Stannard Family Homes

Absolutely terrible experience. I went to Stannards looking to design a custom home. They outlined their "process" around an initial meeting to discuss ideas followed by concept plans and then a couple of meetings to iron out the details. Plus they offered to take us few a couple of "similar" homes to help us visualise room sizes. It sounded like exactly what we wanted. So, we handed over $3,000 and then it all went quiet. Not a single meeting, no kick off meeting to discuss what we wanted,... nothing. In the meantime I put together my own plan to try and describe some of what we wanted. We got a few emails back with minor (usually silly) changes to my plans. On two of the three occasions these plans had rooms that had no way of getting in to them! These revisions came with no explanation other than about 5 words in a email and were hand drawn in highlighter. After 5 months they send me back my initial plans with a contract and basically said "sign it or leave". I had not put too much thought into my plans as they were meant to be something to talk around and they had gross errors - including a window in the WIR plus a whole bunch of other superfluous windows I had included to remind me to ask about what would make sense when I had a meeting with Stannards (which obviously never happened). After a bit of an argument where I pointed out about 25 errors in the plans they sent me new plans - with lots of windows removed but interestingly this do not change the price they quoted. At the very beginning we had spoken about the staircase we wanted and we were assured that was no issue as "every house has a non-standard staircase now". On our quote the staircase was not included and we were told this would happen at the next stage and "shouldn't cost more than $40k!" (noting this it was a semi-cantiliever staircase that Metricon offers as a standard upgrade at $14k). So, if you don't want to hand over $3000 for a design process that never happens then avoid Stannards. Perhaps they used to be good because they have some good reviews but basically the whole thing was one giant misrepresentation and we feel like we were conned out of our money. I have made many attempt to try to talk to the owner but our sales guy refuses to allow this to happen so perhaps he is lying to the owner as well, who knows? Also, be aware that their "fixed price contract" is not actually fixed price - it has an estimate for timber and steel so it is using a definition of "fixed" that is not consistent with what most people might expect.

After initially being impressed with the approach, ethos and assurances to our concerns around the whole building process we felt confident we had chosen the right builder for our final renovation and extension. We now have our lovely forever home; however, it will always be tainted by an overall lack of build oversight, some sub-standard tradesmanship and poor & unfinished work. When being charged premium prices you expect an excellent finish, sadly this was not what we experienced. Throughout the process communication was severely lacking, including via their online platform. Post-handover it has been an absolute battle for us to get them to attend to and rectify any issues at all. It took nearly two years to complete the car port and install a towel rail. There are still outstanding items to be completed e.g power points that do not work, and realistically we don’t expect they ever will be! Not once have they adequately addressed all our concerns and issues with the build post handover. On numerous occasions we have invited Ryan Stannard to to see for himself the issues and sub par workmanship delivered but were declined as stated too busy. When quoting us a fixed price, aspects we had stated from the beginning in the design phase that we wanted e.g. solid timber flooring, floor to ceiling tiling, double glazed windows, were not included in the quote as they should have been. This includes items omitted from the build that we were not informed about e.g. installation of stormwater drainage leaving us in a mud pit for 12 months. From our perspective this was done in order to meet our set budget and secure our business. We would have preferred they provided us with an honest & accurate quote so we could budget appropriately. The renovation to the existing building was also severely underquoted costing us tens of thousands of dollars extra. As did the “Guaranteed build time” which blew out from 30 to 60 weeks. Again, something we did not budget for and as a result blew out the cost by at least 20%. No, we cannot recommend Stannard Family Homes for a custom renovation and extension. If all you are after is a standard finish then they are probably fine however, if you expect a premium finish, excellent attention to detail and good customer service then do yourself a favour and find a good builder that takes pride in their workmanship and after sales service.