McDonald Jones Homes Questions & Answers (page 7 of 7)

If you contact fair trading any subcontractor or supplier issues would not affect their responsibility in contact. They would still need to pay the penalty fees noted in contact. My project manager has at least been very honest and said all recent wet weather has put all Buckley and carpenters behind...

Our building was on the South Coast. There was never more than 1-2 days that there wasn't someone working on it.

Just been told that the bricklayers that were meant to start tomorrow had a "mishap" and now cannot start until late next week. The house will have been sitting there untouched since the last week of April!!! My patience is running very thin and when my house is eventually built I will be sure to share my very bad experience with Mcdonald Jones.

They did try however given all delay was down to their actions did not press this further.

Yes! We are in the same boat! But they want to charge us even more, stating that the $1000 per month is for the first 3 months only and after that it is 0.25% of the contract price ($25k !!). Considering our contract period was up before we even got into council, AND we had a very slow process getting through the council mostly due to some incorrect advice given to us from the first of our 3 so far client liaison officers... and we are still not on the construction list, I am not very happy at the moment...

We did not build a double story, however Grand Manor - 59squares.
McDJ were fantastic and all the way through they were very helpful.
They laid our slab mid August and we received our keys early March, 2015

Could not be happier with the whole experience. Our building supervisor Dave was fantastic and any problems fixed immediately

I have starting a build now and my house has been untouched for 20 days from the frame completion. There are delays with their tradespeople and they have sold too many houses to keep up with the demand. They will claim delays out of their control. Read the contract

this may help you in answer to your question having not experence your question on land registerion and my daughter has yes the land is now
in your names and you our your builder can submit plans to council hope this has helped you

"Registered" means that the land has been registered with your Titles Office by the land developer. It can't be sold, have Council approval of plans until it is registered.

"Registered" means that the land has been registered with your Titles Office by the land developer. It can't be sold, have Council approval of plans until it is registered.

We are building and very close to handover. We did not have one prob with colour selections as went to Bella Vista and chose everything in one day.
We are laying our own flooring inc timber and carpet.
Building the Bronte Grand Manor One and could not be happier ... McDJ have been fantastic all the way through and cannot fault them at all.

hello i am sadden to hear of your plight with MDJH as I and my wife built with MDJH in Sydney and to say it was without problems would not be true but the staff at the colour studio at Bella Vista in Sydney were very professional and yes they changed our client liaison twice during the coarse of the build our dealings with all were courteous and professional it is sad when you are trying to build your dream to encounter such hassels as i have said it has been five months since we have moved into our home and at present it is still like a dream i am sorry i could not be of much help but let me say this if you are not happy keep complaining because at the end of the day its your money paying for it

Thanks Guys, the Bella Vista MDJH sound very professional. My issues are with Thornton in the hunter valley.

Avoid state demolition, they turned my site into a contaminated mess, since then It was suggested I should have used Bassetts. Who ever you use it should cost between 15-25k. But take my advise and be close when the work is being done to make sure no contaminated fill is imported to site.
Also put in the contract that you must inspect any unexpected asbestos finds before it is removed,this I'd how they ramp us the cost once under way.

Hi congratulations on your new journey in answer to your querry it depends on where yo live as far as the knockdown is happening we live in seven hills new south wales
and we used ana demolition which we found to be good a little dear but good also the type of house to be pulled down has bearing on cost therefore one price for fibro and one for bricks as for the manhattan noe we built the manhattan two and we cannot praise it enough

ANA subcontracted my job out and then washed there hands of it when it went bad, be careful.

whilst we did not build the monte carlo we built the manhatton two with macdonald jones we the wife and i at the moment are very satisfied we found them to be upfront and presise as compared to other builders as our daughter and husband have found out we think you can not go wrong choosing MJD HOMES

We had some unusual problems with our build but that aside I think Mdjh are ok compared to other builders, so long as it is crystal clear in the contract you will get what you pay for. Our supervisor has done his best to help us with little problems as they pop up, however communication with the head office has been less than impressive

We built the monte carlo in another estate. Turned out amazing and looked very similar to what mcdonald jones promised. i was very impressed with the admin process and the building process was just as smooth. I would strongly recommend them! Good luck! :-)

With our Knock down Rebuild MDJH did a Cut & Fill, This involves excavation at the high end, then the material removed is transferred to the low end and compacted to give a level site. Before the slab is poured piers must be drilled and formed from concrete in all areas that do not sit on natural ground, in our case that ground was slightly reactive clay.

This is when it can become very expensive because most estates have had extensive excavations done to produce the desired landscape, your block could be on an area that was previously a hollow that was filled and will require very deep piers to reach hard natural ground possibly over the entire slab. You will be given a quote that allows the piers to go as deep as required to hit solid ground, but how deep that is will be a guess based on a couple of test holes and any extra cost will be on you. A work mate of mine built with MDJH and his piers cost twice what he was quoted.

Hi John, I would imagine this would be a construction type issue particularly if it can be shown that there may have been a problem with the initial installation or it could be simply settlement. My downpipes have dropped a bit through the brackets but I just repainted the pipes in the original colour. I'd ring the Service & Warranty people at McD J and seek some advice. I had a couple of issues with my place which I brought to their attention recently and they've bent over backwards to help me even though one of those issues involved the oven which is two years out of warranty but has been an ongoing problem from the start.

I think you are asking about the building supervisor and if you are then it depends on where you intend on building. There are different supervisors for all parts of NSW some are good and some not so good.

I cannot provide answer but I would be very keen to know as well because the construction of my house is about to complete next month. What I understand on your question is to hire a reliable building inspector to check the building prior to contractor's Handover. The building inspector will act as your independent checker to certify that the construction of your house is in accordance with the approved plans and specifications. Can anybody share their experience? And how much shall we pay for that reliable building inspector? Thanks!

You may be blessed with a good supervisor my experience was terrible and be sure to have your warranty requests rectified in the initial 30days as I was advised to do it all at once my 90days was July 4 and the email response was I will be contacted in 4 - 6 weeks, still no contact.

Sorry I don't know anyone who has built this home,

No but would love to know how you are going with the building of your home.

Hi Lynn, we are considering building this house at the moment. I'd be very interested to know if you did in fact build and how it went.

Sorry bit late but we are at present building the farmhouse grand Manor one with Pavilion facade... Looking at 12/1 as handover.

I have a McDJ home that has been in air temperatures from 3-39 C and there is very little if any temperature creaking. We had more in our previous house with colour bond roof on timber trusses and frame.

We have an MDJ home with steel frame and colourbond roof - we have been in for 6 months now and there is no noise issue. Once or twice I have heard some creaking sounds in the morning as things have warmed up but nothing that has bothered anyone. It has not been an issue for us. Hope this helps.

Thank you for the replies to my question, they will help make my choice between steel or wood frame a little easier.

Hi Kia,
No experience with The Ponds or the Wentworth, but allow about 50% above quoted price for extras. Best to just get a quote from your sales consultant. Overall experience of McDJ is good, house and inclusions quality is fine. As for quicker, don't expect any one to complete under 9-12 months from contract signing. Final plans, approvals etc takes time. before committing make sure you can cover driveways, fences, landscaping, appliances, floor coverings, lighting etc etc. make a long list and price it all first.

This is fairly normal and caused by their warranty obligations but also obviously reduces risks of hold ups and conflict on the job. I had security wiring and installation allowed on the job by arrangement but could not negotiate a different shower screen installer.

It seems this is standard with all the builders. We couldnt get many things done until after handover.
Our experience with MDJ did offer electricals with a professional HT package and security... As well as driveways, fly screens, floor dressings etc. (We are in the north of Syd). Ask for information about their electrical and colours appointment - that should give you more info including pricing. You are limited to what they offer during the building process so its worth asking as many questions as you can.
I hope that helps.

Atking53, thanks for that, Did you have much trouble organising the security wiring as we have been told that it would absolutely not be allowed, even though the people work with other builders are licenced and insured and were aware that if they did not work in with the schedule they would not be given permission to enter the site.
Lys, getting a commercial grade home theatre for cost is my motivation! Plus having connections in the airconditioning trade mean that I can get the exact system that I want (and have used for 10+ years) so the cost will be probably half of what MJH will charge me.......just trying to trim the budget so I can spend more on inclusions!!!

We are building at Bingara Gorge, currently at lock-up building a Monte Carlo Elite. That is not far from Mittagong so you would probably get the same teams. Building stage had progressed well for us with good communication from Supervisors and Client Liaison Officer. Approval stage took longer than we expected but included the Christmas holiday period. The trick is to do your homework, read your plans and documents carefully because you get exactly what you agree to.

We built with MDJ in the Sydney North area and they were good. We are happy with our home. Ask as many questions as you can to know what to expect (including council requirements and other bits and costs). Our site supervisor was key to knowing what was happening so if you get a good one and keep a good working relationship with them things should go fairly smoothly.
I hope that helps.

Hi did you go ahead with building with MDJ in Mittagong. We are tossing between them or gj gardner. How did the build go for you and also atking53 at bingara gorge? Did the extras or upgrades come to alot and how about driveways and landscaping... do they quote on that too? We are looking at buying land down this way and build. Just not sure who to go with.

We are just finishing our 1st build with Mc Donald Jones. (We are in sydney). We are very happy with the progress/results to date.
Re: unforseen costs: Like any builder their contract favours them and they generally answer the questions you ask - they are not necessarily forthcoming with extra information - but I get the impression that this is the std 4 the industry. Ask yr council for as much info as possible and anyone else who has built b4. Read the fine print and look for whats NOT included in the price - driveways, retention/detention water pits etc can be very expensive. You really have to do alot of research 4 yr self so you dont get nasty surprises & factor in another 30-50% on top of their house price if you want to have EVERYTHING done b4 you move in. I hope that helps.

Hi there, I've been through the process 12 months ago and yes they are expensive. I must say that an electrician after the fact would be so much harder and probably expensive not to mention messy. They do a fairly good job though but remember they use sub contractors. Do yourself a favour and check the work before the gyprock is installed.

MDJ did not offer us any reduction in pricing for suggesting we use our own electricians.

Basically we could use our own sparkie, but the price for the build would not be changing. They even suggested it would cost more as they had to 'supervise' a builder who wasn't part of their stable.

HTH

We have chosen to get McDJ to do all the basic wiring and install PPts, switches etc but most light fittings will be batten holders and we will install lights and fans after handover. their electrical selection appointment is very efficient with a great computer program recording, plotting and pricing every decision you make. Similarly the pre gyprock inspection of wiring is very thorough. Don't forget that these days many light fittings do not require an electrician to install.