Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 01, 2009 10:13 am G'day All! I thought I'd share my experience with you on the two builders GMH and Rycon over the last few days.... i must say... it has been worrying and amusing at the same time. Peter, whom I was dealing with at GMH, was let go last week... which was a relief as we got to deal with Russell directly. He was a great guy and at our first meeting, he spent time with us to look at our land, drawings, etc to give us an indicative quote. His 3D modeling, clear step by step process, and assurance to work to our budget with his estimation spreadsheet gave us great comfort we are being listen to and looked after. His price was essentially 5% of the building cost for the design work. I gave Rycon a call and dealt with Leigh. Leigh was interesting. A contrast from Russell, he struggled to understand the building envelop plan, at a point read the fall the wrong way on the plan, I had to tell him how much fall there was on our land, suggested we build a flat slab with retaining walls on a 2.6m fall, then decides split level after my suggestion, then decides stumps, lots of waffle and guessing from him. It was amusing to watch him struggle through the process. But what surprised me was Rycon's cost for design work was a flat $2500 - which included design, submission of the plan to developer approval and permits, etc. Though I had to ask him to structure what was included in the $2500 with timelines on an email for me. Rycon came strongly recommended from the forum fokes.... possibly because Ryan was the man to speak to? I was wondering whether this was other people's experience too? Or was it just me! haha Rycon was favorable because they were local to me. GMH was on the other side of the city. I felt more assured with Russell but he is also a great sales man too. What should I do?!?!?! Re: First Impression - GMH vs Rycon 2Apr 05, 2009 8:11 am I'm watching with thread with a lot of interest and hoping that you get a reply soon. I too have a sloping block - well, it's more like a cliff face! It slopes 9m from the very front down to the very back. Total of approx 2 - 3 metres over the building area. I wanted this as the other homes in the area are stunning. I'm looking to build double storey front & 3 storey at the rear of the house. I've looked for builders and gmh and rycon are two that I've come across and I'm eager to hear about other people's experiences with them. Custom downslope build Build thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=61873 Blog http://www.buildingroyalmanor.blogspot.com.au Re: First Impression - GMH vs Rycon 4Feb 11, 2010 8:03 pm Armed with my custom plans I had appointments with both these companies. My experience with GM* was less than desirable. After trekking all the way to Doreen to meet up with Russell, we briefed him on our build and gave him a fully detailed list of inclusions. After about 1 month I contacted him to follow up on our quote and he asked us to go down to Doreen again. I thought this was unfair as it was way out of our way and if he could forward it to us for review before catching up again. I never saw any quote and he never made any attempt to contact me again, so I moved on. Leigh from Ry*on did prepare a quote after about 4 weeks and forwarded it to me via email. Yes his knowledge about building seemed a little lax, but he did respond. It was a ball park range and stated it was subject to change based on Engineering even though I submitted full Engineering documentation and computations with my plan. In the end I chose to appoint a small, custom builder based in the eastern suburbs and we are now at lock-up. Our build has run smoothly and our builder has been very accommodating and great. So it seems like they just take on a lot of projects to get the cashflow for their own builds. COULDN'T AGREE MORE 14 46632 Thank you. Do I use timber floorboards for stairs or do people use timber treads? Or is both the same? 6 8319 Can anyone give me any onfo on New Homes WA? Good or bad, hopefully good just need to know if my choice was good or not? Thanks ❤️ 0 9698 |