PORTER DAVIS. Share your experience Good or Bad!

j33va19 · Mar 09, 2011 11:38 am

Hi Guys,

I am new to this forum and infact probably a bit behind. I am building the Waldorf and wanted some help on colour and electrical pricing. I just had my tiles appointmnet yesterday and was a bit shocked as it come to $6000, and i am not even taking tiling for the main ground floor as I prefer timber (not with PD though). I think I'm in for a greater shock for colour and electrical which is next Tuesday, I was wondering if anyone can help with pricing for bricks, render, tv points (normal and paid), double power points, locked windows, locked doors, celing fan noggins, downlights, phone points... or anything else. Thanks

tstr1a · Mar 09, 2011 11:48 am

j33va19

Hi Guys,

I am new to this forum and infact probably a bit behind. I am building the Waldorf and wanted some help on colour and electrical pricing. I just had my tiles appointmnet yesterday and was a bit shocked as it come to $6000, and i am not even taking tiling for the main ground floor as I prefer timber (not with PD though). I think I'm in for a greater shock for colour and electrical which is next Tuesday, I was wondering if anyone can help with pricing for bricks, render, tv points (normal and paid), double power points, locked windows, locked doors, celing fan noggins, downlights, phone points... or anything else. Thanks

Hey j33va19

What tiling upgrades did you do? I know that tile upgrades can range from $5 per sqm to $150 per sqm. Looks like you chose the expensive upgrade option. Will look great.

building1 · Mar 09, 2011 6:12 pm

We are half way through our build (or thereabouts) and there have been good and bad experiences throughout so far.

I think with building a home, for most people there is so much emotion involved, you're not just building a house, but a home.
Bear this in mind when forming an opinion about your experience.

We have been p***ed off at some things and surprised at others (pleasantly).
Our initial signing gave us a fair idea of what to expect, we knew a lot of what we wanted and were able to put these things into our initial quote so left little surprises for us.
The surprises that we did get were big ones but when building a mid sized home the prices on extras aren't going to be little.

What I have been surprised about is our SS, telling us to go and have a look "any problems let me know, but I think everything's ok".
We found a few mistakes early on which probably saved time and money.

What I have been most surprised about though is how good they've been with my bank being such idiots, they seem used to waiting for this particular bank to transfer money and haven't yet told us to compensate them for the time they've been waiting for payment.
I know this is maybe not the case with everybody, but I appreciate this, and I appreciate their understanding, and this is something i'll keep in mind before shooting them down for anything in the coming months

cjm · Mar 09, 2011 10:26 pm

For anyone building with PD, my advice is to hold off on the final payment until everything is fixed.

We moved in 3 months ago and are still waiting for things to be fixed that our SS said would be fixed "before xmas".

Agree with the comments regarding the quality of the paintwork - our paint job looks amateur to say the least.

Given that I live across the street from the PD display homes, maybe I can give prospective buyers a guided tour of what "display home quality or better" really means!

lastone · Mar 09, 2011 10:55 pm

CJM - the Heywood is what we are planning on building but we've swapped the front master bedroom for the living room.

Lunchtime · Mar 09, 2011 11:34 pm

Lastone - thats an interesting change. I cant imagine what its going to look like. We also went with the heywood - its still my favourite single story design and I can say I have been to every PD display house around. The house seems very functional and fluid (I will tell you once we are settled). Too bad PD seem to have dropped it off their list

tstr1a · Mar 10, 2011 8:18 am

building1

We are half way through our build (or thereabouts) and there have been good and bad experiences throughout so far.

I think with building a home, for most people there is so much emotion involved, you're not just building a house, but a home.
Bear this in mind when forming an opinion about your experience.

We have been p***ed off at some things and surprised at others (pleasantly).
Our initial signing gave us a fair idea of what to expect, we knew a lot of what we wanted and were able to put these things into our initial quote so left little surprises for us.
The surprises that we did get were big ones but when building a mid sized home the prices on extras aren't going to be little.

What I have been surprised about is our SS, telling us to go and have a look "any problems let me know, but I think everything's ok".
We found a few mistakes early on which probably saved time and money.

What I have been most surprised about though is how good they've been with my bank being such idiots, they seem used to waiting for this particular bank to transfer money and haven't yet told us to compensate them for the time they've been waiting for payment.
I know this is maybe not the case with everybody, but I appreciate this, and I appreciate their understanding, and this is something i'll keep in mind before shooting them down for anything in the coming months

Hey B1,

Just know that everything will turn out for the good in the end. PD will delivery their promise and your new home will be wonderful. Your bank is crap!!!!. Who are you using so I can stay clear?

Cheers

building1 · Mar 10, 2011 9:39 am

tstr1a

Hey B1,

Just know that everything will turn out for the good in the end. PD will delivery their promise and your new home will be wonderful. Your bank is crap!!!!. Who are you using so I can stay clear?

Cheers

Hey tstr1a, we're using AN2 (probably not for long ::hyst::

) never heard of so much crap going on with a home loan, overcharging on interest 3 times (reversed 3 times), loss of documents, address changes that didn't happen, and apparently their fax takes 4 hours to receive one, and sometimes it just never gets there at all (even with a confirmation transmission slip ::wink::

), I have their secondary fax number now, I certainly know where I WON'T be sending documents to in the future.
I know we'll get there, and it'll be awesome once we do ::lol::

j33va19 · Mar 10, 2011 4:41 pm

Hi, tstr1a

I only went with the $35 upgrade, with a splash back in the ensuites and powder. I was adamant I didn't want a glass splashback and went with a mosaic (a bit of a splurge) but when we got hit with $6K bill it was a reality check so may have to backtrack with the selection or really scrimp and save with the colour selection. Any idea of the costing for electrical?? Really need to budget before I go in Tuesday.

Thanks

mel_mox · Mar 10, 2011 4:50 pm

Hi tstr1a,
I spent around 10k on my electrical.
Which was:
Down lights
Extra power points in all rooms
Extra tv & telephone points
Stair lights
Floodlights out front & bk of house
Heat lights in both bathrooms
Ducted vac
Paid extra for zoned heating
Alarm
Lastly paid for lots of dual lighting

The most expensive thing was the down lights. They add up very quickly. Inthink for around 29 it was roughly 4-5k!!!

Allow if possible 10k. I didn't go overboard either. As we already had the zoned heating, alarm & ducted vac in our tender doc.

Mel

tstr1a · Mar 10, 2011 4:58 pm

Thanks heaps, how much was the alarm.

were ur downlights chrome ($120 each) or white ($104 each)?

mel_mox · Mar 10, 2011 5:15 pm

Hey,

I think alarm was 1800 & we end up getting white down lights. But I got those really big ones under alfresco.

I should have said too we only got them all downstairs.
Only STD upstairs.

lastone · Mar 10, 2011 10:05 pm

Mel

Could some of the additional electrical have been done after hand-over so as not to go on the mortgage? Obviously not the downlights

tstr1a · Mar 10, 2011 11:47 pm

lastone

Mel

Could some of the additional electrical have been done after hand-over so as not to go on the mortgage? Obviously not the downlights

I will do most of the electrical after handover but it's a bit hard to put downlights on the ground floor after handover so I have to suck it up and be over charged by PD :::

mel_mox · Mar 11, 2011 4:20 am

Yes that's why we got everything we possibly needed done downstairs.

Eve Dweller · Mar 11, 2011 6:26 am

j33va19

Hi Guys,

I am new to this forum and infact probably a bit behind. I am building the Waldorf and wanted some help on colour and electrical pricing. I just had my tiles appointmnet yesterday and was a bit shocked as it come to $6000, and i am not even taking tiling for the main ground floor as I prefer timber (not with PD though). I think I'm in for a greater shock for colour and electrical which is next Tuesday, I was wondering if anyone can help with pricing for bricks, render, tv points (normal and paid), double power points, locked windows, locked doors, celing fan noggins, downlights, phone points... or anything else. Thanks

Add around 70 to 100k to the base price for good level upgrades. This will still not get you display home finish.

MelNRob · Mar 11, 2011 9:20 am

tstr1a

lastone

Mel

Could some of the additional electrical have been done after hand-over so as not to go on the mortgage? Obviously not the downlights

I will do most of the electrical after handover but it's a bit hard to put downlights on the ground floor after handover so I have to suck it up and be over charged by PD :::

T/lastone/J33va,

Rob and i got the extra datapoints, power points and pay tv points and made provision to do the cabling etc after handover for our home automation and sound system downstairs. They'll run the cables to our specified point and Rob (as he is in IT) will connect it all up.

Also spend more money downstairs on your downlights (i know it's an exorbitant cost) but it's easier for the downstairs becaue of lack of access. Where you think you'll put in fans or pendant lighting that is more than 3kg, make sure you add in the batten light with a noggin for extra support.

We left all of the upstairs as standard battens (but upgraded to include noggins as we are fitting in fans with lights after handover) and if we want to install downlights later its a heck of a lot easier to get up in the roof space.

I'm with Mel on allowing $10k for electrical. If you opted for duct vacuum and alarm that would have been provided for in your tender already.

and don't forget about your outside lighting. We asked for two junction boxes to be installed (one at front and one at back) so that we can fit off our own external lighting after handover.

Cheers,

M

amsgreeneyes · Mar 11, 2011 9:33 am

MelNRob

tstr1a

lastone

Mel

Could some of the additional electrical have been done after hand-over so as not to go on the mortgage? Obviously not the downlights

I will do most of the electrical after handover but it's a bit hard to put downlights on the ground floor after handover so I have to suck it up and be over charged by PD :::

T/lastone/J33va,

Rob and i got the extra datapoints, power points and pay tv points and made provision to do the cabling etc after handover for our home automation and sound system downstairs. They'll run the cables to our specified point and Rob (as he is in IT) will connect it all up.

Also spend more money downstairs on your downlights (i know it's an exorbitant cost) but it's easier for the downstairs becaue of lack of access. Where you think you'll put in fans or pendant lighting that is more than 3kg, make sure you add in the batten light with a noggin for extra support.

We left all of the upstairs as standard battens (but upgraded to include noggins as we are fitting in fans with lights after handover) and if we want to install downlights later its a heck of a lot easier to get up in the roof space.

I'm with Mel on allowing $10k for electrical. If you opted for duct vacuum and alarm that would have been provided for in your tender already.

and don't forget about your outside lighting. We asked for two junction boxes to be installed (one at front and one at back) so that we can fit off our own external lighting after handover.

Cheers,

M

We put in noggins, then discovered that all they were, were pieces of 2x4 pine nailed in with 4 nails between the main studs (i think you call them). We totally could have put them in ourselves at frame stage and saved a $100 a pop.

MelNRob · Mar 11, 2011 10:47 am

amsgreeneyes

We put in noggins, then discovered that all they were, were pieces of 2x4 pine nailed in with 4 nails between the main studs (i think you call them). We totally could have put them in ourselves at frame stage and saved a $100 a pop.

Yeah it's not a lot going in for the price that was charged, but I didn't think we're allowed to go onsite to do any work, so not sure how we could install at frame stage? The other half is pretty decent with the construction side of things and had the same sentiments but if it saves us the time and effort, i'll pay for it. ::wornout::

tstr1a · Mar 11, 2011 12:33 pm

M[/quote]

We put in noggins, then discovered that all they were, were pieces of 2x4 pine nailed in with 4 nails between the main studs (i think you call them). We totally could have put them in ourselves at frame stage and saved a $100 a pop.[/quote]

$100 bucks............ now that's a ripp off....