i am the home owner for the Berwick project featured in Bayon's projecs.
Firstly, I think the design is great, and we love it. However, there are a number of negatives.
Render - we've got a fair bit of rendering down, it's all cracking and flaking off in various parts and after 18 months or so, look pretty ragged and of poor quality. See attached.
Timber decking - we were talked into spotted gum by Sean and promised it wouldn't warp or cup. It warps and cups. The gaps between the boards isn't enough so in winter time the timber swells and compresses against the boards either side.
On the quote, it said "oil deck", however, it wasn't oiled it was Aquadeck stain and Sean's guys were in such a rush to get everything finished that instead of letting the deck dry before applying he stain, they applied it wet and all the stain sat on top of the deck so after a few weeks of the dogs walking on the deck it looked all scratchy.
I've already had to sand the deck once to try and get rid of the stain sitting on top of the boards and I'll have to sand it again at my cost at least one more time to get rid of the stain layer and show the grain of the spotted gum beneath.
Again, due to rushing the finish, there are more drip stains and runs down the side of the deck that it ruins a lot of what was done - see pic attached.
Lastly on the deck, it's been 18 months and now there is a spongy section of the deck near the back door that I'll have to get in a carpenter to fix.
Balustrade - Sean's team didn't measure the wire cables correctly and as such, I've got no adjustment left in turnbuckles to keep them taught - see pics
Fake grass - this was a fiasco, the sub-contractor kept messing us around and now showing up, then when he did show up, he worked in the dark and the job was so poor that half of it has to be pulled up and redone. He ran the gain of the grass the wrong way as well so it looks flat from the house and needed to be rotated 45o so when you look from the house it looks like it's standing up, even if flat.
Storm water drain sit proud of the ground when it should be 200mm below - actually not compliant with VBA regs.
Cracks in concrete - this is simple, after speaking with builders, normally you cut expansion gaps into concrete within a few days of the concrete being laid, Sean waited months and we got a crack in it because there were no expansion gaps - see pic attached.
Lighting - on the plan we had lights where there were stairs, makes sense, however, when it actually came to it, we got lights on some stairs and not others, so we have dark patches in the backyard at night and to have to go back and put them in afterwards is a real pain and much more expensive, really appreciate this.
We raised these issues several times with Sean, sending him letters with photos with a response back that Sean will be in touch and all these things will be rectified - let me tell you, they never were.
Of a total spend around close to $130k, I didn't pay like the last $1600 as I waited for these things to be fixed. They never were and I wish I had of held back more, because it will cost me more than that just to have it finished properly.
Aggressive behaviour - Sean had agreed to put up our back fence (we back onto a small section of council land, so it's up to us to sort fencing. The day before we had an inspection for the pool fencing so we could fill the pool, Sean's guys disappeared without advising anyone in the house. I tried contacting Sean to see when they would be coming back, finally got a response to say he'd find out, but nothing after that. I was quite stressed because I'd been watching the pace they worked at and I didn't have confidence they could get it done in the morning before the inspection and not wanting to delay the inspection, a coupe of builders who were here working on some internal renovations and I then worked to put up enough of the fence to ensure the pool area was fenced in.
The next morning my wife was heading to the car, my wife greeted one of his team saying hello, he didn't say anything, stared at her and just walked passed her leaving her feel quite uncomfortable in her own home.
Then later when I saw Sean he aggressively confronted me asking if I thought I'd gone too far? I didn't understand what he was talking about and told him I didn't know where his guys had gone to and when they'd be back and I was worried about the inspection so I thought I'd help out and get some if it done for them (given I have qualified builders, it wasn't like we had no skills). Later I find out that the guy that had stared down my wife told Sean I'd said all sorts of things I hadn't, Sean did apologise and she he' give my wife a bottle of champagne to apologise to my wife - that never happened.
In summary, design was great, finish was poor and staff are aggressive to your wives - that's one star for the design and no stars for anything else. I could have attached 20 pics so give a more complete picture to be honest.
If you've got a smaller job, you'll probably have no problems and end up with a great result, but if you have a bigger job (not that we're on an acreage, be aware that towards the end of the job, you may not get the finished you desired.
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