Been a while since I have had a bitch about Clarendon.

Despite paying my first wad of cash in nov/dec 2006, at least 20 months ago, my problems with Clarendon havent ended, Today we had another stink.

Recent news is that I gave them a 2 page list of defects to fix. After haggling, that 2 page list was reduced to 22 items which they agreed to fix. Not one of these 22 items is a maintenance issue. Even the warranty guy said this. They are all bodge items that should have been fixed before handover, though one may argue that they shouldnt have happened in the first place.

There was only one room without fault on my original list. I organised for all the tradesmen to come on one day to fix all the problems. If they came one at a time I (well the wife) would have had to take a week off work. Losing one days pay is enough thanks. So everyone came by and done their bit other than the bathroom people to fix the mirror who are coming later. All was good or so I thought.

When Clarendon did the cut, they pushed all dirt to front of the block and left it there. It wasnt taken away. What was left of the footpath was left in a dangerous state where people could trip. Rubbish and debris was left all over. Crap basically. Anyhow, when I got the driveway done (on the original contour of the land) I told the guys not to charge me for taking the dirt away, put it to the side and I would get Clarendon to do it. I had a warm debate with warranty guy about returning my land back to its former state but eventually he agreed. When excavator guy came he took one truck load away, refused to take away anymore, and left the place in a mess again.

Today I ring warranty guy and he tried to bullshit me saying that the dirt hadnt come from the excavation but from the driveway and my retaining walls. Well the retaining wall dirt is still at the rear of my house, its being used to fill an area that is my daughters netball circle(I still need more), and 90% of the driveway is above the level of the original lie of the land. I might add that he never made these observations while he was here face to face.

He also says that they dont have to take anything away if they dont bring it onto site first. Its the owners responsibility to move it. I dont know if this is true for other builders, but I dont see piles of dirt lying around on other sites.

I checked my tender contract and didnt have to go far into the document. Points one and two! Direct quotes below. He is going to come down and have another look now. What the hell for. Its pissing me off and costing me more money. Fuck I hate Clarendon. Dont do it. Not one trade who worked on my house has walked away without stuffing at least one thing up. Excavating, plumbing, concreting, carpentry, brickies, plasterer, waterproofer, stegbar, painter, tiler.... not one!

1. Site Preparation: Approx 1076mm cut to rear right hand side of dwelling, bench for 429mm step down to garage.

2. Provide exporting of excess spoil as a result of Site Preparation

Chris it is sad what they offer.
It really is a case of them just screwing their subbies and the client - take the maney and do as little as possible.
It is their fault - they offer gold and deliver plastic.
If they didnt lie in the first place they wouldnt have a problem

There isnt a simple answer except keep on them.
The squeaky wheel gets the answer.
They work on the fact that you will give up.
Stick at it - even if it is just for sport.
Wear them down

The joys i made my biulder pull down a brick wall the work was crap and even he agreed i made a point that no bent bricks are to be used sort the bent ones out before laying them,they allow 5% reject per 1000,make a point of meeting all your tradesmen and tell them straight what you expect,waiting for the gyprockers to start no bent walls because they will come down to,you learn as you go

I know what your going through,we built our house with beechwood 2 years ago and they are no better ,most of the contractors dont give a shit about how good of a job they do what a joke.Im now selling my house and buying a second hand house that i can fix up myself,i will never build a new house again because of the crap they build, its not worth the frustration at least with a old house you expect faults but not with a new house cheers shane.

You want some stories when we got our house built with Huxley Homes 5 years ago. I could write a novel on all the stuff ups every day I went and checked on it while it was being built and we where in it for 12 months before we actually got them back to rip up and redo 3 bathrooms, plaster and all off the walls totally guttered and redone that's how bad it was, and the whole laundry floor of a brand new home. It looked like a reno we had plastic and timber nailed down on my brand new carpet on the stairs. Dust everywhere though the house. I'll put some pics on here. Just be very persistant and put it all on today tonight and find out the email address of the top person in charge and ring them and tell them that you have put a letter into today tonight once we did this the top guy couldn't wait to come and see us. So we put him off and made him wait a couple of weeks so we could get all our paperwork and information sorted before he came to see us so he couldn't talk over us.

We had really poor tilers from Indent Tiles not Huxley tilers as they where all busy so we got the dregs, young guys that I don't even think had a trade.

Make sure you keep everything documented in a folder copy all email sent, list of phone calls the whole lot we even sent letters to HIA. Also lodged it with Consumer, Trader & Tenancy Tribunal (Application for an order - Home Building Division.

BE PERSISTANT WE WON IN THE END AND THEY FIXED EVERYTHING AND WE EVEN RECEIVED MONEY BACK FOR THE TWO THINGS THAT WE AGREED TO GET MONEY BACK ON THE DIFFERENCE IN THE COST OF THE RANGHOODS AND MONEY FOR TO GET THE LEATHER LOUNGES CLEANED.

Some of stuff ups included I've attached a letter I had written for:
HUXLEY HOME

List of issues for our house

• Waffle pods for concrete slab where broken and installed for our slab to be poured, after Scott Mclean (supervisor) said no we don’t put in broken ones in.
• Tint in windows several are wrong.
• Window in formal dining smaller than what was on plan & display home. Scott said they don’t make a window that size.
• Couples of front window decorative bars are out of line.
• Hole in gutter on Meals Family room where drain was never to be connected.
• Down pipe at rear right side of house to go around to side of house.
• Down pipe at rear right side of house Huxley put a dog leg in it to go around side of house.
• Down pipe at rear right side of house Huxley replaced and put on side of house.
• Plumbing was always discussed with huxley to have two pipes going down both sides of the block and it was on the plan also. Plumber didn’t do this.
• Plumbing pipe put at back door for 1st floor.
• Plumber put down pipe in family meals room after us telling Scott that we didn’t want pipe at back door to be connected at all. The family meals room should have one down pipe and to be on left side of it. Scott tried to tell us that the family meals room needed to have 2 down pipes and that we would have drainage problems if we didn’t. It’s very unlikely as all your 2 storey homes only have one off of this room.
• 260mm columns to be replaced with 200mm columns with twin caps & bases on verandah.
• Ceiling in verandah to be level with front bit in front of dar beem. Supervisor asked us what level did we want it we told him and he agreed yes we can do that. It’s now a different level even after I also marked it with a texter.
• Bulkhead to short in formal living room. They have just tacked timber frame onto plaster board.
• Bulkhead in rumpus to go across to kitchen.
• Vents in gables not real and they should be. And sealed around them.
• Powder room fan was to be ducted to external wall with boxing through laundry as on plan. They vented it to verandah roof.
• Powder room fan motor was installed in roof space away from actual fan so if it had to be repaired you would have no idea where it was and would have to take out whole ceiling.
• Exhaust fan in laundry to be vent to external wall not through to the garage.
• Point for laundry exhaust fan seems to be in the wrong spot as needs to vent to out side external wall.
• Electrician rang Wed night 7.30pm to get over the phone extras. He wasn’t happy as he had to start on Friday. And he said couldn’t meet us.
• All light switches are to be slim line switches and all mounted on the wall not in door frames and power points are also to be slim line as this is what the Huxley Homes sales man sold us.
• Power point missing for electric starter for gas cook top.
• TV cable has to be 50mm away from any power cable.
• Main bathroom shower door seems to be wrong it should be a slider to avoid hitting bathroom door.
• Window frames on bottoms of upstairs windows all bent. And a couple out of line won’t close. And three in family meals room can’t close at all. Front bedroom window frame split.
• Timbers in ensuite broken at bath tub.
• Power point for spa bath seems to be in the wrong spot and is only 10amp instead of 15amp which is required for heat pump. ELECTRONIC TOUCH PAD CONTROL.
• Gap in garage wall can see inside brick cavity.
• Always questioned Huxley in regards to gas connection.
• A/C guys rang Supervisor on day of fitting A/C ducts as they needed information on putting a duct through ensuite vanity for meals family room he said he was to busy and that it probably couldn’t be done. Lucky I was there at the time to let them know that it would be OK and showed them the plan of the bathroom.
• Never received yellow copy of Extra variation sheet.
• First floor gable and vent and windows all out of symmetry.
• Removed and replaced all of the bricks and roof trusses rearranged in the top gable to correct the symmetry and also all the brick work in the garage gable removed and replaced. This must have been a big expense.
• Decorative Sydney Cove cornice missing from living and dining room plain installed.
• Manhole missing in garage.
• Lead flashing missing on meals family room.
• Decorative wrote iron in stairs are wrong should be Art Nuevo they installed 2 twist and 2 basket we ordered Yin & Yang.
• Wires on top of manhole in garage.
• Cornice missing in garage above garage door.
• Kitchen handles on cupboards are horizontal instead of vertical. Scott was notified of this before they where installed but they still installed them.
• Ensuite vanity delivered single sink instead of double.
• Nail sticking out of fascia on front of garage.
• Trim missing from outside windows meals/family room.
• Service entry for spa bath cut out to long.
• Rubbish in verandah gutter.
• Verandah tiles need cleaning as they have a white stain on them.
• No tread on front door step.
• Circle marks on ceiling formal lounge room.
• Grout missing in kitchen tiles.
• Patched hole in laundry wall.
• Post and railing on stairs have big scratches in them.
• Timber missing at top of stairs in the floor.
• Grout on stairs, grout on concrete down stairs and on floors up stairs.
• Paint missing on bottom of bathroom door.
• Paint on doors.
• Hole in a door back bed room robe.
• To be a separate power point for air pump for spa and hot pump.
• Light not working in ensuite.
• Exhaust fan in laundry and external cover missing for weeks. A large hole for the weather to get into the brick cavity and plaster board.
• Grout missing around soap holders.
• Excess grout on top of tiles in bathroom.
• Bathrooms all need re-painting.
• Strips of laminate missing from top of kitchen cupboards.
• Air conditioning not working.
• 3 bathrooms and laundry floor drains full of grout.
• Gas bayonet missing from outside back of house.
• Gas bayonet at back of house is loose and can’t put gas pipe into connection. We are unable to plug in our BBQ.
TILING ISSUES


Laundry

• Grout coming out of floor.
• Tiles are not fixed to the floor as you can hear that they are hollow underneath.
• Metal edge strip sticks up on entry.
• Grey grout on walls instead of white.
• Grout rough on walls.
• Fan cover came off and is in the wrong spot not ducted to external wall.
• Can’t put washing machine hose in tub as it leaks underneath.
• All tiles on every wall are all uneven.


Powder Room

• Grout coming out of floor in several places.
• Metal edge strip sticks up on entry.
• Sealant missing on top edge of tiles on walls.
• Grey grout up walls and around outside edge the tiles on edge have been cut uneven.
• Tiles on floor drumming.
• Fan on wall doesn’t work correctly.
• All grout is rough.


Ensuite

• Grout coming out of floor in a few places.
• Grout missing on step in shower.
• Tiles uneven on step to shower.
• Metal edge strip is not even.
• Freeze tiles have all been cut and have very sharp edges that you can cut yourself on.
• Tiles have moved on corner of bath tub very uneven.
• No sealant behind top of wall tiles.
• Water doesn’t drain away correctly in shower recess floor.
• Toilet coming off of floor.
• Colour variation in tiles above bath.
• Cut tile in corner above bath.
• Grey grout up walls and around outside edge the tiles on edge have been cut uneven.
• Light in wrong spot.
• All grout rough and unable to clean.
• Tiller tiled over red dot.
• Tiller tiled over bad tiles on hub.
• Should only have 2 rows of tiles on top of tub.
• Sharp edges on tiles under window.
• All tiles on every wall are all uneven.


Main Bathroom

The main bathroom has already been fully stripped out walls removed after tillers first attempt of tiling it was so bad have photos of all of this.

• Metal edge strip on entry is set down to low and the edge of cut tile is sticking out that you can cut your foot on.
• Tiles have grout missing along this metal edge strip.
• Grout coming out of floor in several spots.
• Sharp cut of tiles around bath tub that is also uneven that you can cut your hand on.
• Tiles are uneven around face of tub.
• Soap holder is in a position on the wall where it drains onto the hub around the tub not into the tub itself. Which also isn’t sealed or grouted so when water gets on it. It drains down under the tub and has resulted in shorting out our spa pump.
Supervisor knows about this and told us to just dry it out it will be ok. We need a new pump as this has definitely shortened its life and we paid for a new pump not one that has been shorted out by water. Still waiting on a response to when we will be receiving our new pump. As it is not our fault that the tiler had not sealed the tiles correctly.

• Step around tub is not angled so the water will drain off correctly.
• Vents in tub are not position correctly uneven.
• Vents are wrong vents.
• Freeze is a different colour to main tiles. Due to tiles having to be re-done.
• Freeze continues from around the bath tub one to many into shower.
• No sealant above tiles on wall you can actually put your finger down behind tiles.
• Bath membrane has screw holes in it where the electrician has put in a piece of timber to attach the spa pump to. So if water does leak under tub it will eventually leak through to the ceiling space between floors.
• Spa pump shorted out due to tiles not being sealed correctly and was told by Scott McLean to just dry it out it will be ok. This it not good enough.
• Sharp edges on tiles under window.
• Should only have 2 rows of tiles on top of tub.
• Hub to high should be all the same.
• All tiles on every wall are all uneven.
• Broken shower screen.


These are the items that have come to our attention as of today. As the days go by there may be more items that will need attention.

Indent Tiling Company told us that they have an inspector that signs off on tiling jobs but he missed ours.

It seems that the tilers must have really stuffed up with our job as Huxley Homes haven’t paid Indent Tiles and Indent Tiles have not paid contractors and Indent no longer employ the contractors that worked on our home. So this is stating that yes we have big problems with our tiling.

Why should we have to wait to have these things rectified as we have paid for the work?

This need urgent attention as it is going to be put into the hands of the Department of Fair Trading. You have had plenty of time to organise someone to rectify this problem.

All we are asking is to have the tiling work rectified to the standard that you have in your display homes. Is this to much to ask.

There is a lot of unanswered questions and no reasonable explanation to why this has happened.

HUXLEY HOMES HAVE OVER 33 YEARS EXPERIENCE IN BUILDING HOMES. SO WHY HAS ALL OF THIS HAPPENED TO OUR HOME?

It's all good now after the 13 months of nightmares while the house was being built and then the next 12 months trying to get them back to rectify all the stuff ups.
GOOD LUCK Just don't let them bully you.

And I had to have two weeks of my holidays so they could do all our repairs it was a great holiday.

pic of where tilers tiled over switch for spa. And they even still grouted the tiles in over the switch after we had told them that you couldn't turn the spa on with the switch half in the wall.
They redid the tiles in this bath room 3 times before it was totally gutted.


a pic of bodgie tiling



other bathroom with different shade of colour tiles


Pic of where the gable had to be moved over as the decorative arch wasn't central. before pic

This is a pic of when they had done the move after they said our house was finished at lock up.


pic of reno of brand new house main bathroom









We made them move the drain around to the side of the house after they did this handy work another what th


Pic of where they had to remove cornice to replace with correct cornice



Like I said I have heaps of pics and horror stories.

This is why my wife has no problems in us buying a 1952 old cracked, settled, worn out house as our first home. At least it has already done all of it's settling, and we (read I) am doing all renovations myself. The quality, price and ultimately the satisfaction are well over 100%. In a couple of years I still have no warranty issues on myself.

yeah - the last house we bought was built in 1915.
We are the 2nd owner - totaly original. Including the 4 off power points that were installed. Yep 4.
Double brick, rendered internal walls, sandstone foundations
Solid as

shit rose, you win. I feel guilty for having a bitch now.

I have sent my list to ACA as well as my email trail, but they dont appear interested. HIA is next if I dont get my way with the dirt. I suppose I am lucky in that apart from the landfill issue, I am ready to move on. Given up trying to get money out of them for compensation and everything else has been fixed.

The way you guys have been treated is typical of what everyday people are up against at the moment. I cant seem to buy anything without finding it doesn't work or it is not made properly.
A home is supposed to be your castle, so pls guys, fight tooth and nail to make it right, don't let the bastards get you down!

the thing that actually very literally made me laugh, is that you get a welcome pack. In the first paragraph it states how quality tradesmen have been used throughout. I too doubt that some of the people that worked on this house have a trade cert. They definitely weren't quality, if they did have one. A handyman would be embarrassed by some of the things that were left here.

If I had to move (I have no intention ever) I could see that I would possibly build again, but it would be owner builder. That way nobody gets paid until its right. And you dont move onto the next stage until the previous is corrected. These schmucks built the frame, gyprocked and painted on top of concrete that hadnt been trowelled off in my garage. It all had to come off and be redone. Which they did without complaint, but it shouldnt have got that far, and it cost me at least $480 in extra rent.

Its not too bad, I know I have turned at least one person off Clarendon, and that feels bloody awesome. Even if it just lands him in the hands of some other shonk.

I almost went to HIA before construction started and they werent helpful then. It seemed like to much hard work so I didnt bother. Clarendon threatened me with legal action if I didnt give them another $12000 on top of the contract price. I never did, and they eventually backed down on that one. And the ACA threat was how I got my remediation done. They had ignored my faxes and emails for 4 weeks until then.

Its pretty bad how you can get so excited about your life dream and then have it ripped away. I'm watching another Clarendon be built around the corner from me. Owners must be frantic, its taking longer than mine, for a smaller house on a flat block. I guess they (the builders) all know what we now know. For every customer I turn away from Clarendon, they pick up one that you have turned away from Huxley

I'm annoyed with myself a little that I didnt get around to taking photos off the faults.

Yikes Rose..

thats nearly enough for a years worth of Today tonite etc

I don't know how you ever managed all that...

Nightmare....

and lots of grey hairs??

Lee

we very nearly did a project home about 6 years back...gee I'm happy we didn't now. We ended up owner building an extention with my father in law...he is heaps picky. He'd have killed someone if he'd seen that sort of crap happening on his daughters home.

I have this dream of building my own home. I don't think I will now. Old is better.

Very sad what many people have to put up with and what people can get away with. Because of this I have not owned a house that was under 80 years old and has sat on mainly sandstone, thus minimal cracks.

Yes people say I am crazy renovating and yes I agree as Im up to reno 4 but I get what I want at the end of the day. When you find a good tradie, hang on to them even if it means waiting a while cause the good ones are usually absent minded as well, hence my gas heating will be hooked up after winter

Hey Rose, Before my current occupation I was (still am a qualified bricklayer) and I worked for Huxley in the area. They paid crap money and had a different supervisor every few weeks. The jobs I did brick up were done once and done right. I took the extra cost (to me) on the chin as I always had the belief that if I wouldn't have it then no one esle should get it from me. I got al their crap jobs on difficult blocks etc whilst the shonky bricklayers got the creamy jobs that paid more as they were easier to get around. But in the end I can drive around where we live and know that what I built (my portion of the total project) was done once and done right. All spec builders are shonky as they make minimum dollar per project so they have to crank them out. I went form the tools to an office job with another builder before moving to the Police and I learnt what it was all about then. Back then, in 1998/1999 it was $3000 profit per job. Not much for the man at the top wanting a Porsche or huge fishing boat etc. Need any work done now give me a holla.

Just about makes me ashamed to admit that I am in the building industry, I worked as a supervisor for AVJ a long time ago and if I had turned out anything like what is described here then I would have been out on my but real quick, can't say what they are like now as it's been a long time since I was employed in the housing side of things, but that is what a supervisor is suposed to do, supervise, if you make it so that all you do is run around puting out fires then you have no time to stop the fires being lit. Unfortunatly the supervisor dosn't controll the rates paid to the subbies, but as RED62E said, if you want to hold your head up then you do the job right, if there isn't enough $ to do it then you move on, unfortunatly easier said than done if your trying to pay the rent and feed the family. I also was employed as a subie for more than one builder and found that I had to move on more than once, damned hard to tell the misses that there is no work today as you won't work for the rates being offered.

Okay to balance up this thread,we built a house 2 years ago and employed a local builder.
I drew the plan up and got a architect to get the drawings to council approval standard.
We had no problems with construction or any of his subbys and met with him on site every afternoon to discuss progress etc.
Final payment he was under $100.00 of what i calculated the total payment to be.
Awesome finish great job.
Ohh and he was the most expensive quote.
You get what you pay for.

Cheers Col

Reckon your on the money there Colin, you do get what you pay for, but I'm yet to see a building contract that says anything like "we are the lowest price so expect substandard work".

I built my house myself. it took three years but I saved 120k and the workmanship is first rate not one defect from council or me either!
the old saying do you want the house you want, or the one you want to pay for
And some advice, don't buy sloping back blocks! buy ones that slope away from the front. ie high side of the street
S

In regards to a home being built, you get what you pay for....................what a crock of sh#t. We arent buying tools from Bunnings, give me break. Do you honestly think anyone would go through the heartache, stress and in some severe cases, suicide by paying out a cheaper price knowing they would get a sub standard job.

Couple of things to think about, Building codes and pride, obviously thrown out the window.

Yes you can go cheaper on some materials and fittings but it should not make one difference to way it is built.

My 2 cents worth which is about what some of these builders should be paid per hour as it matches their workmanship, honesty and integrity.

Hmmm....just to continue the thread

As a contractor I can see the other side.

Every one wants this cheaper.
Look at what every one buys.
BIG cheap houses.
Eaves are a thing of the past - dont need them
You want thick or thin plaster?
Double brick or vaneer??
Windows up to the roof line so you dont have to pay for a lintel

Once you get to a rock bottom price - "cant you do it cheaper?? - you must still have a porsche tucked away in that price?"

Cheap does make a difference on quality - you dont have time to go back and check
Wait till some one screams and deal with that one
If only one in 10 screams then you are ahead

No - this is NOT the way i work but it is the opposition i have.
I have to comply with BOVIS LL rules - not back yards.

Whatever

at $300K, I wouldnt call my house cheap. I'd love to get what I paid for. Going back to post one on this thread, I cant even get them to comply with point 2 of the tender. You expect to get cheaper materials for paying less. I dont expect to get harwood for the price of pine. But I do expect to get a decent piece of pine. When a 10 yr old kid comes to you and says the trim around her window is rubbish, you know something is up. Thats not not someone trying to save money. Thats a carpenter who doesnt give a shit, and a building supervisor who doesnt give a shit. In the long run, it costs everyone more money. My plasterer just did 1/2 a days work for nothing.

Yes i guess your right Rose.

I have no idea,that why i am so happy with my builder and home!

Cheers Col

Quote:

Originally posted by Bizarre Hmmm....just to continue the thread As a contractor I can see the other side. Every one wants this cheaper. Look at what every one buys. BIG cheap houses. Eaves are a thing of the past - dont need them You want thick or thin plaster? Double brick or vaneer?? Windows up to the roof line so you dont have to pay for a lintel Once you get to a rock bottom price - "cant you do it cheaper?? - you must still have a porsche tucked away in that price?" Cheap does make a difference on quality - you dont have time to go back and check Wait till some one screams and deal with that one If only one in 10 screams then you are ahead No - this is NOT the way i work but it is the opposition i have. I have to comply with BOVIS LL rules - not back yards. Whatever