Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Mar 15, 2011 2:29 pm Hi, As the title suggests we are going to start building with Bentley homes very soon and just want to know if anyone else here has built with them, how did you find them etc? SO far they have been reasonably good, and seem to have a fairly good reputation. We are coming down to Melb in a month to do our colour selection and tender apt. Yes we are going to be building from another state (SA) which is a little stressful, so want to know if we are in good hands. Thanks P.s We are building in Hidden Valley Estate, Wallan VIC Re: Anyone built with Bentley Homes, Vic? 2Mar 15, 2011 2:41 pm Try using the Search feature viewtopic.php?f=31&t=29661&hilit=+Bentley+Homes+ viewtopic.php?f=31&t=8668&hilit=+Bentley+Homes+ Re: Anyone built with Bentley Homes, Vic? 3Mar 17, 2011 9:52 am Hi boofallen, we are building with Bentley Homes, we are in Laurimar Doreen. We have found Bentley to be brilliant right from the start. They have a good reputation, we did alot of research before deciding who to go with, we know others that have built with them, through friends etc... They have honestly been great, John that used to be the salesman at Plenty River went way out of his way to get us a great deal, we bought the land first, he even helped us pick the right block and we got a great deal all up, if it hadn't been for him we would have probably still be thinking about doing it. Nadhira our admin girl at Bentley had been very supportive, it's was a relaxing process picking colors, tender, etc... Our build is going along very quickly and smoothly, we had fall on the land and the way they have postioned the house is great, we couldn't be happier. Our site manager Brad is down to earth and keeps us up to date and every week we recieve an email from Head Office telling us what will be happening. We know a few builders and they have all said that they are known to build a solid home. I'm sure you will be happy with them, upgrade prices are good. We didn't have to upgrade much, as most of what you see in their displays is what you actually get. Good luck, I hope you have the same experience we have had and I also met another family yesterday building near us with them and they feel the same way we do. Re: Anyone built with Bentley Homes, Vic? 4Mar 17, 2011 10:20 am Thanks Deb, That is very very reassuring. We took it as a good sign that when I tried to find reviews about them that there were very little and the ones I did find were fairly positive. Only 4 weeks now till we head to Melb for our selections. You are right about not having to upgrade much, very nice that some things you get charged a bucket for by other builders is standard with Bentley. More excited now My only concern is finding out what our site costs are going to be, a private builder we originally got a quote from told us about 50k!! Almost had a heart attack, but the Bentley salesperson after looking at our plans and land fall said he estimates about 21-24k. Fingers crossed. Re: Anyone built with Bentley Homes, Vic? 5Mar 17, 2011 10:25 am Go for it. Wish we had built with them as they are really quick. A couple of H1 people have built with them and were really really happy. I really like their display homes at Laurimar. Re: Anyone built with Bentley Homes, Vic? 7Mar 17, 2011 10:38 am We got fixed price in the contract for the site costs, we are very happy with the price we paid all up. The Brando is on display here, it's a really nice home, it has everything in it you could want for your Dream Home. There is one getting built around the corner from us. We are building the Sinatra, fell in love with it as soon as we walked in. We will be building a Pergola after handover. I did alot of research on Builders before we started looking, and people we know have built with them and they gave them the thumbs up. They have built alot of houses here in our estate, the owners have been in the industry for a long time and I believe they are very fussy. I'm sure you will be happy with the final price including site costs and the best thing about it is, they are known for building on sloping land and making it look great. Some builders just put your house in a hole, ours looks so good. They only got access to our land in early Feb and allready we have a frame and bricks on site. Fifty grand!! that is unbelievable for site costs. Good luck with your color selection. Re: Anyone built with Bentley Homes, Vic? 8Mar 17, 2011 1:00 pm Thanks Deb, Very excited about the color selection, just have to try and not stuff it up LOL. The Sinatra was really nice to, but the brando won out. I hope they can put it on the block without digging a hole so to speak. Still want to use the rest of the block! Did you have to have retaining walls put in? Was this included in the building cost? 50k was outrageous thats for sure, walked away from him in a hurry. Re: Anyone built with Bentley Homes, Vic? 9Mar 17, 2011 1:35 pm Yer, we have a retaining wall, it's not very high, we had 1.5meter fall right across the centre of the build. The retaining wall was included and runs the length of the house. Our house is sitting really nicely, up high but not to high as in the driveway wont be really steep. They cut on the high side, put the retaining wall there, and filled on the low side and then added piers to stabalise the slab. It is definately not in a hole, I have seen alot that are actually sitting in a hole, they look terrible. I had all of my colors picked before we went but you still doubt yourself, lol. A couple of the tiles we picked early on, had been discontinued when the time came for them to order them. That was hard, you have it all in your head and then all of a sudden you have to change, I was happy about one of the changes though. I looked at laminex.com.au and we went to Austral Bricks in Thomastown to pick the bricks. Just went to look and the fascia and gutters are up and the plumbers are there also. I can't believe how quick they are working. Re: Anyone built with Bentley Homes, Vic? 10Mar 17, 2011 1:40 pm Sounds like your build is going great guns. Unfortunately I wont get a chance to preview things before we choose them really, because we are living in SA. There are no Austral Bricks here but we like the look of one of the standard bricks we saw on the online color selection brochure. Can you tell me did they have the smaller mosaic tiles to choose for the splashback at the showroom?? Or was it your standard neutral colors? Re: Anyone built with Bentley Homes, Vic? 11Mar 17, 2011 1:48 pm It was the standard colors, you may be able to upgrade. We upgraded the bricks, we are having Blackwood. You should try and get to Austral before color selection, as the online ones dont really look at all like the ones we are getting. If you are going to South Morang for Color selection, Thomastown is not far from there, on High Street. Austral Bricks also gave us all of the addresses that had used the brick we wanted and we went and had a look. Our upgrade for the bricks was $474.00 Cat 2. We are also upgrading to the Caoba garage door, the cedar one, that was $520.00. Re: Anyone built with Bentley Homes, Vic? 12Mar 17, 2011 2:23 pm I wish we had the time to scout out things like the bricks etc, but we are driving down on the 20th so getting in at 11pm roughly and have our color apt at 9am on the 21st. Do they have the house brick samples in the showroom? We like the look of the macadamia brick with white grout. Re: Anyone built with Bentley Homes, Vic? 13Mar 17, 2011 2:45 pm They prob do have all of the bricks there, I am trying to remember, I think they were on the back wall. Ask them at Bentley, if they havn't ask them to get them in for you to look at. Because we had allready decided on the brick I didn't take alot of notice. Re: Anyone built with Bentley Homes, Vic? 14Mar 21, 2011 8:26 pm Hey We are busy waiting on our tender at the moment after doing our colours last week with grace in Sth. Morang We are hoping to build the varano with a few modifications also in hidden valley with a bit of an uneven site so fingers crossed our site costs go okay Good luck with everything and keep in touch, if you need someone to keep you up to date with your progress take pics etc don't hesitate to ask - it's the least we can do for a future neighbour Jason Re: Anyone built with Bentley Homes, Vic? 15Mar 21, 2011 8:43 pm Hi bigjay, glad to see you went with Bentley. Will be great to follow your build. I am not good at the photo upload, I have a few on my phone, but never get around to doing anything with them. Good luck, with your tender. Re: Anyone built with Bentley Homes, Vic? 17Mar 22, 2011 7:50 am Thanks Jason, The varano is great, that was the other house design we were considering. But the Brando won out because of its laundry mostly Where abouts in Hidden Valley are you building? We are in Aurina Drive. Can you let me know what your site costs come back at? Grace said she will have ours ready for the color selection, but it still seems like ages away. Thanks for the offer of the pics, ive already commissioned my mother's services, but because of her general lack of technological ability I may have to take you up on your offer of pics Good luck with tender! Tracy Re: Anyone built with Bentley Homes, Vic? 18Mar 22, 2011 5:18 pm The Varano is a lovely home, it's only new isn't it? with the alfresco. The Sinatra doesn't have an alfresco, so we are building a Pergola after handover, it has the small patio area, we will also take that out to the retaining wall. We only have a 448m block, the house takes up most of it, and the pergola will be 20m so there wont be much yard left. Our SS told my Hubby today that the brickie will be on site on Thursday, amazing, so quick. Re: Anyone built with Bentley Homes, Vic? 19Mar 22, 2011 7:25 pm we also liked the brando but due to the fact our site costs may be pretty high and only being two of us we decided to downsize a little and go for the varano, deleting the wall inbetween the living and rumpus, fitting sliding doors to the back on both sides, we are building on 1056 sqm on valley drive.eb you seem to be flying along, how are you finding the workmanship etc ? from what i have heard they seem to be among the better builders to deal with Re: Anyone built with Bentley Homes, Vic? 20Mar 22, 2011 8:00 pm If its just the 2 of you the varano is ample, love the idea of having sliding doors at the back as well. Deb it sounds like its flying for sure. Fingers crossed they are as good as we hear.. but i get a good feeling about it all where other builders had me very nervous I haven’t. But have a Lowe Design home. Not only did I find Matt Lowe patronising and a bully, but the home is NOT TO CODE. I have water coming through the bricks… 1 31157 Hi we are looking to talk to people who have built with them recently. We have signed mid range built contract but identified that a lot of things are not included.… 0 10632 Hi all, new to this group. Been watching the site for a while to get an idea of comments and help from everyone. Whilst our questions below are Plainland QLD specific,… 0 12180 |