New home buyer traps

So many clients have been coming to us telling the same story. "We went to a volume Builder the prices were so cheap, and then came the extras!"  Extra for flyscreens, extra for the slab, extra for site costs, extra for garage door, extra for lights, extra for power points, extra for NBN, extra for permit and the list goes on and on. One client said he was given a quote from a major volume Builder of $280k for a
read more

I was watching current affairs last year and there was a family who had their new home built by a major Melbourne based builder. Problem was the builder did not install any ceiling battens and their ceiling fell down.  Lucky for the family, they were out at the time and no one was killed. They approached the builder and because there was 7 year warranty period was up, the builder refused to do anything about it.  The builder then went
read more

Speaking to a client of mine the other day and they have a friend that built with a major Perth based building company. I was amazed to hear the home was built and the builder refused to do the driveway and alfresco concreting works.  The builder's representative stated that the building company only do driveway and alfresco concreting works on their display homes. So the owner was left to find and organise their own concreting contractors to complete their home. 
read more

In the past 6 months we have experienced an escalation in theft from our projects. Listed thefts across all our projects: Air conditioning units that were already installed Hot water system already installed Solar panels mounted on the roof Solid timber feature door already hung Doors 2 hours after delivery Aluminium sliding doors already installed Steel lintels Bags of cement and lime 2 x pallets of bricks House lot of tiles Door frames already installed Aluminium windows Pack of skirting
read more

I have heard several complaints from suppliers lately about cheap imported solar panels, so be careful and make sure you ask your new home builder to provide the name of the manufacturer. I only use Chromagen solar & energy solutions on my projects, they were established in 1962 and a trusted name in the new home building market.
read more

A site manager friend came to me the other day complaining about workload, he works for one of the major new home building companies. What he said alarmed me; he was in charge of 32 sites and was not coping well. Little wonder he was under pressure a sustainable level of sites in my opinion would be around 15 sites. It is little wonder the burn out rate for the larger new home building companies is so high.
read more

I have been passed many homes of late and have noticed the cars are not in the garage where they belong due to the garage being filled up with everything but the kitchen sink. At design stage many of these issues could be solved by maybe extending the garage length and building more cupboards.
read more

A client of mine the other day purchased their own tiles to save on the build cost only to find out the tiles where seconds at best. Which created a problem with the tiles being unusable and ultimately cost the home owner more for the tiles having to be replaced.
read more

Unfortunately once cupping occurs in laminate flooring, the flooring will need to be replaced. This is caused by water either by too much used when cleaning or spillage. I have had a few jobs where this has happened and we have tried to dry the area out with the use of heaters only to find the moisture was being retained under the flooring. When the flooring is laid the installers use a polythene barrier between the concrete and the boards
read more

A client’s friend called me a couple of days ago and asked me what a floater was? A floater is a large or small rock that has been found while excavating the site and can cause great expense to the new home owner via removal of the floater (rock) and in some cases filling the remaining hole with concrete.
read more