Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 17881Oct 09, 2017 11:39 am KDRB Paddington 29 Bed 1 to Rear with Home Theatre & Grand Alfresco (Paddington 31) blog: Southern Sydney Knockdown & Rebuild Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 17882Oct 09, 2017 1:15 pm JK27 Need to vent.... our SS is a personable young guy, don't have an issue with him as a person, has a laugh and seems to know what he's doing. However, we find that he's dismissive! Not at a condescending level, but when we've raised things kind of just says yep he knows and he'll fix it, will all be fixed before we get it. It's our half million dollar investment, and sometimes we just don't feel that cuts it! At our pre-lining inspection, we noted a lot of the rooms did not have the Thermo-Acoustic insulation installed, that we have paid more to have, and he assured me that it would be done before gyprocking was to commence on Wednesday (which then moved to Thursday, Friday and of course they've turned up today), and low and behold - the insulation was not put in. We know this, because you can see that particular wall from the street through the windows. He also reconfirmed that it had been completed when he called me about another issue on Thursday - so twice he's told me that it was done. After dropping the kids of at school this morning, I stopped in and spoke to the Gyprockers, who have almost done the whole top floor, and not only have they gyprocked that wall but they confirmed there was NO insulation. I called and sms'd the SS to advise, as well as calling and emailing our CSC. Have since had CSC call to tell me they've spoken to the Insulation guys and they will be back to to fix it. This is what I got back from the SS as an SMS: "Been in a walkthrough all morning. All under control. please let me do my job. I'm going out there now to have a look". Am I being unjust? I would have thought it would be better to know before the issue is to big to rectify, rather than being told to let him do his job (which if I wanted to be a B**ch, should have been done before we got to this point). Sorry, needed to offload.... try to send an email to their product review channel. they get some good top down pressure to get things moving a bit quicker. if u really pixxed off. Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 17883Oct 09, 2017 4:36 pm JK27 Need to vent.... our SS is a personable young guy, don't have an issue with him as a person, has a laugh and seems to know what he's doing. However, we find that he's dismissive! Not at a condescending level, but when we've raised things kind of just says yep he knows and he'll fix it, will all be fixed before we get it. It's our half million dollar investment, and sometimes we just don't feel that cuts it! At our pre-lining inspection, we noted a lot of the rooms did not have the Thermo-Acoustic insulation installed, that we have paid more to have, and he assured me that it would be done before gyprocking was to commence on Wednesday (which then moved to Thursday, Friday and of course they've turned up today), and low and behold - the insulation was not put in. We know this, because you can see that particular wall from the street through the windows. He also reconfirmed that it had been completed when he called me about another issue on Thursday - so twice he's told me that it was done. After dropping the kids of at school this morning, I stopped in and spoke to the Gyprockers, who have almost done the whole top floor, and not only have they gyprocked that wall but they confirmed there was NO insulation. I called and sms'd the SS to advise, as well as calling and emailing our CSC. Have since had CSC call to tell me they've spoken to the Insulation guys and they will be back to to fix it. This is what I got back from the SS as an SMS: "Been in a walkthrough all morning. All under control. please let me do my job. I'm going out there now to have a look". Am I being unjust? I would have thought it would be better to know before the issue is to big to rectify, rather than being told to let him do his job (which if I wanted to be a B**ch, should have been done before we got to this point). Sorry, needed to offload.... It's not just you - it's the whole company attitude unfortunately...We've felt the need to micro-manage the whole project which has left me drained emotionally as well as physically with everything else in life...I've found that even putting things in email doesn't necessarily work so I'm not quite sure what to tell you to make things better/ easier for you...I definitely feel the same way as you regarding doing jobs properly the first time round and in its entirety prior to moving onto the next but unfortunately the whole industry is a production line and what seems like common sense doesn't get put into practice... We had insulation missing in our lower roof which we pointed out prior to gyprock but the gyprock still got installed - luckily they had access via a manhole to complete after the fact...so ours was an easy fix. The only thing I can think of is saying you want a walk through prior to the house being regyprocked so that you can physically see that everything has been rectified...? It won't help your relationship with your SS though and if anything, it will potentially make things worse...but you're not doing this to make friends and you need to protect your investment... Good luck and keep us all posted on your progress! Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 17884Oct 09, 2017 5:12 pm For all of you that noticed such “disrepancies” - did you found out via your building inspectors? Our pre-lining will be completed in another 4 weeks or so and just trying to avoid such outcomes. Building a Oceanside 36 @ Kellyville Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 17885Oct 09, 2017 8:04 pm wingzee For all of you that noticed such “disrepancies” - did you found out via your building inspectors? Our pre-lining will be completed in another 4 weeks or so and just trying to avoid such outcomes. We picked up on alot of discrepancies ourselves, especially the things that were specific to us, as in things we had chosen during our selection process (like the additional niche in the powder room shower, the WIP door placed to the right rather than centre). The Private Inspectors not only picked up on the same things, BUT on so many things we never would have even thought to look at (he found 1 chipped roof tile, flashing missing from 1 window, mortar larger than the australian standard and took photos of it with a ruler, creaking floors), so many other things - things that can be fixed, but things that to the untrained eye, seem fine, are infact not ok. We would pay for private inspectors three times over, especially for this level of outlay - it is most definitely money well spent. KDRB Paddington 29 Bed 1 to Rear with Home Theatre & Grand Alfresco (Paddington 31) blog: Southern Sydney Knockdown & Rebuild Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 17886Oct 10, 2017 8:44 am Can anyone assist. We are looking at building the Boston 36. I recently did a google of the SMEG appliances, dishwasher and microwave, you get with the sapphire package and the reviews are pretty much all bad. Can anyone reassure me that the provided appliances are good? If not can anyone confirm how bad they are please. Cheers Simon Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 17887Oct 10, 2017 8:54 am Salfield Can anyone assist. We are looking at building the Boston 36. I recently did a google of the SMEG appliances, dishwasher and microwave, you get with the sapphire package and the reviews are pretty much all bad. Can anyone reassure me that the provided appliances are good? If not can anyone confirm how bad they are please. Cheers Simon We have the SMEG appliances and have had no issues at all. We have a freestanding 900mm oven with gas cooktop. Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 17888Oct 10, 2017 10:07 am KLB Salfield Can anyone assist. We are looking at building the Boston 36. I recently did a google of the SMEG appliances, dishwasher and microwave, you get with the sapphire package and the reviews are pretty much all bad. Can anyone reassure me that the provided appliances are good? If not can anyone confirm how bad they are please. Cheers Simon We have the SMEG appliances and have had no issues at all. We have a freestanding 900mm oven with gas cooktop. We also had a SMEG 900mm oven/gas cooktop in our old home for 15years, before knockdown and never had an issue (infact I even sold it) - we've upgraded the supplied SMEG oven to the same as our old one for the new house. KDRB Paddington 29 Bed 1 to Rear with Home Theatre & Grand Alfresco (Paddington 31) blog: Southern Sydney Knockdown & Rebuild Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 17889Oct 10, 2017 10:13 am Another question, for those of you in the know... Our Private Inspector noticed that the ceilings of our ground floor are already at 2600mm before gyprock and floor coverings, and to ask for comment from our builder. When we spoke to the SS, he said he doesn't know why they would even check that and bring it up, first time he's ever heard it because it's common practice for the floor height to be taken from the structural plans, so we will lose some height once ceilings and floors go in. I've looked at our plans, and the little research I've been able to do, indicate a FFL (Finished Floor Level which is from the top of floor coverings) to the FCL (Finished Ceiling Height which is at the bottom of the ceiling finishing) - is infact 2600mm. Am I reading it wrong? Were we sold something that isn't there? I know it's probably not going to be alot in the loss of the height, but why make a big hooha about the additional ceiling height increase, if it's not there. KDRB Paddington 29 Bed 1 to Rear with Home Theatre & Grand Alfresco (Paddington 31) blog: Southern Sydney Knockdown & Rebuild Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 17890Oct 10, 2017 10:57 am KLB Salfield Can anyone assist. We are looking at building the Boston 36. I recently did a google of the SMEG appliances, dishwasher and microwave, you get with the sapphire package and the reviews are pretty much all bad. Can anyone reassure me that the provided appliances are good? If not can anyone confirm how bad they are please. Cheers Simon We have the SMEG appliances and have had no issues at all. We have a freestanding 900mm oven with gas cooktop. Thanks KLB. We will have the same cooktop but I just googled the dishwasher and microwave and the reviews were bad for both saying that the dishwasher didn’t wash/dry the dishes properly and the microwave just didn’t work. Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 17891Oct 10, 2017 9:46 pm Salfield KLB Salfield Can anyone assist. We are looking at building the Boston 36. I recently did a google of the SMEG appliances, dishwasher and microwave, you get with the sapphire package and the reviews are pretty much all bad. Can anyone reassure me that the provided appliances are good? If not can anyone confirm how bad they are please. Cheers Simon We have the SMEG appliances and have had no issues at all. We have a freestanding 900mm oven with gas cooktop. Thanks KLB. We will have the same cooktop but I just googled the dishwasher and microwave and the reviews were bad for both saying that the dishwasher didn’t wash/dry the dishes properly and the microwave just didn’t work. you can change it to westinghouse. i think they all very similar. better than the metricon applicance. Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 17892Oct 11, 2017 12:32 pm Salfield KLB Salfield Can anyone assist. We are looking at building the Boston 36. I recently did a google of the SMEG appliances, dishwasher and microwave, you get with the sapphire package and the reviews are pretty much all bad. Can anyone reassure me that the provided appliances are good? If not can anyone confirm how bad they are please. Cheers Simon We have the SMEG appliances and have had no issues at all. We have a freestanding 900mm oven with gas cooktop. Thanks KLB. We will have the same cooktop but I just googled the dishwasher and microwave and the reviews were bad for both saying that the dishwasher didn’t wash/dry the dishes properly and the microwave just didn’t work. No problems with our microwave or dishwasher. We've been in for a year now. Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 17893Oct 11, 2017 12:42 pm Hey guys, Such an awesome forum from you all, you all sound so knowledgeable and helpful. My partner and I have just had our first tender meeting and have just paid our initial $5000 to get final plans drawn up. We have decided to go with the Merriden 30 and have added an extra room and changed things around. This is our first time building and as Clarendon do not have the Merriden on display we are little worried about missing changes and regretting decisions later as it can be kind of hard to visualize. My dad is a builder so we aren't too worried about being scammed for being young and inexperienced with finishes etc, I'd just love to hear tips and recommendations from anybody who is willing to share We have made a few modifications and have upgraded to the sapphire inclusions and just want to know what necessities we should add! Thanks guys! Lisette xx Building Merriden 30 Clarendon Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 17894Oct 11, 2017 1:09 pm [/quote]Thanks KLB. We will have the same cooktop but I just googled the dishwasher and microwave and the reviews were bad for both saying that the dishwasher didn’t wash/dry the dishes properly and the microwave just didn’t work.[/quote] No problems with our microwave or dishwasher. We've been in for a year now.[/quote] Good news thank you. I was surprised being smeg. Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 17895Oct 11, 2017 1:16 pm Lisette Hey guys, Such an awesome forum from you all, you all sound so knowledgeable and helpful. My partner and I have just had our first tender meeting and have just paid our initial $5000 to get final plans drawn up. We have decided to go with the Merriden 30 and have added an extra room and changed things around. This is our first time building and as Clarendon do not have the Merriden on display we are little worried about missing changes and regretting decisions later as it can be kind of hard to visualize. My dad is a builder so we aren't too worried about being scammed for being young and inexperienced with finishes etc, I'd just love to hear tips and recommendations from anybody who is willing to share We have made a few modifications and have upgraded to the sapphire inclusions and just want to know what necessities we should add! Thanks guys! Lisette xx If you can. Go to the colour/selections studio before you have to do your actual appointment. We went on the weekend and there is a few things to look at especially in the flooring department. We were a bit disappointed that the sapphire only gets a choice of 3 or 4 stone bench top colours. So it’s worth a look to see if you are going to be happy with the standard stuff or whether you will be upgrading which is all dollars! Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 17896Oct 11, 2017 2:48 pm JK27 Another question, for those of you in the know... Our Private Inspector noticed that the ceilings of our ground floor are already at 2600mm before gyprock and floor coverings, and to ask for comment from our builder. When we spoke to the SS, he said he doesn't know why they would even check that and bring it up, first time he's ever heard it because it's common practice for the floor height to be taken from the structural plans, so we will lose some height once ceilings and floors go in. I've looked at our plans, and the little research I've been able to do, indicate a FFL (Finished Floor Level which is from the top of floor coverings) to the FCL (Finished Ceiling Height which is at the bottom of the ceiling finishing) - is infact 2600mm. Am I reading it wrong? Were we sold something that isn't there? I know it's probably not going to be alot in the loss of the height, but why make a big hooha about the additional ceiling height increase, if it's not there. JK27, we are building with Masterton and they quote the floor height the same way. I argued the point when we signed the contract , the guy laughed and said that's standard building industry practice, the height is measured from unfinished floor to ceiling beams. Villina Lane 11/14 $3900 08/15 Contract 11/15 DA Approval 02/16 Demolition 03/16 Peg out 06/16 Slab 06/16 Ground floor frame 07/16 1st floor frame & windows 09-12/16 Bricks blog Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 17898Oct 11, 2017 4:01 pm Lisette Hey guys, Such an awesome forum from you all, you all sound so knowledgeable and helpful. My partner and I have just had our first tender meeting and have just paid our initial $5000 to get final plans drawn up. We have decided to go with the Merriden 30 and have added an extra room and changed things around. This is our first time building and as Clarendon do not have the Merriden on display we are little worried about missing changes and regretting decisions later as it can be kind of hard to visualize. My dad is a builder so we aren't too worried about being scammed for being young and inexperienced with finishes etc, I'd just love to hear tips and recommendations from anybody who is willing to share We have made a few modifications and have upgraded to the sapphire inclusions and just want to know what necessities we should add! Thanks guys! Lisette xx is the Merriden a new design? I don't remember seeing it on the Clarendon website! I would say, go see some display homes and think about what you like included in your home - like what size/type windows, sizes of rooms, etc. Basically all the structural things. Also give a thought about how you would like to use your spaces, like your dining, living and kitchen etc, as where you want to place your TV etc will dictate where windows will be. I'm building the Ferndale which also does not have a display home, and what I did was basically look at display homes with the same size rooms that my design had. For the life of me I cannot visualize things in 3D, so I found that it helped a lot. Also, DO NOT sign your final plans on the day itself. Since your dad is a builder, I would definitely bring the plans back and get him and everyone else to have a look through. I took my plans back for 2 weeks and signed after that, and even then, after looking at more display homes, there are still things like window sizes which I wished I had picked up earlier (trying to change them after you have signed off is virtually impossible without paying a fee). My build blog here Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 17899Oct 11, 2017 4:05 pm JK27 Another question, for those of you in the know... Our Private Inspector noticed that the ceilings of our ground floor are already at 2600mm before gyprock and floor coverings, and to ask for comment from our builder. When we spoke to the SS, he said he doesn't know why they would even check that and bring it up, first time he's ever heard it because it's common practice for the floor height to be taken from the structural plans, so we will lose some height once ceilings and floors go in. I've looked at our plans, and the little research I've been able to do, indicate a FFL (Finished Floor Level which is from the top of floor coverings) to the FCL (Finished Ceiling Height which is at the bottom of the ceiling finishing) - is infact 2600mm. Am I reading it wrong? Were we sold something that isn't there? I know it's probably not going to be alot in the loss of the height, but why make a big hooha about the additional ceiling height increase, if it's not there. I think it makes sense that they quote 2600mm measured to the unfinished floors, mainly because the difference between say different laminate, vinyl, timber or even concrete floors are different. The difference would probably be maximum 15mm, which as you have said, is not a big loss. I believe the additional ceiling height increase is from 2450 to 2600mm which is a considerable difference. My build blog here Re: Who's building with Clarendon?? 17900Oct 11, 2017 7:34 pm Home theatre Hi I am awaiting tender duscussion with Clarendon for Madison 35. This plan has a home theatre. Can someone kindly let me know as what comes along with inclusions for the home theatre. Is sound proofing, speaker cable points etc included in the build. What items are not included and extra. If anyone has done their home thatre, can you please share your thoughts and advise. Thanks Buildinsydney the stair balustrades? There is nothing special about these and I imagine literally every stair installer will be able to do this. 1 6736 The two 15mm holes are obviously not compliant. The Dept of Fair Trading would love to see this one! Do the gutters pool water after it stops raining? 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