News and updates

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.
read more

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
read more

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
read more

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
read more

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
read more

At our local Freedom store in the Northern Homeware centre (across the road from Northland shopping centre) we have found a couch for one of our display homes and it will fit in perfectly. The leathers colour and style suits out décor in our Stockton26 display.
read more

Over the past few months we have been looking for suitable pieces of varied furniture and home ware items. We found Freedom Furniture a source of numerous items. They offered a no nonsense approach with their knowledge and were very helpful with our selection process of various display home items.
read more

Over the weekend we dropped into our local Freedom furniture store at the northern home makers centre. What a treasure chest of furniture, art, curtains and more we found.  We purchased some curtains for our new display centre and they offered a great and varied selection to choose from. I must add the staff were very helpful and knowledgeable.
read more

A few clients have asked lately how they do exposed concrete. The concrete mix is basically the same as standard concrete with different size aggregate. Once the concrete is laid and trowelled it is then left for several hours depending on the weather. After the concrete has had a chance to cure you use a high pressure hose and it will wash away the top layer and the aggregate is left for view.
read more

It has come to my attention that there is an estate where the developer and their builder friend have successfully sold all lots to foreign investors. The properties have been sold with the intention of all homes to be put on the rental market with all proceeds heading off shore. This type of selling and marketing has many long term effects on the surrounding estates and neighbourhood. The 200 plus properties are being built by one of Melbourne's largest house
read more