News and updates

With many back yard cubbies and play grounds around please keep an eye out for trees that are too close because they can easily cause a lot of trouble if they let a branch go.
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Our new displays opened officially on Saturday and everything went really well.  I would like to take this opportunity to give a big thank you to all the contractors, suppliers and consultants involved in the project for their various works.
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Well what a Sunday it turned out to be at Berstan Homes display village at Hazelcroft Estate Doreen. The Steve Waugh foundation gave a house away to charity and there were plenty of activities for the little ones on the day. Peppa Pig dropped in to say hello, the was face painting and a petting farm. The food just kept coming with plenty of fresh bread and snags and food vans with various treats for all. Berstan Homes had over
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Berstan Homes new display village is now open for business at 1 to 5 Windermere Parade, Doreen.  Come in and have a look at our unique designs with large and small homes available for inspection by appointment only.
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There are many ways of creating wealth and property is one of them. Let's face it, land is not a commodity that's going to be made in the future.  At Berstan Homes we have the ability of constructing a dwelling on the land and this will provide a passive rental income and of course capital growth. Some areas gain capital growth every year with very few not. We have many investment opportunities available for the property investor.
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Boring and Pouring bore piers on a fill site in Doreen. Many cost cutting builders are not installing bore piers and saving the cost, however this is creating a big problem with cracking for the owners. I have been doing plenty of inspections lately and this is becoming more apparent with cracking and severe defects throughout the home. Marketing company builders are at this stage some of the main culprits.
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Trees! We need them and we would not be able to live without them, but they can be deadly. In the years 1968 to 2005 there have been 69 deaths  by falling limbs from trees. So caution must be taken when in and around trees. Building a home near trees is certainly something that many do without thinking through the possibility of limbs falling and causing injury and/or damage to their home. Trees drop limbs to survive and it is
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We currently have several sites in the north where I am very concerned about what's happening with foundations. The builders on either side of our home builds are not putting any bore piers in and it is clearly a filled site of 0.900 mm plus.  By not putting in a structural support for the slab it will fail over time. In both cases the builders are sub-contracting to marketing companies. For everyone who is not familiar with this practice it's
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A friend of mine who is the maintenance manager for one of the major home builders in Melbourne says they have a major problem on their hands. The use of MDF skirting in the wet areas is causing plenty of trouble with swelling once any moisture comes in contact with it. This building company currently has 400+ homes that are affected and many more as time goes on. MDF is not suitable for wet area use and should not be
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A family friend of ours is the maintenance manager for a leading Melbourne home building company who build around 1800 homes a year. They have had 11 plaster ceiling collapses in the last 12 months and still they don't use battens on their ceilings. The cost of the ceiling battens for an 18 square home is around $1,400 and should be installed in all homes. So, this company saves around $2.5 million each year on not battening their homes. A
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