Welcome How Much,
Aahhh! The power of positive spin!
I have a feeling you and I could compare similar notes on same group...
Aahhh! The power of positive spin!
I have a feeling you and I could compare similar notes on same group...
Who knows of a good builder in Adelaide?
- Thread starter vincenzo
- Start date
Hi Pushka,
Can you pls share the specific example from your experience with Scott Salisbury. I'm dying to hear to good real story about a builder.
Sanjay
Hi Pushka,
Can you pls share the specific example from your experience with Scott Salisbury. I'm dying to hear to good real story about a builder.
Sanjay
Well, just my friends used him as a builder, and the wife is kind of fussy but I didnt hear they had any problems at all. And I would have if there were any! I have been in a couple of his homes and they just have all these unique fixtures.
Also heard some horror stories last weekend from a couple people currently in the process of building with a company starting with 'L'
18 months and the walls still aren't up, roof wasn't on for ages so there was water damage, warped wood, supplies sitting on site for 6 weeks without any workers etc.
18 months and the walls still aren't up, roof wasn't on for ages so there was water damage, warped wood, supplies sitting on site for 6 weeks without any workers etc.
Who starts will "L"? Can't even google a response.
Is the time delay because of an inability to get trades people or just pathetic management.
When I had my first house built there was a long delay because I wanted a tumble brick and they couldn't find a brick-layer who would do it. Supposedly it's a little bit more difficult and time consuming. Go-figure?
Is the time delay because of an inability to get trades people or just pathetic management.
When I had my first house built there was a long delay because I wanted a tumble brick and they couldn't find a brick-layer who would do it. Supposedly it's a little bit more difficult and time consuming. Go-figure?
Who starts will "L"? Can't even google a response.
Is the time delay because of an inability to get trades people or just pathetic management.
When I had my first house built there was a long delay because I wanted a tumble brick and they couldn't find a brick-layer who would do it. Supposedly it's a little bit more difficult and time consuming. Go-figure?
The opposite of 'short trough'.
The excuse is the inability to get trades people, but the reality is it's pathetic management. The guy I was talking to is building in Mawson Lakes and he's seen many projects start well after him and have long since finished. Another guy I was talking to was building out in Gawler area in one of the new developments and had similar problems with time and warped wood due to water damage etc but I can't remember name of the builder he used.
The opposite of 'short trough'.
Um, that isnt helping me. Sink? Link? Maybe I dont know enough builders.....
Thanks sanjayag. will cross them off my list. Use to live in Whyalla myself a few years ago. Back then it was hard ot get a builder to build in Whyalla. Hope you have had better luck.
I am still looking for builder. At this rate getting a builder will take just as long as the build. Thought I had a build but every step of the way they kept putting up the price. A few $1000 dollars every time I would contact them. The price went from $99, 000 to $125, 000 in a few weeks and then they weren't finished.
Think I'll just give up. It shouldn't be this hard. How come where the ones with the money and yet they do the dictating.
I hope everyones builds are going well.
I am still looking for builder. At this rate getting a builder will take just as long as the build. Thought I had a build but every step of the way they kept putting up the price. A few $1000 dollars every time I would contact them. The price went from $99, 000 to $125, 000 in a few weeks and then they weren't finished.
Think I'll just give up. It shouldn't be this hard. How come where the ones with the money and yet they do the dictating.
I hope everyones builds are going well.
I know the work of Scott Salisbury very well. He built one of my sister's homes on the Esplanade in Glenelg, since sold. It was excellent quality but they did have to come out and replace the whole of the sliding door, seaward side, because it just didn't stand up to the sea water spray. They had actually used different and cheaper material than the one specified but they recognized their mistake and fixed it years later (about 4 years later from memory).
And this is an odd connection. When I lived in California I had extensive and long term remodeling work done on a property. The company which did it was fantastic, and we remained friends for years afterwards. The owner of the company eventually settled in South Australia down Moana way, and wanted an architecturally designed house built from scratch. I took him to my sister's place where he took one look at the workmanship of SS and hired them immediately. They built a simply amazing money-no-object house.
SS and the architect had many arguments however, and the project was very unpleasant, so if anyone is having a beautiful home built and wants SS to build it, they also need to use an architect that SS has a history of working with in harmony.
One last thing - they are very expensive. I saw that they have built a very fancy building on Anzac Hwy as their head office, and all I could think of was that now their overheads are higher than ever.
If I build a house in Adl, not out of the question, I would search for someone who has left his company and has struck out on their own. But that's just my way of building and remodeling anything.
And this is an odd connection. When I lived in California I had extensive and long term remodeling work done on a property. The company which did it was fantastic, and we remained friends for years afterwards. The owner of the company eventually settled in South Australia down Moana way, and wanted an architecturally designed house built from scratch. I took him to my sister's place where he took one look at the workmanship of SS and hired them immediately. They built a simply amazing money-no-object house.
SS and the architect had many arguments however, and the project was very unpleasant, so if anyone is having a beautiful home built and wants SS to build it, they also need to use an architect that SS has a history of working with in harmony.
One last thing - they are very expensive. I saw that they have built a very fancy building on Anzac Hwy as their head office, and all I could think of was that now their overheads are higher than ever.
If I build a house in Adl, not out of the question, I would search for someone who has left his company and has struck out on their own. But that's just my way of building and remodeling anything.
For a small home of 80sqm I would build with Rivergum Homes, I would build one of their on-site builds which you can build on a concrete slab if you like. I would build it with Hebal to keep the price down. One of their sales consultants emailed me a price list in November 09, see price list here.
We're building with Rivergum at the moment, and got stung by our sales consultant quitting before we were properly in the system - he lost all the contracts we signed and they were confused because we made a deposit and noone knew who it was from as we weren't in the system. Very frustrating and LOTS of phone calls to sort it out.
We now have a new sales guy, they are allegedly rushing the process now (noone has come to do a soil test though), and were most apologetic - AFTER they worked out wtf was happening. Which took a while. We had to re-sign all the same paperwork all over again. Grrr.
We now have a new sales guy, they are allegedly rushing the process now (noone has come to do a soil test though), and were most apologetic - AFTER they worked out wtf was happening. Which took a while. We had to re-sign all the same paperwork all over again. Grrr.
Good Builders
I agree you have to be ultra-careful when you build, and I think that if you don't build in quality you easily find yourself in possession of an expensive home that will be lucky to last ten years.
I frequently keep in mind a friend ten years ago who was just about to qualify for his Master Builders ticket. He told me of a day his group were all taken to a building site south of Adelaide that was being opened up and the "prof" walked them round every individual building site and pointed out something seriously wrong with every house in the process of being built.
I wouldn't have believed it possible, but that is gospel.
I agree you have to be ultra-careful when you build, and I think that if you don't build in quality you easily find yourself in possession of an expensive home that will be lucky to last ten years.
I frequently keep in mind a friend ten years ago who was just about to qualify for his Master Builders ticket. He told me of a day his group were all taken to a building site south of Adelaide that was being opened up and the "prof" walked them round every individual building site and pointed out something seriously wrong with every house in the process of being built.
I wouldn't have believed it possible, but that is gospel.
Sydsider, would you mind going into a little more detail about your experience with Hickinbotham? Is building with anyone every a good experience? If you add a little more weight behind your comments then it might be beneficial to others in the future.
Thanks,
Gools
I am a 'she'.
It was my first IP and I chose to build a new house interstate. I am not sure if I was 'brave' or 'stupid' even to this date.
The main issues I had was it took a long time to start site preparation. The builder didn't tell me but I think they stuffed up at the DA stage. The only saving grace was the saleperson I had was extremely helpful and sympathetic. She helped push things along when I told her about the delay and promised me she would ask the supervisor to build mine asap. Hickinbotham tried to charge me extra for materials quoting the cost had gone up due to the delay they caused! After lots of complaints and with THEIR salesperson actually on my side I didn't have to pay it in the end.
The building did come up pretty quickly but then I received an email one day saying they couldn't connect electricity. Turns out ETSA hadn't been consulted to supply electricity to my block at all (it was a subdivision from a corner block with an old house on it). This was around Sep 08 and the house was nearly finished. I ended up contacting ETSA myself on a daily basis to figure out what needed to be done and pushed them to come out and do it asap. The good old man Paul was kind enough to do it quickly so it didn't cause too much delay to the completion of the house in the end, but the whole electricity thing costed me an extra $5400. I think my lack of experience was partly to blame. Anyone with more experience would have checked this out before they purchased the land, but I would've thought the builder ought to have told me a bit earlier?
On handover, I entrusted my PM and building inspector to do the final inspection for me, a huge mistake in hindsight. The hot water system wasn't installed which I didn't find out until my tenant had moved in! Hickinbotham argued it was stolen by my landscaper and they are not responsible for it. The plumber who later installed the hot water system told me all the wires looked brand new with caps on them so a hot water system was never installed in the first place.
The lady in charge of maintenance is the most unhelpful person I've ever come across. The kind of person who would deny your warranty if it's expired one day.
It's hard when you have a dispute with a builder as it's costing you money everyday something's held up so you just have to let it go and move on.
