Construction Update - Week 26 - Final Inspection

Following our PCI last Wednesday, we had a call from our site supervisor on Wednesday this week to book in a time for our Final Inspection.  We had thought it would take a couple of weeks to circle back to us, so we were a bit surprised.  But this morning (Friday) we got up bright and early to go on site to do the final inspection and sign off our paperwork.

The cleaners were still going through the house while we were there, but, other than that, the house was (according to Porter Davis) ready to hand over.

We went through every item on our independent inspector's report that had been agreed to be fixed, so the process took about 2 hours.  We then went through every additional item that had been documented by ourselves at the PCI and confirmed that all the issues had been resolved.

Everything that we had asked for has been fixed, so we were pretty happy with the result.  Updates included:

• The balcony handrail has been re-fastened and strengthened
• The staining on the timber windows has been redone (twice) and looks a whole lot better
• The bi-fold doors have been adjusted and now open and close smoothly
• All the windows have been serviced and (for the first time) they all open smoothly
• The wiring in the Rumpus room has been reversed so that the down-lights are on the dimmer
• Leaks underneath the en-suite basin and kitchen basin have been fixed
• Various paint touch-ups, caulking and filling has occurred inside and out

Kudos to our site supervisor on fixing one issue, which I don't think I have previously posted about.  I had raised it (on a couple of occasions) as a problem in the upstairs flooring at the top of the stairs - there was quite a bit of creaking as you walked over it.  He had previously given us the standard line "your house is built of natural products, its going to move and settle, blah, blah, blah". I had pressed him a bit at the PCI and he conceded that if it is a problem in 3 months, PD will probably have to come and rip up the carpet and fix it.  Turns out he changed his mind and just decided to fix it now, which was a nice addition.

Here are some pictures of the house, the interior and some of the fixes

Range-hood extraction flu cover where it meets the cornice - before and after

 

The visible holes in the bricks above the garage door lintel have been filled - before and after

 

Gaps around the electrical meter box have been filled

 



Panoramic Shot with Lounge to Left and Kitchen to the Right



Panoramic shot with Rumpus Room to the left and Dining Area to the Right.  You can see that our skirts are still lying on the floor here.  These will be moved to the garage.



Panoramic shot with Hallway and Staircase to the Left and Lounge to the Right.  If you look really closely, you'll see we ended up with 2 hand rails



Panoramic shot with Dining Area to the left and Lounge Area to the Right

Downstairs Powder Room

Laundry

Ensuite Bathroom

Ensuite Bathroom





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Construction Update - Week 25 - Practical Completion Inspection (PCI)

It has been nearly two weeks since my last post so my apologies to my loyal reader (sorry mum).

Things have been moving pretty quickly.  Last Wednesday was our Practical Completion Inspection (PCI), a huge process that took over 2.5 hours.  When we got to the house it had been cleaned (mostly) and looked quite presentable.  This had been one of the criticism's of our independent inspector who had been through a couple of days previously.

 

During the PCI, the key things that were identified as requiring fixing included:

• There is a leak and flooding near the water meter
• The balcony handrail is not fastened correctly
• The staining on the timber window frames is inconsistent
• The lock on the bi-fold doors needs to be adjusted as the door is not closing properly
• The wiring for the lighting in the Rumpus Room is back to front (the main light is on a dimmer switch, where we wanted the down-lights to be dimmable)
• There is a small leak in the kitchen basin plumbing
• The windows all need adjusting so that they open and close smoothly
• There are dozens of minor painting, caulking and filling fixes

Having worked with builders and trades previously where any questions about defects are met with denial and blame and finger-pointing, we were expecting a bit of a battle with our Site Supervisor regarding a few of the items, and in particular the staining on the timber window frames.  On that specifically, we can tolerate some variations in colour - after all that is exactly why you stain timber (okay it also protects the timber) but what I mean is that it is the colour and tone that is the aesthetic reason to do it.  To his credit, he looked at several of the window frames and concluded, like us, that the guys who did the staining could have done a better job.

And that's how it was with nearly everything we raised - we discussed it, our site supervisor provided clarifications but generally put it on his list of things to be fixed.  It was a good experience and I guess it's just nice to be treated as a customer sometimes.

 

A number of things have already been fixed and/or completed, including:

The kitchen island bench-top has been replaced.

• A timber infill has been installed above the laundry door
• A service has been booked in to adjust the windows so that they open easily
• We got some clarification on the tap near the laundry door not aligning to the drain.  It turns out that Porter Davis do not install drains beneath exterior taps.  The opening in the video is not a drain, but a sewer overflow.  Basically, if the sewer gets blocked, this overflow will mean that any flooding will occur outside the house, rather than inside.  The fact that it is almost aligned to the tap is coincidence.
• The pointing on the alfresco roof has been finished.

Here are some pictures of some of the items

A small hole in our staircase needs to be filled

Painting touch-ups everywhere...



Brick holes above the garage door lintel will be filled



Poor rendering finish by front door

The hand-rail of the balcony is not fastened

Laundry Door has been fixed

Stain colouration is not matching on the window frames

Construction Update - Week 23 - Floors, Garage Doors and More

So I snuck over to the house this weekend to see if there was anything to report and, boy, did I get a surprise.  After a couple of quieter weeks, a lot has been happening over the last 7 days.

First thing I saw was the garage door, which I think looks great.  I recall this being an upgrade at our selections appointment, and in my opinion it looks really good.  Other exterior changes are:

• The final render coat has been applied to the façade
• The timber window frames have been stained
• The in-fill above the bi-fold doors has been completed

But it was the interior, where I had the biggest surprise - we have flooring.  The carpet has been laid upstairs and the timber flooring has been laid downstairs.  Additionally:

• The staircase has been stained
• The bath has been installed and fitted off

I am also pleased to report that the plumbing in the downstairs powder room has finally been fixed and we have the mixer we originally selected.

We have had a message from our site supervisor today, wanting to book in an appointment for the final inspection - it could be as early as this Friday.

Here are the pics

From the Front

From the Front

From the Rear

From the Rear, with Chuggalugs photo-bombing

Upstairs area with carpet - the fluoro tags are markers where things need to be fixed

Our bath is installed

Rear Bi-folds are finished and stained

The Powder-Room Plumbing is finally fixed

 

The staircase has been stained, but it looks as though one of the hand-rails is going to be removed...

Finally, following a comment on my previous post, I did a search for the Wembley 35 on the Porter Davis web-site.  Sure enough, the Wembley 35 page is gone, so it looks as though the house is not being offered any more.  There is no question it's a great design, so I can only assume they have more profitable products to offer clients nowadays.

Construction Update - Week 22 - Garage is nearly finished

The plasterer has been back this week and fitting of the plaster ceiling for the garage and alfresco has been completed.   Also the rear roller door for the garage has been fitted.  And the fix for the master bedroom WIR window appears to be completed.  Other than that, there has not been much progress on site.

 

But the big news of the week is that we think we have finally resolved the powder room plumbing issue.  I have posted the background to this previously,  the basic problem is that the wrong plumbing was roughed in for the powder room taps and we have been working with Porter Davis on what to do about it.

 

We have through quite a bit of back and forth on this one.  A couple of weeks ago we agreed to keep the wall mounted plumbing if we could choose some decent tapware and PD agreed to give a pair of hand rails for our staircase.  In the end wall mounted taps was not going to work due to our shallow basin.  Finally after much to and fro, Porter Davis has agreed to go back to the original plan,  fix the plumbing and install the mixer.  Credit to PD for this.  Interestingly as the pictures show, the extra staircase handrail has already been fitted, and even though we are going back to the plan, we are hoping that it stays...

 

The final bit of news is that we have shared with our site supervisor that we have a long list of things that we think will need fixing.   He is keen to see the full list,  so I will be sending that over to him later tonight.

 

Here are some pictures...



Fromt the Front

From the Front

From the Rear

From the Rear

Panoramic shot of Garage, with Rear Roller Door and Ceiling

Panoramic shot from Dining Area, with Lounge on Left and Kitchen on Right

Panoramic shot from Lounge Area, with Rumpus Room on Left and Dining Room on Right

Panoramic shot from Rumpus Room, with Hallway / Staircase on Left and Lounge on Right

Look! a staircase with 2X hand-rails!

 

Construction Update - Week 21 - Some More Issues

Last weekend I had a chance to spend a bit of time on the site, going through in a bit of detail where everything is at and getting a feel for the sorts of fixes that we will probably be asking for.  In fairness to Porter Davis, I am posting this before raising these issues with them, so I figure at least some of them may be being fixed in due course.

We have had no update on the Powder Room tap dramas and, as usual, we are having our calls ignored by our building co-ordinator. So I'm not really sure what is happening on that front.

 

As with my previous post on mistakes and issues, I am ranking this from major to meh, based on how much I think this will get in the way of us enjoying the house.

 

I posted previously the challenges of the external laundry door - that tops the list of new issues.  The list I made on the weekend had about thirty items in the end, but most are minor.  So here are a few highlights.
 

Crack in Kitchen Island Bench
There is a 20cm crack in the kitchen bench extending from the corner of the sink.

Not sure how clearly this will show in the photo, but here is the crack...

 

Most of our Timber Windows are Jammed or Stiff
We have timber windows installed on all of the front-facing windows and all downstairs windows.  Half of them do not open at the moment and the other half are very stiff.  Interestingly (and perhaps unsurprisingly) the aluminium window frames used in the upstairs rear of the house are all fine.
 

 

Exterior Tap Fail
This is the definition of Fail.  We have an exterior tap mounted on the wall near the Laundry door.  I noticed a problem on the weekend, which is best summed up by viewing the video below.

 

 Seriously, if I try to articulate my frustration at this, I am going to sound like a crazy person

 

Range-Hood Vent Gaps in Cornice

This is one of those things that I suspect will get corrected in due course (at least I hope so)

 

 

 

Unfinished Roof
Again, one of those things I expect is going to get finished off in due course.

This is the roof over the Alfresco (and in case my wife is reading this, no honey, I did not climb onto the roof.  This shot is taken through the upstairs toilet window).

Door to Garage is not Hung Correctly
There is a 10mm gap between the doorframe and the door.  This is visible in the picture below.

 

This is a 10mm gap between the frame and the door...

 

The fitting on the Bi-Fold Doors has not been installed correctly

Again, a video sums this up better than words.  Actually, it seems minor in the video.  But the problem here is that the fitting is already starting to wear, just through the casual use of the door.

 

 

 

The Termite Protection Pipes are Exposed

This is something that I might need to address as part of the landscaping once we have the keys.  The termite gas pipes (or whatever the technical term is) are exposed around the alfresco.

 



I think these orange pipes are supposed to be covered...

 



Crappy Exterior Tap Fittings

Look at the rusted, dented wall-plate on this tap.  Both exterior taps are the same.

 

 

 

Gap Between Splashback and Kitchen Bench-top

This just needs filling and, again, may be fixed in due course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Construction Update - Week 21 - A little Progress and More Back and Forth

Not a lot of visible progress this week, but we have had a lot of discussions with Porter Davis on some of the issues we highlighted previously.  Here are the updates...

Fixing the Front Façade

I am happy to report that work began this week to fix the front façade.  As posted previously, the framing for the window in the walk-in-robe next to the master bedroom was wrong.  Kudos I guess to Porter Davis for just getting on and fixing this.



View of repairs underway from the inside

But the Powder-Room drama continues...

I have posted the background to the Powder-Room drama in previous posts, but basically, the background is that Porter Davis have realised very late in the process that they have roughed-in the wrong plumbing for the taps / mixer in the downstairs powder room.  We have now had numerous discussions with both our site supervisor and our head-office coordinator on this.

Last Friday we thought we had basically reached a compromise which was that we were ok with the wall-mounted taps provided that we got to select (within price reasonableness) the fittings and PD would add some handrails to our staircase.

It was a lovely woman at the Reece plumbing centre who has thrown a spanner in that plan.  While helping my wife pick alternative tap-ware, she noticed our basin selection.  We have selected a more upmarket basin for the Powder Room, and it is one of those broad shallow designs.  The woman at Reece asked how high the mixer would be mounted above the basin and my wife confirmed it to be 25cm.  She said that there is no way anyone should mount a mixer that high above a basin like that - it is just going to splash water everywhere.



Powder Room - Now with Mirror

Ahh, yes, the old swanky-shallow-modern-basin-splashing-water-all-over-your-groin-as-you-try-to-wash-your-hands problem.  I have encountered this in hotels and bars across the world.

Anyway, we took this back to Porter Davis and basically said - "no deal".  To his credit, our co-ordinator has acknowledged that we (my wife specifically) have done what we can to fix this, and that this is a "design problem" (his words).  As at the end of this week, we have not heard back from PD to finalise what is going to happen, but the last we had heard was that our site supervisor was heading back to the site to see if a bench-mounted mixer could still be installed.

I guess we will have to wait until next week to find out what is going to happen, but interestingly, the mirror has now been installed in the powder room.  So that is probably going to limit options.




I managed to spend a little bit of time at the site today (without the kids), so was able to take stock of where everything is at and identify a few more mistakes and a number of things that still need to be fixed.  I will post a few highlights over the next couple of days, but to start with, I discovered some challenges with our laundry door.


The Framing for the Laundry Door is Bigger than the Doorframe
As you can see from the pictures, the door and door-frame for the Laundry door are smaller than the gap they sit in.  The gap is quite a bit taller and a bit wider than the frame. I expect that some sort of in-fill will need to be done here to fix this.




There is about a 10mm gap
between the door frame and the brickwork

And the gap above is, well, huge...

Laundry Door is not Hung Correctly
The rebate for the top hinge of the Laundry door needs to be made bigger, as the hinge is not sitting flush.  The net impact of this is a gap at the (see picture) and the door rubbing when it opens and closes.



And here are a couple of the standard progress pics I post every week



From the Front

From the Front - if you look carefully you can see the repairs to the front facade

From the Rear



From the Rear