[HELP!] Need to Find a Good Builder in SA

ntt on 17/12/2019 - 16:21
Last edited 07/01/2020 - 14:33

We just bought a land and part of the terms we signed said we need to start to build within 1 year and finish in 2 years since we signed a contract. We have ZERO experience and hear some bad stories about builders. Anyone have good/bad experiences want to share with us? If possible can you show steps we should do one after another? Which builder we should contact/avoid? We visited display houses from Rivergum, Hickinbotham and Sterling. They have too many options and upgrade that makes their starting price up a lot, and not even close to what they are displaying. To be honest, I feel overwhelmed and stressful :(

So far here is our brief:

  • Land size is around 330 sqm.
  • Our budget is around 190- 210 K for everything except fences and landscaping.
  • We want 1 storey house, with 4 bedrooms.

Any suggestion/recommence is appreciated.
<hr/>
Updated:
We visited Rivergum, Distinctive Homes, Hickinbotham and so far we are working on the floor plan which is around 160 sqm living and single garage, they quote us around $210,000 including footing and laminate timber floor. Things are not included are air-con which they quoted $11,000 for reversed air-con and around 3500 for the facade, is it too expensive?

Home & Garden

Comments

  • holdenmg on 17/12/2019 - 16:46
    +1

    Hi,
    check out https://fairmonthomes.com.au/

    • ntt on 14/04/2020 - 15:54

      we just signed contract wih Fairmont as you suggested

  • websterp on 17/12/2019 - 17:00

    Spend some time researching on the homeone forums and do a lot of home work first. While postie reviews should not be the only deciding factor, you would be able to narrow down your search to a few good builders in your area/state and then start visiting their displays and reviewing their plans before making a final decision.

    • ntt on 17/12/2019 - 17:18

      I did some quick research about builders in our area and read reviews from productreview.com.au and google reviews, which made me more confused! a build get too many positive reviews on productreview.com.au but below average on Google maps.

      • websterp on 17/12/2019 - 17:33
        +2

        I wouldn't even bother with productreview as most reviews are fake. Stick with homeone forums(https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewforum.php?f=31) as there are users who would actually blog about their own build journey with photos and would provide detailed information about their real life experience and pitfalls and challenges with the building process and the builder. These are legit.

  • try2bhelpful on 17/12/2019 - 17:02
    +2

    We normally get our builders from the Victorian branch of the Master Builders. I've linked the SA version. You can put your job up on their board and see if you get quotes.

    https://www.mbasa.com.au/

    The things to keep in mind are:
    a) Make sure you understand what is included in the price and what isn't. Most of them will go for the cheapest fittings with the view that they will upsell you to the more expensive stuff.
    b) Make sure you have a fixed end date and penalty clauses, of some sort, if they go beyond that date. Make it worth while for them to work on your place.
    c) Understand that there will be variances, there always is. Is your site difficult? Is it rocky, sandy, sloping, difficult to access etc. This may affect the price, particularly if it affects the foundations. What will be the effect on the variations if the builder starts and finds these things?
    d) How hard is your council to deal with. I'm in Yarra in Victoria and our guys are a nightmare. We did an internal courtyard mod on our house and the hoops were huge. It took us two years to do our original Warehouse conversion and a lot of that was sorting stuff out with the council.
    e) Make the place as energy efficient as you can. What will be your window orientation, will you have eaves to shade the windows, are you looking at roof orientation for solar power, what rating is your insulation, are you using in floor heating, what insulation does the floor have etc. A little bit of design up front can save you a lot of money, and comfort levels, in the long run.
    f) pretend you are using your living areas to work out the ergonomics of your house. How would you use the kitchen, do you have enough storage, how easy is it to keep clean, etc.

    Have fun on the journey.

    • ntt on 07/01/2020 - 15:06

      thank you for your very detail. I appreciate it.

      a) Ain't they all like that? always put the starting price too low and then add up for a hundred. There must be legal action against those dodgy behaviors.

      b)Most of them have a guarantee of 18 weeks, but I make sure they do it right.

      c)our land is pretty flat.

      d)have no clue mate, I will find out one way or another.

      e) Do they usually do insulation on the floor??? one builder quote r5 for the ceiling, r2.5 for external walls and garage. But to be honest, I have no experience how to think and make a house energy efficiency.

      We really feel nervous about "the journey" as I know some builders are dodgy or try to upsell a lot of things we don't need/ need but for unreasonable amount. Do you have any tips about this?

      • try2bhelpful on 07/01/2020 - 18:29
        +1

        As indicated we go through the master builders website and the guys we’ve had have been good. Get a few quotes and follow up on talking to their references. Find out how they were to deal with.

        Insulation for under floorboards is a thing. We didn’t do it with ours so we now have rugs under the lounge area to keep it warm under foot.

        The best way to avoid “up sell” is to do the legwork on what you want. Go to a lot of “open for inspections”, particularly the nicer places, and get a feel for what works for you. Sit down with the builder and find out what he is intending to use for taps, appliances, heating, locks, even light switch covers. Think about the layout of your rooms and where you think you need a power point get a double or four point put in. Don’t forget hallways that need vacuuming. Understand what lighting is included and your light switch layout. Is painting included, floor staining and finishing, carpets, etc. Get an itemised list and, brochures, if you can. Find out your instalment payment schedule and understand how far you will be finished at each point.

        We converted a warehouse. Our kitchen is in one corner, and could’ve been fairly dark, but we put in glass bricks at bench height. This backs onto a flats car park so it couldn’t be a clear window, but the South facing glass bricks give us light, and privacy, without heat.

        We went for a wall of cupboards for the back of our kitchen. Hidden fridge/freezer, microwave, step in pantry, etc. Be aware that replacements for “hidden” appliances have to be similar dimensions. We also went for extra deep bench tops, stainless steel, at the side - so it is easy to move appliances forward as you need them then push them back out of the way. We got set in sinks so we can swipe everything into the sink without grimy build up.

        Our Laundry is, also, a wall of cupboards effect with a reinforced bench for the washer/dryer, there are clothes sorting baskets underneath with a pull out sorting table in the middle. The washer/dryer, and sink, are visible but everything else is hidden by cupboard doors, including the laundry chute from the main bedroom. Close the doors, everything looks neat and bench height for washer/drier is very convenient, especially with the pull out sorting table.

        Think, hard, about things like the colour scheme for things like tiles etc. will that mission brown bench top look dated in 5 years time? Will that lovely looking glass surround door make it easy for the burglars. Will that lovely white carpet look quite so lovely when the cat has thrown up on it 16 times.

        I know I should hand in my Ozbargain badge but I always started off by telling my builders I wasn’t interested in a cheap job, just a quality one. Make sure you research anything they are proposing to install to avoid things like the “cladding” issues. Always allow extra money because there will be contingencies, there always is. You don’t want to be ripped off, but don’t be too hard nosed either. You don’t want an angry builder doing a bad job. Take lots of pictures during the building process, particularly wiring, plumbing, insulation etc. anything you won’t be able to see when they are finished. If you paid for a product, make sure that is what has been installed. We’ve been lucky, our builders have acted like our conversion/renovations have been collaborations. But, I’ve heard horror stories. We went with the Master Builders because we figured we’d have someone to mediate if it all went pear shaped.

        The bottom line is the prep work is the most important thing you can do. Be engaged, be alert, ask questions, get things in writing. It is terrifying, and thrilling, and nothing beats looking around a place you built. Or as we put it, the builder built, we just paid the bills.

        • ntt on 30/01/2020 - 13:40

          wow, it seems like you prepare a lot, and a bit of lucky too. We have heard a lot of horrible stories, and builders are likely take any small chances to penalise you or trick you to do thing in their advantages.

          We started from zero knowledge about building a house and keep building up now. Most of builders we met have a passive push us into a contract or by saying we are pretty sure you will get a beautiful house and promising blah blah. Most of them also don't even want to talk about selection shop until we do deposit.

  • dcep on 17/12/2019 - 17:45
    +2

    don't bother with company reviews
    it all comes down to who is the individual Project Manager assigned to you
    a project builder has dozens of PM and whats more, people come and go in this industry

    if you're already stressing out now, you've got more to come with sleepless nights
    hope your relationship is strong enough to endure this challenge together till the house is finished building

    • ntt on 07/01/2020 - 14:29

      I agree! Do you know any good PM in SA?
      Our relationship is already bad, now more fights

  • suchislife on 17/12/2019 - 18:00
    +2

    For that budget, I back holdenmg with recommending Fairmont homes - for a wood frame house. For a steel frame, I would go with Format homes. (They do cost more, but they include more things as standard - closer to display home spec). I would stay away from Hickinbotham and Rivergum, they are cheap and nasty…

    • ntt on 07/01/2020 - 14:47

      Hickingbotham advertises they are the biggest builder in SA, and have fancy advertising everywhere. However I visited their display home, which is 7 years old, some already degraded and workmanship is not great, build quality is so cheap, I'm a bit scare.

      We upgraded our budget and don't need a steel frame to cut some cost. What do you think about Distinctive Homes?

      • suchislife on 19/01/2020 - 00:49
        +1

        Not too sure about Distinctive. They cost a bit more, and for that mid grade level builder I have heard Oakford are pretty good. Still think your best value will be Fairmont. But don't rule out steel frame completely. We own a Weeks home now (they only build steel frame homes) and it never needs any termite treatment ever, our Hickinbotham home needed it every single year…

        • ntt on 03/04/2020 - 13:43

          Hi suchislife, I took your advice and do with Fairmont.

          • suchislife on 04/04/2020 - 15:45

            @ntt: Yeah, I think you will get best bang for buck there, and that they are very unlikely to go bust over the next few months too, which is pretty important at this time… Good luck with it, what design did you choose?

            • ntt on 04/04/2020 - 17:28

              @suchislife: We do custom design. The price isn’t the cheapest but not too expensive. We haven’t signed the contract yet but close to it. Their upgrade options are easy, but we have a feeling they have many options for facades, in other words, they quote big amount of money if you want to do some fancy facade. We love their floor plan, easy to customise.

  • ChrisLevo on 17/12/2019 - 18:21

    We have used http://donatohomes.net/ twice and they have been polite and professional, with the jobs coming in on time and on budget.

    A family of builders with a great reputation.

    • ntt on 30/01/2020 - 15:12

      I never heard of this name before, how is their build quality you reckon?

  • Cheapskate Paul on 17/12/2019 - 21:03
    +2

    I suggest you get two bathrooms as it will make it much easier to sell in the future.

    • ntt on 20/12/2019 - 11:42

      We learnt our lesson.

  • Euphemistic on 17/12/2019 - 21:16

    You aren’t going to get much yard space with a 4 bedroom double garage single level home on 330m2, especially once you allow setback from the road.

    • ntt on 20/12/2019 - 11:44

      We don't need big backyard, our council require 4 metres back space

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join