Warning on Builders in Perth

Warning: DO NOT build with these Perth Builders In-Vogue, Metrostyle, Lofthomes or Renowned Collection until you have had a Solicitor review your Contract and get an Architect or building consultant to check over any plans and specifications that these builders have provided you before signing the contract. You will be surprised as too many costly errors they will pick up for you.
You also need to check out these builders at the following website Product Review Australia - your reviews on products and services on the Australian marketplace to see how many of the bad reviews out weights the good ones.
Good luck because you will need it!

 

Great advices for prudence which all of small property developers really need.

It seems you have done a lot of work to sort out the weeds out. Could you please give more who could be trusted among the builders with good enough economics?

Getting caught by a bad builder seems much easier than getting the reasonable and rational builders. I do feel most of them are greedy and usually much more greedy than the traders in stock market since they tend to be happy to take the losses(LOL).

I am waiting for the property clock back to 7am in Perth and would like to prepare for it.

Thank you in advance.

 

Do Not Build with Build West Pty Ltd

Researched second story additions and Build West Pty Ltd also known as Boulevard Homes put together a great presentation but did not follow through. In fact they wrecked our existing residence, and personal belongings. All our internal ceilings collapsed onto us in the middle of the night after days of warning Build West it was going to happen - as we were collecting bucket loads of water running out of our internal ceilings (where we were living) because they did not tarp the construction area properly. They have stopped work and will not answer our questions as quote 'they do not have to'. It is 10 months on and they have not finished and have not fixed the damage to our existing residence they have caused - still no internal ceilings, heating or insulation. They do not build to plan or to Australian Standards or the Building Code as evidenced by our Building Inspection Report and they do not care. We are now at the Building Commission, do not use this company, they are currently advertising for new business. DO NOT USE THEM. If you would like further information about this disastrous renovation to decide for yourself and see that this is not an exaggerated negative review, you are welcome to contact me. We don't want anyone to endure the nightmare we are still living. Our children have been deeply affected by this disastrous experience.

 

Hi Build West,
I can totally sympathise with you, I am so sorry that you had a bad experience.
We are wanting to extend our single storey, 3 bed home to a double storey home. In September 2015 we decided that we wanted to start having kids so with that, we needed more room.
So after talking to some friends and doing a rough design, we came across a builder, Grand Builders recommended by a friend, and a Architect, Anthony and Associates recommended by the builder. We did the relevant research on both and seems to be fine (on the outside). Grand Builders was happy for me to help out around where possible to save cost which was a plus for me as we are on a tight budget anyways.
Moving forward to January, after signing up with Grand Builders and architect, we commissioned an independent engineer for the structural drawings (best recommendation I can give anyone! make sure he's independent.) I also asked the builder for a Schedule so I can see what was the time frame of the progressive build and where I could take time off to help out around the property, Grand Builders said "yep, no problem, I'll get it to you with in a week or so".
2 months later, still no schedule, but I let it slide as they had started to do the Demo and we got excited that our dream was starting to happen!.
Once the demo was completed, I took a week off work and started to demo the roof sheets and the roof timber structures, I organised 6 x 6m x 6m heavy duty tarps to site to cover the exposed ceilings from the incoming rains in the future once all timbers have been dislodged. Grand Builder's team of 3 carpenters arrived on site that Friday to start their job, again very exciting!
In April, the weather started to roll in, and the boys did place the tarps on the roof, but they only used 3 out the 6 tarps and they did not tie down some of the ropes down. With the (luckily it was only) winds in the coastal area, the tarps was flapping like a big sail. With the exposed ceilings and unique cornices, which we were trying to save, I wasn't happy. I called Grand Builders and he came to site to rectify the issue, which was great as I thought he's happy to fix issues. Then the rains came and that's when things started to turn for the worst with our relationship with Grand Builders.
They found a light weight blue tarp on site and they used that to cover the open hole of the laundry wall. The laundry was not supposed to be touched except to raise the ceiling an extra 5 courses of bricks. They had a brickie on site to close off another section but failed to close the laundry wall for reasons that still baffle me. The blue tarp did not hold the water out at all, the ceiling collapsed onto the cabinets, which then flooded the floor with the heavy rains. The cabinets are now swollen and damaged. Our washing machine, dryer and mini vac short circuited and now damaged and starting to have rust spots. We still had ceilings in 2 other rooms, also water damaged and swollen. I notified Grand Builders and he was apologetic but couldn't do anything as he wasn't on site and not sure what the boys did and that the damaged is already done. I was disappointed that due to the lack of pride for other peoples property and a lack of management/supervision skills, has caused all this grief.
After that episode, a week later with more progression of the build, Grand builders and his crew again failed to cover the property properly, the winds came in again and blew some of the traps to uncover the exposed house. Again the builder couldn't say anything except he wasn't on site and not sure what the boys did but he'll have a talk to the boys ! Again another sign of disrespect to other people's property and a lack of management/supervision.
I unfortunately had to go away for 2 weeks and in that time the 2nd storey timber walls and timber roof battens were installed. Upon returning from working away, I went to inspect the property and identified that some timbers weren't cut to the correct measurements which left gaps and they were held in with nails that you can see from the floor! There were roof battens that wasn't even sitting on any rafters, in other words floating, the timber length was only 1200 long, so if someone stood on that part, they would have the potential to fall through! Again questioning the builder, he justified it by yeah its ok cos the other side is nailed in. Again not happy to take that, the builder said he would nail a piece of timber to the rafter and that would hold it! He did that but failed to nail the floating batten to the piece of timber. This has the potential to have an uplift issue if a big gust of wind comes under the roof.
After the builder's complacent attitude, I questioned him on his commitment to our property and his response was 'you keep second guessing me and this is how I build, this is my process, you are stressing me out and if you know so much about building then you should be a builder!' The relationship deteriorated and we decided we don't want a stressed out builder and there was no turning back from this so we had to end the contract with Grand Builders.
I decided to get the engineer involved to do a inspection just to check if things were done right, thank the heavens I did, as the engineer found that Grand Builders did not follow the engineering drawings and the engineers recommendation and the build, so far, is not up to code and has the potential for some serious damage if a big gust of wind/storm were to hit the house! We were totally shocked and mortified that someone can do some really dodgy works!
We sent the report to Grand Builders and he's reply was, 'it's all works that was going to happen after the walls and roof was installed.' I found out that this is not recommended by the engineer as the 'I' beams that was attached to the 2nd storey and sitting on the existing brick walls were not even secured in and tied down. Again another complacent attitude to others property. I had a look at the 'I' beam in question, and it should have been tied down to the existing external brick wall, and the recommendation by the engineer, is to use 'J rods' and bolting the end of the rod to the beam. The area is covered by timbers and the flooring is nailed in, so to drill the beam will be difficult and to install the rod, at a length of 1200mm long, difficult to slot in the gap between the bricks. not sure how he could of done this after the roof was on!!??
Currently we still have no tin roof and no walls on the 2nd storey, everything is damaged inside, and all existing walls are bubbling due to water damage, all ceiling are damaged and swollen, and it's currently housing a nest of mosquitoes as everything is wet and I have the photos to prove it! We are still waiting for Grand builders to hand his notice in to the local council to cancel his name from our property! And to add to the stress, my wife and I are expecting her first child any day now!! Not a nice nesting place living with others out of suitcases.

I am sorry for the waffle, but I feel the need to warn everyone to just watch out for Grand Builders, and to question the progress. If it doesn't look right, it's most probably not right! Photos don't lie! There is a lot of dodgy builders out there, and I am not tarring them all with the same brush, as I'm sure there's good ones, but people need to be aware.
As my user name suggest, No 'sugar coating' poo!!

 

Hi all, at least you guys got something built. I gave Tallwood Constructions and Alex Campbell $390k years ago and got nothing but a $60k solicitor's bill. Some would say that is theft? All I know is there are good builders out there. Cheers

 

I built with them back in 2006, and the end product was decent, was a different time though, and I am currently looking at converting from standard resi into an HMO 6 bedder.