You will have to decide where your sink and dishwasher are going to go when your plans go through as you will need to tell them where the plumbing has to go other than that. Can always finish that stuff after hand over dude.
if the builder is not doing the fine stuff like kitchen etc then they will be finished in no time. then spend another month after handover having as many trades as you want come through.

well that is/was the plan - however from some reports seems as though i might have to build the kitchen etc through them.

waiting on confirmation from the builder/s anyway...

you know you can take the floor plan to another builder if you're not happy with their price/reputation. Also barganing at the moment is definately the way to go...

if i was to build again i wouldnt care about builders reputation, it counts for nothing as no matter if it's dale alcock or ventura homes or whatever they use the same tradies! take the best price on the same design.

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Member of the 18-35 club and proud of it! (For another 5 years...getting old)

New toy has arrived, 1/4 mile in 11.2 sec and only 114hp!

You will find the quality of the houses have gone up due to the slow down. A lot of the fly-in tradesman have left and supervisor are left with good trades man.
The kitchen is a hard one to pull out as the cabinet maker is a supplier not a trade. (bit like brick company etc). The other thing to do with the kitchen is either up spec it with the cabinet maker your selves or go very basic and then after handover get your family in to make it special.

yeah hi, i used to sub contract to broadway homes (kitchens, 6or so years ago). they put themselves up as a niche/quality builder. however they were sloooowwwww, at processing anything, which probably leads to problems all round. when we had problems it'd take a week or two to get an answer back (even with daylight savings )

they only had one supervisor for sor and one for nor back then, but they did seem to keep quality up ok. probably not really relevant for today but a bit of background.

many of the posts above are correct, keep supervisor on your side etc etc. builders used to allow 2 trades to be nominated more recently its down to 1, and with package homes like homebuyers, go and that shit, its none - comes as a package.

you cannot do this , plans need to be changed by at least 10% because the design is copy righted

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may the forced induction be with you

you could always talk to the MBA and find a builder who will let you take out all the parts you want.

I think one thing to keep in mind here YOU are the client and YOU are paying the bills so if one builder won't let you remove items from the contract tell them to stick it up their rear end and go to the next one.

Unless you are building in the $1m + catagory the quality is pretty much the same.
With relatives in the assocaited trades get them to help inspect every week and point out defects straight away in writing and make sure they are rectified as you go.
Housing is actually busy again at the moment. I would say a free phone call to the MBA (even though they are painfull) is worth your time as it's one of the bigger investments most people make.

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RS RA
The more people I meet the more I like my Dog!

12.463 1/4 mile, not bad for an old school Liberty [DECEASED]

MY08 Liberty Tuned by STi

todd old buddy

im an estimator for dale allcock and i have worked for most of the big groups in my time like JWH group (iv-vogue , rural building , metro style) , i was at ventura homes for a while but now im at dales.

the market is changing at the moment and so are the builders , you will find that they are very competitive in price with more and more inclusions trying to draw in more business and yes if you build it yourself you do save a bucket (the average profit margin for a builders home is around 30% - 35%)

while you CANNOT use the same plans from builder to builder if you take a set you like most will change one they already have to match what you like about the other set you have. each set of plans is copy righted so they will need to change at least 10% of the original.

as far as builders go they will all build to the same standard unless you are building with a specialty builder (riverstone etc)
The standard is very good for most of them but the smaller details of the construction all come down to the supervisor and his trades as he will be the one keeping an eye out on what is going.

the good thing is that now the industry has slowed down and we are not desperate for workers we don't have to use the useless trades or supervisors that we had on before , if there standard of work is not up to scratch they get the ass.

this does not mean everything will go off without a hitch as building a house is not a simple process , you can have problems with shire or suppliers but its much better then what is has been.

but remember, YOU are paying a lot of money to build a house so no matter if you are first home buyer or 3rd home buyer your builder should be in constant contact and they are responsible for the trades they use and the quality of workmanship.

Go down to the site and look over the work with a fine tooth comb , don't like something you see , bring it up with them especially when it comes to handover , point out every little fault you find and it will be fixed.
sounds like a cunt of a thing to do but you don't need to be mean about it , just be honest.

don't rush things , look over the plans , make sure you are happy with every from the type of tap ware to the position of power points , you can change it on paper but its harder to change when its done.
if you get anything extra on top of the standard thats when we started to hit you with the big bucks like if you add:

spa bath , extra plumbing (40% markup)
carpets , window coverings , main area tiles (30% markup)
optional storm water (35% markup)

while some of these its better to do with the builder , do floor coverings , painting , tiles , soak wells yourself but they use normal markups on variations to the plans so they are ok to do and most of the time and its a pretty fair price.


look i could go on for hours on what to look for and little things you should do but i wont coz its nap time

let us know if you have any questions

luke

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may the forced induction be with you

yeah even at handover i did same I went around made them fix little gaps around light switches in the plaster and little dents and nicks in ceiling etc.
and some painting touch ups. they have to do them or you dont sign it over.

wow ... my longest post ever!! , thanks to anyone who reads it and sorry about the grammar

also , if we where china and had super work dedication it should only take 4 weeks to build a house once the slab is down and has had 4 weeks to cure.

but we are in Australia and estimator like me are home napping on the couch ... Ahhhh!!... so sleep , so tired

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may the forced induction be with you