Browse Forums Building A New House Re: YES or NO to building while living overseas!!! HELP PLEA 3Oct 05, 2017 11:23 am 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 Re: YES or NO to building while living overseas!!! HELP PLEA 7Oct 06, 2017 2:25 am Thanks everyone for your responses. I really appreciate it. So hard to know what to do especially when we don't know when we will be home! We did think of selling the land but I really don't want to get out of the market as prices are still going a little crazy. I think we Would make a better profit if we were at least able to build....and then possibly sell. But again we will still need to buy something else which also adds the stamp duty. I think we may hold off in in for maybe a year and then decide what to do. Thanks again everyone Re: YES or NO to building while living overseas!!! HELP PLEA 8Oct 06, 2017 6:52 am I don't know about your experience Forg but it is not necessary to continually inspect the house whilst it is being built, critical stage inspections are usually sufficient. I have been doing this for about 12 years now and from my experience the following inspect5ions will give you good result and are a sweet spot between price and value: Pre contract review, pre slab, frame, pre plaster and pre final = 5 inspections around 3K for an average size home.You don't need someone on site blundering about and hanging around growing vegies. In Vic builder cannot restrict how many times you or your agent can visit the site but it must be done at a mutually convenient time because the builder has a licence to occupy the site and is responsible for site security and visitor safety. Only once we had 7 inspections from lockup to final due to a bad builder, we got there in the end with builder refunding my client all inspection fees + compensation. 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 Re: YES or NO to building while living overseas!!! HELP PLEA 9Oct 06, 2017 3:43 pm Well ... to give an example, as an inspector would you think to pull the gyprock & check whether the insulation had been installed in the garage wall? I was walking past on the way to work one morning, and noticed from the previous day that half the gyprock had been installed ... with no sign of the insulation behind. Called the site supervisor, next day the gyprock was down again, day after there was insulation in there. I can't think of them all now, but there were plenty of those sorts of things, and I'm assuming it's 'cos the site supervisor has 40 builds to cover so can't watch what all the tradies are doing onsite every day. Then there's Old Faithful builder charges $100 per downlight, spec your electricals so there's enough wiring by the builder then pay the sparky $30 per downlight. There were just plenty of things which would've gone down badly had we not been local. Plus we got dozens of questions during the build; you definitely have to be accessible to answer questions. Re: YES or NO to building while living overseas!!! HELP PLEA 10Oct 06, 2017 4:00 pm Forg Well ... to give an example, as an inspector would you think to pull the gyprock & check whether the insulation had been installed in the garage wall? I was walking past on the way to work one morning, and noticed from the previous day that half the gyprock had been installed ... with no sign of the insulation behind. Called the site supervisor, next day the gyprock was down again, day after there was insulation in there. I can't think of them all now, but there were plenty of those sorts of things, and I'm assuming it's 'cos the site supervisor has 40 builds to cover so can't watch what all the tradies are doing onsite every day. Then there's Old Faithful builder charges $100 per downlight, spec your electricals so there's enough wiring by the builder then pay the sparky $30 per downlight. There were just plenty of things which would've gone down badly had we not been local. Plus we got dozens of questions during the build; you definitely have to be accessible to answer questions. You get a pre-lining inspection done so the insulation has been done but not the gyprock. Building Monte Carlo 40- Wisdom homes Re: YES or NO to building while living overseas!!! HELP PLEA 11Oct 06, 2017 5:01 pm As MandM+4 said, you get a chance to inspect insulation at pre plaster inspection. I use thermal imaging camera which will show any heat transfer through ceiling and if there are gaps in ceiling insulation. Several times I was hired to set up thermal imaging check of walls where there was a dispute and yes it picked up missing batts. We recommend 4 inspections during the build because it is the sweet spot between price and value, however there is always a chance of something not being picked up but having someone there all the time is not feasible. It works really well in the vast majority of cases. We don't have mandatory pre plaster inspection in Vic so no one will know if your frame was damaged, insulation is missing, wet areas waterproofed properly or in the case of units fire separation walls built correctly. Just last week I found defective fire separation wall. 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 Re: YES or NO to building while living overseas!!! HELP PLEA 12Oct 07, 2017 6:54 am Everything seems so scary to me at the moment!! I would definitely have someone there to check it over at those 4 major stage you suggest. I think we will wait for 1 year and keep hold of the land and figure out when we will be home and go from there. Thanks again for your input. I really appreciate it I had couple of quotations from pre-covid times, I am quite sure they are more expensive now plus with current USD rate and shipping costs it makes them really unaffordable. 6 24416 Thanks. There are plenty of builders around my suburb. I'll make sure to do some door-to-door knocking, or note their building details on the temp fence. 4 5098 Hello everyone Please advice me how can I install mesh security window or we cab say mesh flyscreen inside while the pvc plantation shutters are already installed? Is… 0 11965 |