A lot has happened since my last post, so this post is a little long.
Burbank have stepped up to the mark and have addressed every issue with the inspection report, which is great news. I had a meeting with the site supervisor and manager on Friday 17th December and went through the report and had a good look around the house as well.
Things that have been addressed:
- The biggest issue – slab extension at the back of the house has been applied. This was done in stages – rods were placed at the back wall of Bedroom 4 and the wall between alfresco and family room (where the sliding door sits) and concreted up. This concrete started to crumble a little, so it was patched up with non-shrinking bondcrete. It looks like we now have a relatively straight back edge of slab and footing.
- The second biggest issue – all instances of exposed steel reo has been patched up, bar one at the back of Bedroom 3. For some reason, the back of the lot was backfilled right up to the slab, burying the exposed reo under dirt and mud. I had reminded my contract liaison that this needs to be addressed and had word come back saying that this is no problem, but as far as I know this hasn’t been addressed yet (it may have by the time you read this though).
- There are a couple of instances where the guttering is a little crooked, my father in law counted three instances but to the best of my eyesight I can only pick out two. The SS suggested maybe it was the roof scaffolders that perhaps had accidentally pushed down on the guttering; he noted that the fascia is dead straight, so this is quite possible. Either way, this is an easy fix as the clips are adjustable.
- Treated pine block has been placed at the outer front wall / corner of the garage, and had concrete applied to fix it in place.
- Front garage lintel bracing has been redone
- Top plate that wasn’t supported properly between 2 studs in Bed 1 fixed
- The slab for the front wall between Bed 1 and the portico was short by approximately 10mm – this wasn’t mentioned in the inspection report, but was fixed anyway (thanks Burbank!)
- The wall between the hallway and the garage was overhanging, this has been patched up
- There is a minor issue with the laundry sliding door, one of the melamine-topped wood frame was split a little. Burbank offered to replace the whole door, which is great.
- There is an issue at the front right corner of Bed 1 (near the electricity meter box), it’s one of the (rare) instances with this house build that the slab actually extends too far past the frame. When this gets bricked up, this extra jutting section of the slab will be eating into the cavity space, which could cause problems further down the track. There are two options – (1) cut the slab to trim away this section (not advisable), or (2) trim the bricks slightly before being laid here. Option 2 was chosen.
As soon as the last section of exposed reo at the back has been addressed, I can personally consider the issues with the slab resolved. It’s not going to get any better than this given the circumstances, and if the fixes that have been applied are still not satisfactory in a hypothetical sense, the only other option is to bust the whole thing up and start again. We all know that pigs would fly before that option would even be considered by the constructor! So there is no real point in dwelling in this situation further. I am happy now. Onwards and upwards.
Now for the new things!
Roof tiles have been laid! Having a look around, every single tile is spot on and in line. I can’t believe how perfect they are, capping tiles placed and the concrete used to join it to the rest of the roof (does anyone know what this is called? I came across the term earlier in the week but have forgotten it now) is colour matched perfectly and correct.
Plumbing has been done! The plumber did a great job. I could only see one small section where the plumber had to cut through the stud, and only then the absolute minimum has been cut out, which is fantastic. All pipes are routed smartly around, and no shortcuts were taken. I have seen much more horror jobs on the web, I am grateful our job isn’t one of them.
Solar panels for hot water have been installed! This is the first obvious high-tech item that has been put onto our house. Naturally after handover there will be some more high-tech gadgetry within the walls of our house ;)
We have also been wrapped! We aren’t too far away from bricks now.
I left the meeting when it finished with a smile on my face, and I am excited about building again. I am happy that Burbank has addressed the issues, and have done so professionally. Whenever I talk to anyone from Burbank though, they seem to be hung up on time (I guess since they have a hard deadline they need to stick to contractually, which is fair enough), whereas I am more interested in the quality of work. Either way, I am satisfied (and so is Maria of course, there’s a lot of “I this” and “I that” in this blog!) and am happy.
