Browse Forums Building A New House Re: How often do you visit your site? 721May 16, 2023 2:25 pm we are visiting our site twice a day usually but we are very luck as it is on our way to work and only 500 meters from the current house we live in. We received the letter from the builder today that our windows have been installed but we new that the day it happened which was last Thursday First house - Statesman Greenock (modified) https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=66876 Second house - Fairmont Grand Design (modified) https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=100789 Re: How often do you visit your site? 722Aug 24, 2023 11:48 am We're living right next door to our build so we see and hear everything. We try not to engage the tradies much, other than saying hello, but our SS will text us to ask if a particular delivery was made . Re: How often do you visit your site? 723Jan 25, 2024 12:26 pm ZSasha May I ask you a question, guys? When you do a site visit - what is a purpose of that? Are you trying to notice any issues to make a builder fix them? But I assume one has to be a qualified builder to be able to do that. Or it is just pure interest and nothing more? Cheers. Personally I'd be wanting to visit site as often as possible to see progress, and to see if there is anything that appears to not match the plans. Of course I'm not a builder, so at early stages it would be hard for me to know if they are doing things correctly, but if something did not look right I'd take a photo and ask someone who does know, etc, Besides that, later on into the build I'd be able to see if they are installing things that I did not choose and pick up on errors, like if I specifically asked for 'X' and it is stated in the contract, and they use 'Z', for example. I've read on the QBCC site that the mandatory staged inspections won't be cross-checking your contract to make sure the contract is being adhered to, and the Site Supervisor? Well I think they ARE supposed to do that, but apparently a lot of them don't visit site very often, so not much supervision there..... My only wonder is, I don't know how difficult some builders are (I am just in research phase at the moment) so I don't know if many builders would let you on site often.... or even agree allow private inspectors to inspect the site.... Re: How often do you visit your site? 724Jan 25, 2024 12:31 pm Mofflepop Personally I'd be wanting to visit site as often as possible to see progress, and to see if there is anything that appears to not match the plans. ...... Agree. Ive texted my SS to tell him a power point was in the wrong place or similar and he was able to sort it out before gyprock/painting ect. Saves the builder money and us build time in having to fix it down the track. Re: How often do you visit your site? 725Jan 25, 2024 12:35 pm I visited my site once a week. I found several mistakes which I had to advise the builder. Eg. Shower size and shape did not match plans, wrong type of balustrade top rail used, Re: How often do you visit your site? 726Jan 29, 2024 1:21 pm I would visit weekly at least so you can take pictures, progress pictures. Be sure to take pictures of around the house slab perimeter and in particular if there is water ponding against the foundations. These pictures are your get out of jail free card should you ever need to refer to them. I would be sure to visit at least aligning with before progress claims are issued, that is, your contract stage claims: BASE, FRAME, ENCLOSED, FIXING, PRACTICAL COMPLETION, HANDOVER. This way, you can assess or have a building inspector or engineer assess if the stage has been completed and is ok to pay the claim. Having taken a heap of pictures, if you receive a progress claim and things havent been finished, you can send the pictures in as part of your reasoning for not paying the claim - as in, finish this then we will look to pay. Pictures save your hide when it comes to construction so let your phone finger tap widely and backup your images for future reference. To me progress stage claims are your bare minimum time to inspect. The most important stages are SLAB, FRAME, ROOFING + FLASHING (within the enclosed claim), PRE GYPROCK (ensure frame is ready to be sheeted, WATERPROOFING - prior to tile fixing. You will need to visit to meet some trades at rough in stage and again for a tile selection meeting. You will also likely have to meet trades for quotes for work outside of contract, if not included, like carpet, blinds etc. If your owner supplying items, youll have to go to site to drop those. Remember that any owner supplied items is not covered by builders insurance so if its damaged or lost, you end up buying it again. Re: How often do you visit your site? 727May 14, 2024 10:58 am Initially once a month as we are 40 minutes away. But now as we are at lockup stage, trying to go once every fortnight. Edit: we dont have to necessarily attend, our site supervisor with MJH sends us 5-10 photos per week generally with what has been done up to that point, which is excellent. But it was nice to walk through myself in person, it feels surreal when you actually walk on the slab between the framework and especially last week when the external walls were put up and rendered. 9 25303 In Victoria you cannot put a caveat on arising from a domestic building contract. 65 112912 Thanks mate. Yeah good points! Leaning towards Option 3 to get a bit extra space in the cabinets but not going too crazy high (and expensive). Would require a mini… 13 40810 |