DR Homes

My review might change over the coming weeks dependent on my experience but right now this is based on my experience so far. If you want a good stress free building experience, with good communication, timely planning and a quality construction to a high standard, this is NOT the company to go with. At every point of my build there’s been an… Read more

issue.

I lost my island bench and had to connect it to the wall due to insufficient pantry space not identified until the last minute.

They charged me for space I had requested as an addition but it was not reflected in the working drawing. Meaning an Overcharge totaling $6,500. This was only identified by me once the house was at lock up stage. This is the first appointment you get to see your home. I then had to literally argue with them to get my money refunded.

I’m at practical completion & I’ve sent a third party inspector in - 10 MONTHS into the build and every trade that has come through my home has done a BELOW AVERAGE job. (Reflective on the report)

Examples include -

Rendering - Report quoted ‘Poor Render finish in general’ Half a wall of the house has no textured finish at all, render around taps, doors and windows incomplete.

Plumbing - I have 2 bath tubs neither are sealed to the wall both you pull at and they move. Down pipes not connected to guttering.

Carpentry - Completely missed my pantry shelves. Laundry door won’t open all the way because the shelves are to long and it hits them when you try and open it. Doors to bedrooms close but you push them and they open.

Electrical - All 6 fans in my home only have 2 speeds - Fast and slow - no second speed. There’s a blown bulb in my main bathroom.

Tiling - Report quotes ‘Excessive lippage in both bathrooms (meaning uneven tiling) Grout of a poor finish - recommend re grouting’ in both bathrooms and the outside patio area.

Painting - Overspray on my mixers, drips on window frames, the toilet wall, garage wall all need repainting - the front door needs sanding and repainting - chips, dents, marks in near every room.

Building works - A wall is crooked on my outdoor patio. You can clearly see a curve in the wall and the tile on the patio they’ve cut the tile to suit the curved wall - Report quotes The wall deviation is greater than 10mm within 3 meters. Maximum deviation from plumb within a storey from a vertical line through the base of the member must be less than 10mm within 3 meters according to Standards and tolerances 2017 3.04 and AS 3700 – Masonry structures, Table 12.1 - as a major defect.

There’s a crack in my kitchen ceiling already. Report quotes - ‘Recommend expansion joint’

I paid $1500 for a black sink to match my cabinetry and it’s got a dent in it.

My land had established grass on it (before and after photos attached) prior to construction. They’ve excavated it and turned it into a mud pit. This area was outside of the construction zone and did not require ‘cleaning’ or excavating. Total area is approx 80sqm.

The biggest frustration for me is that these issues weren’t identified and addressed at the time the jobs were done. Based on my experience, it appears there’s little to no quality checking or assurance in place. There’s been ample time to resolve the issues, but instead it’s all been left until practical completion — which I expect will now be drawn out even further.

10 months so far and this is where I’m at. I’ve watched houses around mine start well after my build and there’s people living in them. I’m really embarrassed to have chosen this builder.

If there’s anything I can stress to people looking to build is - Do your research, ask the important questions - DONT SIGN YOUR CONTRACT STRAIGHT AWAY. Take it home, look over it, highlight stuff, ask more questions. Even have a lawyer look over it. Lastly get those third party inspections done. It’s a small price to pay for your biggest investment.

I will update this over the coming weeks with what my experience is to when I get the keys.

Great builders – We have been in our DR Homes house for 3 months now and are loving it! We are in a house that is unique on our estate, where virtually every other home is being built by the same cookie cutter company. Our house has far superior finishes to the houses being built around us, for example our down pipes are straight from the the roof to the ground… Read more ·  1

and joined to the main drain underground, whereas our neighbours seem to be joined above ground so have the pipe at right angles next to the house. We have wooden beading outside where the roof meets the walls, where our neighbours just have silicone.

There are of course some minor issues that can be sorted at the 1 year inspection. Just things that got missed on the original snagging. We also had a couple of issues that we wanted looking at immediately, and they obliged and have now fixed.

The house has stood up to a mighty storm that wreaked havoc to virtually all the surrounding homes. We were very fortunate and just had a couple of slipped roof tiles!

Staff are friendly, courteous and professional . We did have a change of customer service rep half way through the build. Our new rep and seemed a bit snowed under to begin with, but found her feet and has become a great help to us. Also a big shout out to Rachel who helped us design a really beautiful house.

In summary, no builder is ever going to be perfect, but DR Homes listened to any issues we had during the build and sorted them. They have provided us with a well built home, that we love. Thank you DR Homes

We love our new home! – We recently had DRHomes build our home. We received the keys a month ago and are over the moon with it. While the contract was a little drawn out due to Covid, the buiding was completed within the required time. All the tradies we saw and met were friendly, knowledgeable and hard working. Neighbours report that they were very considerate of… Read more ·  1

others and did not start before the 7am time. They never parked their cars on the footpaths and tried to minimise any disruption to the occupants of the street when materials were being delivered. DRHomes were quite the "quiet achievers". Sometimes we would come and have a look how they were going and we were impressed that things had moved along further than we thought. The quality of the home is great and their attention to detail excellent. Visitors also have commented on the value for money with the inclusions. Our only criticism, and this is just a small one, is that communications could be improved a bit more. Thank you DRHomes!

Second time DRHomes client – Building a 2 storey custom steel frame house with Elevate finishes .. The govt grants have stretched every builder insanely and we are extremely specific about what we need with our custom home, but DRHomes has been fantastic till now ... - Sales rep Kiara has been extremely helpful with good communication and we had Amanda help out from time to… Read more

time with specific queries as well. - We met Tony from drafting who showed genuine concern in our project by explaining the issues with some of our requirements. The drafting does take a couple of attempts to get right but that is to be expected with fully custom projects. - Michelle in colour selections was amazing! The product choices they have are sooo much more extensive than what they had 5 years ago and Michelle was great in guiding us through the confusion... - Jade from post contract customer service has been extremely quick with most of her responses and updates, very pleasant to deal with. - Michelle (no 2) who was in charge of the workflow has been empathetic, understanding and very helpful whenever we needed her input or coordination for our build. - Luke our site supervisor was extremely helpful but had too much under his belt during the crazy covid time during the build. To be fair every time an issue was pointed out, he managed to resolve it the best he could. - Marshall in after handover service has been legendary with a prompt response for every problem (yes the tradies pretty much everywhere are crap with their finishing and building supervisors can’t keep up, they will make mistakes no matter which builder you go to, so you will have stuff that needs looking into after handover, but nothing major yet)

As a negative for now I would say their upgrades that we looked into are a bit more expensive compared to other similar custom builders, but not insanely out of proportion.

Since we have built with other builders as well, we have really high expectations and i am happy today DRHomes meets those ! :)

We are happy with our build that was delivered on time, finished to a good standard and no major issues!

Thanks for the second time fantastic experience!

VERY HAPPY WITH OUR DREAM HOME – My wife and I Sold up in NSW and moved to Qld to build our DREAM HOME. We looked at many house plans from lots of builders until we found just what we were looking for in DR HOMES Delaney 34. We made quite a few additions and changes to get it just right without any problems. Nothing was too much trouble. Shelby the liason contact assigned to us… Read more ·  1

was a real gem and made dealing with the builder so easy. Colour & fittings selection was challenging and quite long with the consultant making suggestions which enhanced the final look. We were allowed to use some of the builders contractors to carry out work during the build inc concreting driveways & pathways. The quality and workmanship was first class and on a few occasions where we noted small issues, they were quickly rectified to our satisfaction. We could not be happier with our new Home .