New home buyer traps

Site manager’s workloads out of control

Friday, June 27, 2014
A site manager friend came to me the other day complaining about workload, he works for one of the major new home building companies. What he said alarmed me; he was in charge of 32 sites and was not coping well. Little wonder he was under pressure a sustainable level of sites in my opinion would be around 15 sites. It is little wonder the burn out rate for the larger new home building companies is so high.
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Many new home builds seem to have storage problems

Friday, June 27, 2014
I have been passed many homes of late and have noticed the cars are not in the garage where they belong due to the garage being filled up with everything but the kitchen sink. At design stage many of these issues could be solved by maybe extending the garage length and building more cupboards.
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Beware of cheap tiles

Wednesday, June 18, 2014
A client of mine the other day purchased their own tiles to save on the build cost only to find out the tiles where seconds at best. Which created a problem with the tiles being unusable and ultimately cost the home owner more for the tiles having to be replaced.
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Laminate flooring with signs of cupping

Friday, June 13, 2014
Unfortunately once cupping occurs in laminate flooring, the flooring will need to be replaced. This is caused by water either by too much used when cleaning or spillage. I have had a few jobs where this has happened and we have tried to dry the area out with the use of heaters only to find the moisture was being retained under the flooring. When the flooring is laid the installers use a polythene barrier between the concrete and the boards
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New home builder finds floater and costs owner $18k

Wednesday, June 11, 2014
A client’s friend called me a couple of days ago and asked me what a floater was? A floater is a large or small rock that has been found while excavating the site and can cause great expense to the new home owner via removal of the floater (rock) and in some cases filling the remaining hole with concrete.
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New home builder or not

Thursday, June 05, 2014
Marketing companies are popping up everywhere and who are you buying your home from? a builder or a marketing company. There are many positives in dealing directly with your builder rather than a third party. By dealing directly with your builder you will be able to use his or her knowledge to your advantage with regards to design, location and your buildings functionality. By dealing with a marketing sales agent they have little or no building experience and untimely can
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New home build with cupping laminated floor boards

Wednesday, June 04, 2014
Why was this happening the owner asked?  The simple answer was the owners partner had flooded the laundry which is easily done and water flowed out to the flooring in the hallway. The water had been wiped up but the damage had already been done causing the flooring to swell up and cup.
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