28-10-08 Nearly there...

Two weeks ago we decided that enough is enough. Enough of the poor workmanship, enough of the slow response time to get things done, and enough of our house looking almost the same, week after week after week from our first PCI. We wrote to PD informing them in no uncertain terms, our issues and concerns with our new home, suggesting to them that maybe they should get someone out there to see for themselves what was going on. We also advised that we didn’t believe that our house would be ready for our second inspection by Oct 26th which had been suggested by ‘F’, because our house was so far off being completed, and it was so plain to see. We pointed out that we just basically expected a lot more progress on our house, 4 weeks out since the first PCI.

Within half an hour of sending the email, I received a call from the Construction Manager 'M', two up from 'F'. He was very apologetic and explained that they would have someone out there that afternoon. Two hours later, I received a call from 'T', 'F's boss, who had gone onsite. He too was also very apologetic and advised us that he would be taking over to manage the remaining issues and finalise construction. 'T' was basically shocked to find what condition our home was still in and agreed that there was no way the house would be ready for at least a few more weeks!

Since then, ‘T’ (who I might add has been fantastic) has come back to us with a schedule to rectify the remaining issues and is trying his best to have the house ready for our second PCI on Monday the 3rd Nov. Then, based on no major defects appearing, we should have handover on Friday 7th Nov. This date will mark 232 days (or 33 wks) since site scrape. Not an anniversary we want to celebrate.

On top of the existing list of issues and defects found by ‘K’ and us, ‘T’ has determined that several other areas around the house were not up to PD standard and has requested that additional works be carried out to bring them up to scratch. We are glad we are now much closer and on our way to a beautiful house and feel confident that the house will be at a much higher standard then what it would have been had we not escalated the issues. Having said that, we still can’t help feeling disappointed with most of the process pre-escalation and still feel a little ‘bitter’.

As a consequence of the situation, our moving plans have been thrown into disarray by the constant delays. We had allowed ourselves a 7 week buffer from the original (supposed) handover date to move out, but it appears that this wasn’t enough and PD will use up every single day of those 7 weeks. Work has been really good about the situation and understanding of the delays and my need to keep postponing my leave. We must also thank Andy and Tony, our carpet layer and sparky for constantly adjusting their schedule to accommodate our delays week after week. We have had to tackle some interesting logistics with the move process we have been forced into which has been documented so we can track who, when, how, where etc…. But we won’t bore you with that stuff. We can see a light at the end of the tunnel; it just may need some more batteries.


As part of the additional works being carried out, they have ripped up and replaced the balcony deck as the boards were laid to close together, resulting in little or no gap for drainage.


Extensive guttering has been replaced around the house (more than what we had suggested) mainly due to scratches/dents during the build.


The 'z' flashing along the outside garage wall (which sits in between the top of the brickwork and the Gutter) has also been replaced. The flashing has to be sitting either vertically or leaning away from the building to deflect any water - ours was leaning into the wall creating a water trap.


The Plasterer has now finished patching up all the walls - this one three times.


This section of cornice has been re-done 3 times.


The tiles around the nib walls have been ripped out and replaced.



The tiles near the Rumpus entry have been ripped up and replaced to float them higher and decrease the gap below the door, as there was a slight valley near the entry.



As part of our inspection we realised that they had forgotten to install the front door 'reed switch' as part of the Alarm install. They have now included the switch along with a few more holes.


The brickie has now finished off all of the weep holes and flashing above the upper storey windows.




The cleaners have done a once over and the painters are due to start today. A second clean will then be carried out before our 2nd PCI on Monday.

Sorry for the long post, but a lot has transpired in recent weeks.

7-10-08 More delays....

Just to provide some detail as to where we are at the moment, we are now into the 28th week since we started building our new home and still more to go; a far cry from the 22 or so weeks it took to build M&Ms, Andy's and P&B's Cremorne 41. It is also 18 weeks since 'K' carried out his Pre-plaster inspection, and 3 weeks since we had our Practical Completion Inspection.

During our Pre-plaster inspection, 'K' made note that there needed to be weep holes and flashing in the brickwork to allow drainage. Refer to the quote from the report:

"There have not been any head flashing, or their accompanying weep holes, installed into the brickwork across the tops of all the first floor window and door frames around this house; nor across the top of the electrical meterbox...These flashing's and the weep holes must be correctly installed to properly water-proof all of these openings"


Fifteen weeks later, when 'K' carried out his pre-handover inspection, the same issue was noted in his 'second' report. Last Thursday, (three weeks after the report), I received a call from 'F' telling me that his building manager has agreed with 'K' and that they will now need to organise to have this issue rectified to be in accordance with the building code. He also advised me that this would add an additional one to two weeks on to our ever increasing schedule!!

To keep coming back with delay after delay based on poor workmanship is so just f'ing FRUSTRATING!
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I have included some pics below taken over the weekend to show what work has been carried out recently. They have re-aligned the wall near the garage entry door...

...and also re-aligned the wall in the kitchen.


You can see in the picture below how much the base has had to be brought in to make it square again with the tile lines.

The rumpus room ceiling has been adjusted...

..as has the ceiling in the family room.

The wall in one of the cherub's rooms has been straightened.

The games room ceiling has been rectified - previously sagging.

Quading has also been installed across the front door and the garage entry door to neaten up the joints.

One item which we noticed during our inspection was that when the mirror was installed in the Ensuite, and as the basins had already been fitted, they were not able to get the silicone to seal the full distance behind each of the vanity basins. Of all the places to not prevent water getting through, this would have to be one of the worst! This was also included on our inspection report.

And as a final note, we had a quick visit late yesterday afternoon to visually try out the look of some external lights and it looks like 'F' has since checked the work from the plasterers shown in some of the photos above. He has subsequently marked some of them up using the words 'wrong' & 're-do', which leaves you asking the question...How many plasterers does it take to repair a wall?

23-9-08 Bows and Dots

Hi All, sorry for the long breaks between posts and the lack of replies to the comments (which are very much appreciated), but not much has happened to the place in the last week. Work is currently underway to rectify the defects found during our PCI inspection on the 12th. 'F' has been busy scheduling tradies to fix up the defects and has the chippy and plasterer scheduled for this week and the Plumber and Sparky visited last week to do some minor fix-ups.
We are not exactly sure when the place will be ready for the next inspection and are just playing it by ear at the moment.
In response to some of the comments received, I have have included some photos to show what some of the walls looked like after we had checked them for defects. Each red dot represents either a scratch, dent or dag (technical term for raised crap on the wall/surface which was not sanded off before painting). Some defects, actually a lot of them were nails that had not been filled and sanded appropriately.
It amazes me that the tradies take no pride in their work and the even sadder part is that all of this disappointment and frustration falls back onto PD as they are the Face of the tradies. No doubt the tradies get hauled back in again to rectify their work, but you would think that if they get it right the first time they wouldn't need to come back, we would be satisfied with the result, they would be paid sooner and we would get our keys sooner - see, everyone's happy then!!

Here is a shot of the Rumpus room... 'K' picked up that the right hand corner of the bulkead needs to be lifted as it's sagging.


...and the master bedroom...


...the staircase - this area needed a LOT of work.


Once again, common sense played no part in the original location of the light switch for the stairwell. Similar to B&Ps place they had located the light switch behind the hand rail. As shown below, this has now been moved up the wall to a more practical location.


As part of the inspection you are required to sign that you agree that there are no scratches in the cabinets, bench tops windows etc. In the powder room we found several scratches in the bench top. We have been told by 'F' that there is a special team who come out and rectify these scratches and once finished will not be visible. Can't wait to examine the finished surface.


As mentioned in the previous post there are a couple of bowed walls which were picked up not only by 'K', but some of them also by us. This is in one of the cherub's bedrooms.


These next 2 photos show the non-squared walls in the kitchen - it doesn't quite follow the grout line does it?

17-9-08 Dots, Dissapointment and Defects

Wednesday
Last Wednesday Lou and I met with ‘K’ onsite to carry out his pre-handover inspection. When we arrived, the place was yet to be cleaned, the floor tiles and showers had just been caulked and the windows were dirty and still covered in plastic. Not the best environment to inspect in, considering we are meant to sign off that there are no scratches in the glass or bench tops. During our walk, ‘K’ picked up that some of the items on his previous inspection (Pre-plaster) had still not been rectified, items which he has again included in his new report. (Suffice to say we will be inviting 'K' to come back with us for the following inspection) Some of the more serious items he found included sagging ceiling lines/cornices, and out of plumb walls and insulation that didn’t cover full roof perimeter of the ceiling.
The more minor items included, the need for quading around the alfresco beams and garage timber where it meets the brickwork, as the finish was rough and needed to be tidied up, and uneven floor tiles which need to be replaced. While we were there a ‘chippy’ turned up to screw down the floor boards upstairs where the ‘sparky’ had cut holes for the electrical wiring. He’s going to have to come back as it appears not all of the boards have been fixed.

Friday
On Friday, we met up with ‘F’ to do our Practical Completion Inspection. When we arrived, the cleaners were just finishing and gathering their stuff, so we commenced with the outside first. The inspection process is basically where we point out defects and 'F' marks the spot with a red sticker dot and /or writes up notes. We started at 9am and then at 11.15 were told by ‘F’ that we had 15 mins left as we were only allocated until 11.30 in his diary, as this was standard. He figured that because ‘K’ had been out there already, that we could do it in that time. Wow, to anyone who has inspected inside and out of a 2 storey in the supposed ‘normal’ time frame, all I can say is ‘go Buzz Light Year’ (Yes, I've watched Toy Story too much I think). Let me just also add, that we hadn’t even come near the top level by this time. So anyway, after we went a little berko and said that this was a ridiculous time allowed to inspect our ‘new’ house, we calmed down and all agreed to meet back Monday morning, where ‘if needed’, he would dedicate the whole day to us.

Monday
So Monday morning was take two. More days off work and more arrangements for baby sitters! Red dot, red dot, red dot, red dot, red dot, Lou falls on her ar$e, red dot, red dot, red dot & more bl@@dy red dots until finally half way through the morning ‘F’ had to duck out to the local newsagent and get some more red dots. Once he returned (along with some much needed coffee's) we continued, red dot, red dot, red dot ....well you get the picture. I don’t think he counted on the place being this rough. Hold on! Did I just say something about Lou’s ar$e. Ummm, yes that’s right. Remember the wiring and the floors being ripped up? Well the "####"(many a word could be added here) guy who was meant to fix the floor boards & screw them down, forgot to ‘screw’ some of them down and Lou fell through one backwards, and as a result has woken up the next morning with a sore neck/shoulder. Wasn’t this meant to be a quality inspection?? Anyway...by the time we finished, the house looked like it had contracted the measles with red dots on every wall and ceiling.

At the end of the inspection we had used up a few hundred dots and 'F' had written 5 pages of notes. At this stage we are looking at maybe another 3 weeks before we can have another inspection of the house. The larger defects being the alignment of the walls and ceilings, will take most of the time.

Now for some photos.
I have included a couple of shots below of the now tiled alcove bench next to the fridge cavity...

and also of the bloke removing our port-a-loo and bin.

So at present this is how our place looks all cleaned up with out any fencing, sand bags, port-a-loo, rubbish bin and the landscaping cleaned up. Since taking this photo, the moulding between the floors on the front has also been painted to match the windows.

17-06-08 Bulkhead installation

Met up with 'F' finally. He and I went through 'K's list of issues and he explained what had been rectified, what was still outstanding and that he was still waiting for a report from the PD engineers regarding some of 'K's findings to determine if some of the issues actually needed to be rectified based on the design of the house.

Today the plasterers had been out and started on the pre-baricated bulkheads and wall corners. You can see here the 300mm entry bulkhead which we have included.


Here is another angle of the entry/corridor...


This is the fridge and kitchen bench cavity...


And here is the laundry upper floor waste void...


...and finally the Master WIR.