Angle Vale Dechellis Custom Build

T_H_Smith · Jan 28, 2019 6:17 pm

Progress on the block
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2nd April 2018

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12th May 2018

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2nd June 2018

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23rd June 2018

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30th June 2018

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30th June 2018

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16th August 2018

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16th August 2018

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7th December 2018

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25th January 2019

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25th January 2019 - Site works have begun!

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25th January 2019

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25th January 2019

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25th January 2019

Hwood · Feb 28, 2019 1:51 pm

Hi T.H,

Looks great how exciting. We are planning a build in Angle Vale at the moment and are looking to start quoting soon.
What design are you building with Dechellis?

Keep the progress Pics coming!!
Thanks
HWood

Trent Smith · Mar 29, 2019 9:26 pm

Hwood

Hi T.H,

Looks great how exciting. We are planning a build in Angle Vale at the moment and are looking to start quoting soon.
What design are you building with Dechellis?

Keep the progress Pics coming!!
Thanks
HWood

We built our own design. We are up to brick stage next week

Hwood · Jul 16, 2019 6:06 pm

Hi T.H,

How is your build travelling? We are going custom also and looking to get prices soon.
How have you found Dechellis? Was custom an issue with them and did you find much price difference then if you'd gone with one of their plans?

Thanks Hwood

Trent Smith · Jul 16, 2019 9:28 pm

Hwood

Hi T.H,

How is your build travelling? We are going custom also and looking to get prices soon.
How have you found Dechellis? Was custom an issue with them and did you find much price difference then if you'd gone with one of their plans?

Thanks Hwood

Hi Hwood

We are now at lock up stage with the build, up to tiling.

Unfortunately our build hasn’t been smooth and there is currently so many unfinished jobs and problems along the way.

I wouldn’t be confident to recommend them.

Price wise approx 385k for 350 square metre build which included moderate upgrades. This does not include floor coverings

Hwood · Jul 17, 2019 11:33 am

Hi T.H,

Good to hear it's progressing but disappointing for you that you are having so many issues.

I'll send you a PM if that's ok.

Thanks
Hwood

Daniellelee · Sep 11, 2019 8:27 am

Hi T.H,

Would you mind if I PM you also in regards to your build?

Looking at building at Two Wells with Dechellis about to have final quote from them.

Just want to know how you found them and the person your dealing with?

Thanks Dani

Trent Smith · Sep 11, 2019 9:27 am

Daniellelee

Hi T.H,

Would you mind if I PM you also in regards to your build?

Looking at building at Two Wells with Dechellis about to have final quote from them.

Just want to know how you found them and the person your dealing with?

Thanks Dani

Feel free to message me and I can discuss our dealings with Dechellis

Jimmy 14321 · Sep 23, 2019 11:59 pm

Hi can u please message me too. We are almost at contact stage

newbuild20 · Apr 13, 2020 10:38 am

Hello Trent how did you go in the end with Dechellis? Did they fix the issues you had?
We are building with them, and have handover very soon.
It is the worst customer experience we have had dealing with them. Im not sure if we were just unlucky or what.

Jimmy 14321 · Apr 13, 2020 12:58 pm

Hello, we are building with Dechellis and are at the early stages. Do u mind sharing your experience? I want to know what kind of a ride I'm in for.

newbuild20 · Apr 13, 2020 2:43 pm

Well some of our experiences was a severe lack of communication, variations without your consent, their contractors destroying our and neighbours property, poor workmanship, bullied into every decision, no customer flexibility, no customer care, parts of the build being out of HIA tolerances, poor finish quality etc etc etc..

Again this is just some of our experiences, this is the experiences we had with them, we could of been just unlucky.
I don't believe so though as the Latest Google reviews online reflect very much what we went through.

From our point of view we should of paid a bit more (or less) and went with another builder. Live and learn I guess.

EDIT: we did upgrade a lot at selections, because this was to be our forever home. So if you are just building a standard house it might turn out good. Or if you are just building to flip or rent the house then the issues we had might not matter so much.

Jimmy 14321 · Apr 13, 2020 3:17 pm

newbuild20

Well some of our experiences was a severe lack of communication, variations without your consent, their contractors destroying our and neighbours property, poor workmanship, bullied into every decision, no customer flexibility, no customer care, parts of the build being out of HIA tolerances, poor finish quality etc etc etc..

Again this is just some of our experiences, this is the experiences we had with them, we could of been just unlucky.
I don't believe so though as the Latest Google reviews online reflect very much what we went through.

From our point of view we should of paid a bit more (or less) and went with another builder. Live and learn I guess.

EDIT: we did upgrade a lot at selections, because this was to be our forever home. So if you are just building a standard house it might turn out good. Or if you are just building to flip or rent the house then the issues we had might not matter so much.

Sorry to hear. I'm surprised what you've listed as i thought these guys were quality builders. Now I'm worried as we too have upgraded quite a fair bit as we plan to live in there for another 30 years.
Who was your SS? Did u escalate things higher? How long has your build take with issues rectified? Did u hire an independent inspector?

newbuild20 · Apr 13, 2020 5:24 pm

They will tell your they are quality builder, which they might be for other people but again with our experience everyone has different quality standards as we have worked out.
Not keen on naming names, so ill leave that. I had tried to escalate the issues on multiple occasions, you only get as far as the Contract Manager. Which ours wasn't helpful at all, its all about the company not the customer which was our experience with him.

Yes definitely hire a Independent building Inspector. Ours was great. Our build has taken about 7 months.

EDIT: Don't be worried as your experience might be very different to ours, Im sure there are plenty of people out there that have good experiences with them. We may of just got unlucky.
I believe in the end will have a nice house. Just a bit of work to get here.

Trent Smith · Apr 14, 2020 3:01 pm

Unfortunately our experience was not overly positive.

Pre-Build:
Sales person we dealt with was very knowledgeable, he did work hard for us, but unfortunately by the end of the process he was unprofessional & rude, telling us we were one of his worst clients and we ended up dealing with the office team from then on. (I should have backed out at that point)

Be mindful that they never itemised anything, so you don't really know how much things like linen cupboards cost and any changes unless you end up adding them after your first initial sign up. (We decided to get alot of items upfront to get a better understanding of total cost, but unfortunately this meant we didn't have a break down) I understand why they do this, but can be challenging to see how much these extras cost. Once at selections it is more transparent when upgrading. Their standard range is generally ok, but we found ourselves upgrading alot. In fact over 100k in upgrades!

Air Conditioner Promo:
Be aware they state in the promotion that the Air Conditioner will "suit their home from our builder’s standard range" A word of warning that the air conditioner will be slightly under powered for the home and will not be suitable for 100% cover. Our promo air conditioner was only suitable for 75% of the house coverage at any given time. 16kw cooling for a 246 square metre house.

Supervisor:
First supervisor was hopeless - had so many problems & poor workmanship not picked up. Subpar build & delays not managed.

He was terminated and got a new supervisor near the end of my build. Poor bloke was overworked fixing issues.

Quality of finish:
Slab is extremely uneven. Some parts of the house you can put a straight edge down and you can put your finger underneath the straight edge. The is evident across most of the house where there are large dips or lumps in the slab.

Be mindful of this if building through Dechellis Homes. They have themselves covered in their "standard build pack" where it states "The builder anticipates that the concrete floor will be carpeted by the owner. Accordingly blemishes are to be expected.

The flooring was not suitable for the floating timber floor I had installed after, due to the uneven slab. Even on carpet there are humps you can feel. This is a direct result of a poorly laid slab. The installer couldn't believe how bad the slab was! Be warned that if you build through Dechellis that you will need to ensure that you include costs to level the slab after the build to avoid these issues. This is not the responsibility of the carpet/floor board installer.

Would this be the case if I went through Dechellis Homes to do the carpet and floating timber flooring? Would they have fixed the slab before installing the flooring? I will never know!

Other issues include
-Fridge measurements incorrect size to plan its 965mm instead of 1000mm - no way to fix.

- Cavity sliders installed incorrectly. Have had issued on a few doors since hand over. They have tried to fix, but when you close the dual cavity doors they roll back about 5-10cm, no matter how much I try to close them, they keep rolling back.

-Sliding door was not installed correctly - not square. They tried to fix by adjusting the wheels underneath, but still not square and door scrapes along the track. The company that supplied the doors said that they were not installed correctly. (Probably didn't help that these doors were left in the mud for weeks, as they arrived late and the carpeter took a long time to come back and install.)

REPAIRS
Get them to fix before hand over. I have been in 6 months and still waiting for items to be fixed. Slow in responding to requests.

To their credit most issues addressed have been fixed.

The list of issues continue, but unfortunately I have hit the word limit.

Hillz · Apr 14, 2020 4:49 pm

Interesting to hear Trent.

We are tossing up between Dechellis and a much smaller family construction company where the person who you sit down with to design the house with is the same person that is on site building everyday as well.

Dechellis quote was about $40k higher with slightly more inclusions in the contract but I did suspect that with the aircon offer that it wouldn't be quite powerful enough for the full house size.

The smaller builder has pretty much 100% positive reviews including someone we know personally compared to Dechellis where the reviews vary quite widely.

We've been leaning towards going with the smaller builder anyway but the more stories I hear like yours Trent I just makes that decision a lot easier. Luckily for us the process is going a lot slower due to having to move from WA to SA before we can start the process so we have had more time to look at different builders etc

Jimmy 14321 · Apr 14, 2020 7:27 pm

newbuild20

They will tell your they are quality builder, which they might be for other people but again with our experience everyone has different quality standards as we have worked out.
Not keen on naming names, so ill leave that. I had tried to escalate the issues on multiple occasions, you only get as far as the Contract Manager. Which ours wasn't helpful at all, its all about the company not the customer which was our experience with him.

Yes definitely hire a Independent building Inspector. Ours was great. Our build has taken about 7 months.

EDIT: Don't be worried as your experience might be very different to ours, Im sure there are plenty of people out there that have good experiences with them. We may of just got unlucky.
I believe in the end will have a nice house. Just a bit of work to get here.

Wow I really hope u get it sorted out so you get what you deserve. I think it really comes down to the attention of detail of your SS. Thanks for sharing and opening my eyes.

Jimmy 14321 · Apr 14, 2020 7:29 pm

Trent Smith

Unfortunately our experience was not overly positive.

Pre-Build:
Sales person we dealt with was very knowledgeable, he did work hard for us, but unfortunately by the end of the process he was unprofessional & rude, telling us we were one of his worst clients and we ended up dealing with the office team from then on. (I should have backed out at that point)

Be mindful that they never itemised anything, so you don't really know how much things like linen cupboards cost and any changes unless you end up adding them after your first initial sign up. (We decided to get alot of items upfront to get a better understanding of total cost, but unfortunately this meant we didn't have a break down) I understand why they do this, but can be challenging to see how much these extras cost. Once at selections it is more transparent when upgrading. Their standard range is generally ok, but we found ourselves upgrading alot. In fact over 100k in upgrades!

Air Conditioner Promo:
Be aware they state in the promotion that the Air Conditioner will "suit their home from our builder’s standard range" A word of warning that the air conditioner will be slightly under powered for the home and will not be suitable for 100% cover. Our promo air conditioner was only suitable for 75% of the house coverage at any given time. 16kw cooling for a 246 square metre house.

Supervisor:
First supervisor was hopeless - had so many problems & poor workmanship not picked up. Subpar build & delays not managed.

He was terminated and got a new supervisor near the end of my build. Poor bloke was overworked fixing issues.

Quality of finish:
Slab is extremely uneven. Some parts of the house you can put a straight edge down and you can put your finger underneath the straight edge. The is evident across most of the house where there are large dips or lumps in the slab.

Be mindful of this if building through Dechellis Homes. They have themselves covered in their "standard build pack" where it states "The builder anticipates that the concrete floor will be carpeted by the owner. Accordingly blemishes are to be expected.

The flooring was not suitable for the floating timber floor I had installed after, due to the uneven slab. Even on carpet there are humps you can feel. This is a direct result of a poorly laid slab. The installer couldn't believe how bad the slab was! Be warned that if you build through Dechellis that you will need to ensure that you include costs to level the slab after the build to avoid these issues. This is not the responsibility of the carpet/floor board installer.

Would this be the case if I went through Dechellis Homes to do the carpet and floating timber flooring? Would they have fixed the slab before installing the flooring? I will never know!

Other issues include
-Fridge measurements incorrect size to plan its 965mm instead of 1000mm - no way to fix.

- Cavity sliders installed incorrectly. Have had issued on a few doors since hand over. They have tried to fix, but when you close the dual cavity doors they roll back about 5-10cm, no matter how much I try to close them, they keep rolling back.

-Sliding door was not installed correctly - not square. They tried to fix by adjusting the wheels underneath, but still not square and door scrapes along the track. The company that supplied the doors said that they were not installed correctly. (Probably didn't help that these doors were left in the mud for weeks, as they arrived late and the carpeter took a long time to come back and install.)

REPAIRS
Get them to fix before hand over. I have been in 6 months and still waiting for items to be fixed. Slow in responding to requests.

To their credit most issues addressed have been fixed.

The list of issues continue, but unfortunately I have hit the word limit.

Sounds like an absolute nightmare. Sorry to hear what you went through. I'll be keeping an eye out for your comments during my build.
Disgusting behaviour by your sales consultant too.

newbuild20 · Apr 14, 2020 7:43 pm

Hello Trent,

Thanks for getting back to me, sadly from what you have written ALOT of that compares to what we went through and are going through.
So many similarities its not funny, we have a lot more too.
But luckily I believe our slab isn't to bad, just a lot of damage holes/craters from their contractors. Our external flooring people said they have to be fixed before flooring.

Jimmy one big bit of advice is get everything in writing from them and have it documented and signed from them, no matter how small a detail. If they refuse (which they did for us) then that is a huge red flag it will bite you in the backside later on. Which it has for us on about 4 occasions. DO NOT trust their word.

Trent Smith · Apr 14, 2020 8:47 pm

newbuild20

Hello Trent,

Thanks for getting back to me, sadly from what you have written ALOT of that compares to what we went through and are going through.
So many similarities its not funny, we have a lot more too.
But luckily I believe our slab isn't to bad, just a lot of damage holes/craters from their contractors. Our external flooring people said they have to be fixed before flooring.

Jimmy one big bit of advice is get everything in writing from them and have it documented and signed from them, no matter how small a detail. If they refuse (which they did for us) then that is a huge red flag it will bite you in the backside later on. Which it has for us on about 4 occasions. DO NOT trust their word.

Have you checked your slab with a straight edge? I didn't realise how back it was until I did that around the house. Took forever to go through the house, cant really be noticed by eye.