Hi All & Welcome,
In the interest of fair play we have decided to pass on our experiences so far with Porter Davis, Lifestyle West office.
We knew for the start building wasn't easy but we thought we would give it a go, especially with Porter Davis as they reputation was good.
Little did we know......
Within the first 4 weeks from the start of construction we were allocated three different construction supervisors, when we were sold one from start to finish.
Roof tiles were missing and damage (from the bricklayers) left the gutter and fascia hanging off the façade outside the master bedroom. We had two days of rain and ended up with puddles of water in the kitchen, lounge room and Master Bedroom. Not to mention the water seeped through the plaster in all these rooms. Also the fact that Construction Manager tried to take us for fools by saying he had been down to the site to investigate and the “kids” had done the damage, when clearly it had been done by the bricklayers. We think he did a great job when our Construction Supervisor was only annual leave after his second week with us.
Numerous windows were not straight and when closed had gaps, meaning they were not sealing/shutting correctly. These were not rectified until nearly the end of fixing stage, although we had been told continuously that they were being fixed. By all accounts should’ve been straightened at frame stage. And we still have concerns.
Plaster was hung without studs being shaved or packed out to make sure the walls were straight. To rectify this – instead of removing the plaster the carpenter who came out who then punched holes in the plaster throughout the house in order to pack out the studs. This left us with tennis ball sized holes in many of our walls which now have been bogged up and patched over. Also the plaster in two walls of the garage had to be torn down and re-hung due to this method frame straightening.
Failure to read our contract correctly ended in us without wall insulation batts (as we had signed for in our contract and were on our contract drawings). To rectify this now, instead of pulling down all external wall plaster and installing the wall insulation batts as should have been done, we have had to concede and agree to the installation of 6.0 grade batts in the ceiling only. We are still not impressed or happy with this decision.
Painting commenced and we went down to have a look and found that all internal doors were painted the wrong colour. We spoke to our supervisor and mentioned this to him. He made the painters aware and they repainted the doors – however they were for the second time painted the wrong colour. The third time of repainting we received the colour we had chosen.
Tiling began and again we went down to check out the progress. Much to our horror the tiller had laid the wrong floor tiles in the bathroom, toilet and ensuite. At this late stage we decided instead of ripping the tiles up and delaying settlement we would accept the fault.
However, we were only offered $300 compensation which we do not believe to be adequate for such a grievous error or the 3 day delay in construction whilst this was sorted out. Great work on looking after customers National Tiles.
The tiller also tried to make a sale of sealing all our porcelain tiles for $2,200.00 we spoke to National Tiles (where we required to order our tiles from) and were horrified to discover that our tiles do not need any sealing. This was an outright deceitful way of trying to get more money out of us. The tiller also tried this approach a second time after our site supervisor had contacted him and informed him that we did not want to proceed with the sealing at all.
As of today, our gas line to the house has not been installed, settlement is 14 days away and there contractor is supposedly booked until 11/11 leaving us at this stage without gas. Lets hope this can get fixed prior to settlement.
Some pictures below. (more pics soon)
Please leave comments and let us know of your dealings and stories too, I think the support of others might help ease our pain.
Cheers,
Ryan & Jade
Our house from the front
The house from the side
Our front door
Our ensuite shower (almost finished)
Our shower in the main bathroom (almost complete)
Our kitchen, with the splashback installed
Our hallway
Our laundry
Bathtub
Shower in main bathroom
Our shower base
Our kitchen sink
Our kitchen 
Our kitchen floor
Our dining & family room floor 
The shower head in the main bathroom
The floor looking towards the front door
Our laundry
Our ensuite
Our ensuite basins and tapware
Our hallway
Our laundry
