a number , and every question or query isn't treated like an annoyance , how dare we ask them any questions or query a price .
Yep they wouldn't even check the prices I queried , the answer was ok you will have to go back to tender to have them explained .
Lol what's to explain ? How they can charge 120 % builders margin on site costs that are not fixed ?
Calculate the costs out on a few items and you will quickly see the supposed 25% margin is laughable .
This also flies in the face of what we where told at sales , henly supposedly doesn't need to charge rediculous prices on upgrades and extras because they have made what they need to from the base build . Not from our experience
But price was the least of our worries , if we are being treated like this now , How are we going to be treated once we are building ? Especially when we found any problems ?
That question alone was enough to make up our minds .
CUSTOMER Service - 5 out of 10 stars ,
Yes that minus 5