Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Aug 11, 2008 9:16 am Hi All
I was just wondering if anyone had used the above builder or new of anyone that had and what there experiences were like? We love one of their designs and it fits perfectly on our block, so any feedback would be great! Re: Hickinbotham Homes in SA 2Aug 11, 2008 11:47 am Hi there,
We are currently building with 'Statesman' who are owned by the same people that own 'Hickinbotham'. We too loved the designs of both Hickinbotham and Statesman, although Statesman seemed to have more designs that had internal access from the garage.. We had our slab poured in April and are expecting handover in approx 3 weeks. We have had no complaints so far, its been really hassle free and easy going. Also, when it comes to doing selections, its great being able to do it all at the one appointment, from roof tiles to kitchen cupboards to flooring options...very handy. Did you know that you can visit the selections centre on the weekends and have a look around at the choices available. We would build with them again. What plan are you thinking of building??? Good luck with your decision. Re: Hickinbotham Homes in SA 3Aug 11, 2008 2:28 pm Hi Adlse
We want to build the San Marino Alfresco Mk 2. We went to the Parafield Gardens display on the w/e and loved it. I'd seen it before, so took DH this time b/c I knew with our size block it would be perfect. http://www.hickinbotham.com.au/Traditio ... fresco.htm (the Mk 2 is slightly different in that the Garage is behind the main building). No, I didn't know about the selections centre. Whereabouts is it? Re: Hickinbotham Homes in SA 4Aug 11, 2008 7:25 pm Hi there,
The selections centre is at the head office, 25 North Terrace, Hackney. Looks like a great plan, where are you building? Have you spoken with a salesman yet? We did have a pretty useless salesman in the beginning but quickly gave him the flick and went with another... No way we wanted him getting the commission Re: Hickinbotham Homes in SA 5Aug 11, 2008 9:18 pm Hi Dudleydog
We are currently building with Hickinbotham and are building the Ambassador. The framing stage is just about complete and all the windows are in on the ground floor...it,s just so nice to finally be looking at something that actually resembles a house instead of an empty block We are really happy with how things are going now that they have started,but unfortunately getting to that stage took a very long time We signed up in July 07 and they started building 30th May 08 Our estimated completion date is Feb/March 09 I don,t want to sound too negative,because we know of a couple of people that have built with them recently and haven,t had any trouble at all and the whole process was quite quick,so I think we have just drawn the short straw Adlse is right...the colour selection centre is great and it,s nice to only have to go to the one location to choose everything and the consultant that we had for our selections was very helpful. Where are you building? Good luck with everything and if I can be of any help please let me know I,ve started a thread on our build called ... I Can,t believe they,ve finally started if you are interested. Cheers Mel Building on 9 acres Re: Hickinbotham Homes in SA 6Aug 12, 2008 9:51 am Hi Everybody
We are building in Prospect (Mapleton Grove). We only got our block last at Auction and we don't settle until October. We have time restrictions on our build, so there can't be any mucking around, which I've made the sales person aware of - Cliff Green (Parafield Gdns). I'm signing until we settle on the land though b/c we still have our house to sell and then that way I will know how much money we have to spend. We went to the display Sunday, Monday when I got to work to look at my emails I had the initial quote and I've got another variation today with the changes I made yesterday, so, so far I can't complain with the service. Re: Hickinbotham Homes in SA 7Aug 12, 2008 2:46 pm Hi. We are building with Hickinbotham, we are also building the San Marino Alfresco Mk 2 and we have been pretty happy so far
We also had a pretty useless sales guy but after we moved on to colour selections and the actual build the service has been great. Be aware that they really mean it when they say any variation to the final plan will cost a $500 'administration' fee though, no matter how small or if it wasn't explained fully to you. Make sure you are absolutely 100% about your plans before you sign off on them! Our slab was poured in mid-July and our frame has just been finished, if it ever stops raining here the roof will be on soon. Bricks are on site and ready to go to. We even bumped into our site supervisor the other day whilst visiting and he was really friendly and followed up on a few concerns even though he was not 'officially' our supervisor until the frame was finished. The San Marino is a great design, excellent value for money with the garage incl in the price and a very open feel. We made changes to the ensuite and WIR to the master as well as making the home theatre 1m longer to suit developed requirements. We also extended to alfresco and upgraded to 2.7 and 3 m (to the entry) ceiling heights. Re: Hickinbotham Homes in SA 8Aug 12, 2008 2:53 pm Hi Nire
We are also extending the alfresco by about 2m and going with 2.7m ceiling heights. We're also changing the main bathroom so that it's open and not a 3 way b/c I want a corner spa and I don't like 3 ways anyway - too cramped. Other than that everything is pretty much std, just bits and pieces. Where abouts are you building? Who was your sales guy? Re: Hickinbotham Homes in SA 9Aug 12, 2008 6:19 pm Hi
We were also building with them Stats...n homes asked for a house and land package. Three months after we had signed all the papers they told us our house would not fit on our land. And all we got from them was (what do you expect us to do). Have since heard a lot of the same and some worse. Needless to say we are no longer building with them. Now building with Sterling homes. Dawn Re: Hickinbotham Homes in SA 11Aug 14, 2008 8:50 am Hi there dj,
After weighing up our options, we decided to leave it as is. Structually, the house is sound, its just a visual thing. Our SS was fantastic, he was more than happy to go ahead and have it all fixed, which would have required taking down the whole wall including frame (as the issue was with the frame work in that area). The SS didnt suggest one way or the other, just outlined what would happen either way. I guess Hubby and I looked at the whole situation and weighed up the time to rectify it, with leaving it... And leaving it was the better option for us. We have had several friends and family go to the house to see the progress, none of which have noticed the window... and believe me, if they noticed they would have let us know How is your house coming along??? You are in Bayswood aswell? Re: Hickinbotham Homes in SA 12Aug 17, 2008 3:38 pm Hi adlse
Our house is comming along really well we are at lock up now. We had a problem with the roof, We have a independant building inspector who looked at the roof for us and this is now fixed, hopfully we wont have to use him again, but as I said all is going well. Good to hear you have hand over in a couple of weeks, good luck hope all goes well. Yes we are in Bayswood. Dawn Re: Hickinbotham Homes in SA 15Sep 25, 2008 5:27 pm You will find that Hickinbotham and Statesman Homes are under the same umbrella
Construction Services Australia is listed as the builder for both named builders. The ultimate contact person for both named builders is the same Re: Hickinbotham Homes in SA 16Jul 25, 2009 11:49 pm I built a 2 storey home as did my brother with Hickinbothams. We both had problems, his more severe than mine and as a result he didnt get hand over untill 6 months after me....he actually signed up 3 months before I did?????? In my home they forgot to install the internal wall insulation!! When questioned about this they really didnt care and were only willing to refund what they charged me initially! They didnt care that my heating and cooling costs would increase and that there was zero sound proofing between rooms. The painting workmanship was terrible as was the tiling. We had a leak in the roof that they tried to fix several times and finally did. It took 3 attempts to fix the mould that was forming on the skirting boards. The skirting boards were also swelling with the water being absorbed. The general maintenance guy was hopeless, a crap job that had to be reworked, thankfully he doesnt work there any longer. The duct that was suposed to be vented outside from the down stairs bathroom had to be moved as they had it located in such a position that I would have to cut through a structural beam to have it meet the cut out brickwork!?? The hot water service didnt work when we moved in....the power point wasnt conected. They forgot to install the vent kit that I had paid for for the rangehood. Once they did install it, it was a cheap one that wasnt what I paid for. There is more but this is the bulk of it. We ended up selling the house. We have just built another new home with Fairmont. While we have only had a few problems I can actually say that Hickinbothams maintenance service is heaps better than Fairmonts. Hickinbotham also have better quallity and a bigger range to choose from at selection and you only have to go there once. Heres the big tip........Dont change plans too much from the spec homes, they will screw it up! Either personally inspect every stage and know what to look for, if you dont, they will forget stuff and try to cover up. So if your not a building inspector then engage their services...it will be money well spent. My eldest brother built with Hickinbothams and never had anything go wrong so it probably gets down to the contractors they use at the time and how much time you can spend on site supervising. I dont recon it matters who you build with, if your using a bulk builder then you will have problems....you get what you pay for! Re: Hickinbotham Homes in SA 17Jul 26, 2009 12:02 pm Hi Rick Sorry to hear that you had such a bad build with Hickinbothams and that you had to sell it Which 2 storey did you build? We built the Ambassador and moved in nearly 5 months ago. We are quite happy with the end result....there are a few things that they need to fix....the cornice has come away from the wall in our bedroom and the paintwork is bubbling on some of the window sills.They have replaced one of the toilets as it was leaking and have hopefully fixed a leak in the roof.They had to send someone back to replace a few tiles in our ensuite as the water wouldn,t drain away....the problem still hasn,t been completely fixed but it,s a lot better than what it was. We paid extra for better paint and an extra coat,but the paint job still isn,t brilliant...probably due to the fact they did the last coat of paint on a 40 degree day! Our main problem with the company was lack of communication and it took them 11 months to start building We have no idea why it took them so long...council only took about 4 weeks and we owned our land so there were no hold ups there.... We signed up in July 07 and moved in Feb 09 Anyway,now that,s it,s all over,it doesn,t seem so bad and we love the house.We know people that built with them and had no trouble at all,so I think it does depend on the contractors. Our build time was about 9 months which wasn,t too bad. My DH is talking about building again,but I really don,t know if I could go through it again...although this time we would sub contract it out and do a lot ourselves as DH used to work for a builder...... Cheers Mel Building on 9 acres Re: Hickinbotham Homes in SA 18Jul 26, 2009 9:25 pm Hi Mel, It looks like they arent so good in the roofing department! You should check for mould and the skirting swelling. I get up in the roof on heavy rain days when we move into a new house now with a torch and check for leaks. We built the Ambassador also but we modified it. I think it was the Ambassador?? 5 bedrooms 2 walkin robes and parents retreat, 3 living areas, 3 bathrooms. 2 storey 300m2 living area. Best of luck in your new home. Not sure who to build with next? I'm actually thinking of building with Statesman homes as there prices arent too bad and maybe its better the devil you know. Rick. Re: Hickinbotham Homes in SA 19Jul 27, 2009 12:43 pm Hi Rick Yes that sounds like the Ambassador.....we didn,t change anything as it was just what we wanted and we love that the bedrooms are all a great size. What modifications did you make? Probably the only thing that I would change now is making the laundry slightly bigger. Wow....so you,re thinking of building again Friends of ours have just built with Statesman and other than the same old lack of communication problems and a delayed start,they have been pretty happy with them. If you don,t mind me asking...where was the Hickinbotham house that you built? Our consultant took us through 3 that were in various stages of construction so that we could get some idea of what we would be building (I,m one of those people that really need to see something as I have a hard time trying to visualize it ) The houses were at Gawler,Tranmere and Hallet Cove..... Well good luck with deciding which builder to go with next....friends or ours are building with Dechelles ( a small builder) and they haven,t had any problems Cheers Mel Building on 9 acres Re: Hickinbotham Homes in SA 20Jul 27, 2009 1:09 pm This is a couple of pics of our house that were taken about 3 months ago... We,ve put in lots more trees etc. since then,but I,ve been a bit slack about taking photos.... Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Building on 9 acres Ask for references and speak to them. If they are defensive or try to avoid the request, walk. 1 74688 I would never build with Fowler homes. 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