McDonald Jones

sandrandross · May 21, 2017 2:30 pm

Anyone building a McDonald Jones home at pesent. We have just signed a contract so in the very early stages but
would like any feedback we can get.

jeffro186 · May 21, 2017 8:43 pm

Hi there, we are build in MJH and have just been added to the construction list.
Hopefully will see some action on site in the next few weeks.

We didn't have too many issues, just a few things around the plan sign off that took a bit of back and forth to get sorted out.

Don't feel rushed and really check your plans for every detail. On ours the Hot Water Service and AC placement down the sides of the house would have allowed no easy access down both sides of the house.
We had to come up with the ideas of how to work around it.

The only other suggestion is to really read all the pages on here relating to MJH and there is also a Facebook group of Building with MJH that you can join for extra info and pics.

We have had a pretty good experience with them so far. Our CLO has been really good. My biggest gripe if you can call it that, is that we may have spent more money with them, if some options we weren't aware of before were given to us.
For example wall wrap behind bricks and things like that.

Good luck with your build.

sandrandross · May 22, 2017 10:50 am

Thanks for your reply. Where about are you building? We are in the Port Macquarie area.
What is a wall wrap? Never heard of it.
We are still waiting on our land to go through council so not sure how long that will take.
We plan on taking it slowly with the decisions so that we dont make mistakes but something will always come up.
Would love to follow your progress so hope you keep posting as you go.

Good luck

Sandra and Ross

jeffro186 · May 22, 2017 8:19 pm

We are building in the Newcastle area.
Wall wrap is an extra layer of insulation applied around the frame before the house is bricked.
I'm told it's a must for people building down South, but up around this way you have to ask for it (for additional cost of course).
That is if you are interested in having better insulation.
I didn't even know about it until it was too late for us.
I found out about from reading these forums and some others as well.

Hatice Altinel · Jun 01, 2017 6:23 pm

Hi Guys,
Would anyone please be able to shed some light on getting an independent building inspection before the PCI inspection ,we have been told by Mcdoanld jones site manager today that we are not allowed to have an independent building inspection before we sign the PCI. We were told that the independent building inspection can only happen after the PCI has been signed by us which defeats the purpose of having an independent building inspection.

Brightsea · Sep 17, 2017 6:42 pm

Hi Guys,

I'm just about to enter a build with MJH and put the deposit down for the Miami 16 Executive house with some minor modifications. The Base price of the house is $275k with variants of $30k for Flooring, Driveway, MyChoice Spending and LED Lights. I'm thinking that this may not be enough once we go to the Studio Choice and other Electrical Fittings. Grant you, they are giving Free Actron SRA203 Ducted Air-Conditioning and Kitchen Upgrades like stone tops and sMeg Appliances.

My thoughts are ...

1. will approximately $7000 be enough for the electricals and LED Downlights? (Looking at 55 downlights and don't even know the number of power points yet.)
2. anyone built with Steel frames and any opinions on the pro's and con's on the steel versus treated timber builds?
3. anyone else buildt with MJH Miami 16 designs? > any comments?
4. Were there any additional payments to be made with regards to Council applications etc?
5. The Quote I received had a cost of $5000 for "Statutory site works including WHS regulations M class slab" what is this for? do we pay for this?

Any info from anyone with regards to MJH will be greatly appreciated. Before I go ahead with the deposit payment and commit to them.

Cheers.

FirstHomeBuild

nickmaj · Aug 28, 2024 4:49 pm

Brightsea

Hi Guys,

I'm just about to enter a build with MJH and put the deposit down for the Miami 16 Executive house with some minor modifications. The Base price of the house is $275k with variants of $30k for Flooring, Driveway, MyChoice Spending and LED Lights. I'm thinking that this may not be enough once we go to the Studio Choice and other Electrical Fittings. Grant you, they are giving Free Actron SRA203 Ducted Air-Conditioning and Kitchen Upgrades like stone tops and sMeg Appliances.

My thoughts are ...

1. will approximately $7000 be enough for the electricals and LED Downlights? (Looking at 55 downlights and don't even know the number of power points yet.)
2. anyone built with Steel frames and any opinions on the pro's and con's on the steel versus treated timber builds?
3. anyone else buildt with MJH Miami 16 designs? > any comments?
4. Were there any additional payments to be made with regards to Council applications etc?
5. The Quote I received had a cost of $5000 for "Statutory site works including WHS regulations M class slab" what is this for? do we pay for this?

Any info from anyone with regards to MJH will be greatly appreciated. Before I go ahead with the deposit payment and commit to them.

Cheers.

FirstHomeBuild

Not sure how you went...

But for anyone wanting some answers if they need them;

1. will approximately $7000 be enough for the electricals and LED Downlights? (Looking at 55 downlights and don't even know the number of power points yet.) - Depends, if you go just lights and no fans then yes. We spent 14k, but we had fans in every room, camera doorbell system and pre-wiring for surround sound.. Id say 6-8k roughly for general electrical.

2. anyone built with Steel frames and any opinions on the pro's and con's on the steel versus treated timber builds?
Steel frame is excellent, you shouldnt see movement cracks like you would with a timber frame. However, where you want to mount TV's, make sure you tell them so they can add the framework for it to make it easier.

3. anyone else buildt with MJH Miami 16 designs? > any comments?
Cant help with this one.

4. Were there any additional payments to be made with regards to Council applications etc?
Not for us, ours were included in the tender from MJH - and we got a site classification of M.

5. The Quote I received had a cost of $5000 for "Statutory site works including WHS regulations M class slab" what is this for? do we pay for this?
Check your tender / contract, i didnt have to pay for anything with the site classification, it was included in ours. You usually only have to pay if the classification is H1, H2 etc... - this means more ground movement due to soil type, so they charge for more things to be done at slab stage.. we had no charges with M classification.
You may also have to pay extra pending your bushfire rating. Bal-LOW means you are all good!