Shelford Quality Homes

Shelfords review First of all I would like to say a big thank you to both [Name Removed], [Name Removed] and [Name Removed] for all their help and being the only two people in Shelfords that seem to care and not make our house building journey harder. Starting at the beginning we went to a display home from Shelfords in Brabham and were very… Read more

impressed with the house, plans and finishings. However the sales rep there was very rude and unhelpful, which put us of Shelfords. When we went to sign for our block we got referred to [Name Removed] who then got us back on board with Shelfords. He was help, friendly, honest and got what he needed to done.

Everything looked like it was a smooth start until prestart where we had [Name Removed], who clearly wasn’t a pre-start person. She has no interest in helping us with any choices, luckily I had built a house before and somewhat knew how it works. We had to take things off the walls ourselves to look at colours and what would go. She put wrong selections in or didn’t take down a selection, wasn’t listening and just had no idea. It’s was overall a horrible experience, more so for my husband who has never built before. About 2-3 weeks later she started emailing me about selections she missed or didn’t take down correctly, by the 3rd email I reach out to [Name Removed] for help as she had made too many mistakes on the pre-start for us to feel comfortable to go ahead.

[Name Removed] the passed us over to [Name Removed], who thought we were doing a quick check over to then also realise how many mistakes [Name Removed] had actually made. For example half of our tap ware in the both room was black and the other half she had done as chrome. [Name Removed] then spent the time to go through with me check it all over and help me with things [Name Removed] didn’t. [Name Removed] also found out [Name Removed] hadn’t put documents through that she was meant to which then delayed us another 6 weeks. [Name Removed] gave us the confidence back we needed but at this point [Name Removed] had put a 9 week or so delay on the whole build.

We then got past all that and somehow got handed back to [Name Removed] as our client liaison. She wanted nothing to do with us, we had to chase her up for updates, wouldn’t answer phone calls and sometimes just completely ignored us. We had Ian as a site manager which he was very helpful until he got sick, we are thankful he is well and better but there was no communication when he did go on leave. My husband had to call to then get passed around to 4 different people before he managed to speak to [Name Removed] who was taking over for Ian. [Name Removed] was not helpful at all, he didn’t take anytime to actually look at our job and get to know bit about it. The way he booked things in also pushed us back further (we know that because people at Shelford said he booked things wrong). Once again someone else who had zero cares and made no effort.

Once Ian came back everything seemed to be okay again, Ian was still unwell and that really reflected in his care factor and work, which was sad but also hard for us. Our house after lockup was always getting left unlocked and then we also noticed that the back sliding doors weren’t recessed, which we had paid for. This was raised to Ian and [Name Removed], nothing got done for weeks. We were then asked serval times if “we can just live with it” which we said no. We then were informed that the wrong door frame had been put in and their way of fixing that was taking a grinder to our brand new frame just before handover. Which is less than ideal….

At our PCI meeting I started to notice how poorly the house was finished and was told that a was “being picky”. Ian did not seem to care how the house was finished just how structurally sound it was. Which is very poor as you expect your brand new house to look brand new. Luckily we had a building inspector come through to back me up on something that I was “being picky” over.

After living in the house we have now noticed- down lights aren’t lined up straight power points also aren’t lined up straight, there is overspray everywhere on doors/windows, the floor level is that bad you can see and feel all the lumps in it even under the carpet, benches don’t touch the ground in places because or floor level, the finishing of the cornice in the bathrooms is lumpy and has holes/ dents in it, our 40k racked ceiling we that we paid for has dents and dodgy patch work, the back sliding door have been cut to suit the frame before Shelford took a grinder to it so now are wrong and the list goes on.

I really hope that this isn’t the standard that Shelford holds theirselves too. From how we have been treated to the finishing of the house it has been horrible and depending on how the 6 monthly goes, we will not be recommending Shelford and a google review will be written.

Such a beautiful house got turned into a horrible experience and poorly finished build.

First of all, I would like to sincerely thank [Name Removed], [Name Removed], and [Name Removed] for their help throughout this process. They were the only three people at Shelford who consistently showed care and made an effort not to make our building journey more difficult.

To start from the beginning, we visited a Shelford display home in Brabham and were very impressed with the design, plans, and overall finishes. Unfortunately, the sales representative at the display home was extremely rude and unhelpful, which initially put us off choosing Shelford. When we later went to sign for our block, we were referred to [Name Removed], who successfully restored our confidence in Shelford. He was helpful, friendly, honest, and efficient in getting everything done correctly.

Everything appeared to be progressing smoothly until pre-start, where we were assigned to [Name Removed]. It quickly became clear that she was not suited to the pre-start role. She showed little interest in assisting us with selections. Fortunately, I had built a house before and had some understanding of the process. We were required to remove items from the walls ourselves to view colours and combinations. Incorrect selections were recorded, some selections were missed entirely, and overall she did not listen or appear to understand what was required. This was an extremely poor experience, particularly for my husband, who had never built before.

Approximately two to three weeks later, [Name Removed] began emailing me regarding selections she had either missed or recorded incorrectly. By the third email, I contacted [Name Removed] for assistance, as there had been too many errors for us to feel comfortable proceeding.

[Name Removed] then referred us to [Name Removed], initially for what was meant to be a quick review. However, [Name Removed] quickly realised the extent of the mistakes that had been made. For example, half of our bathroom tapware was specified in black, while the other half was incorrectly recorded as chrome. [Name Removed] took the time to thoroughly review everything with me and assisted with selections that [Name Removed] had failed to address. [Name Removed] also discovered that [Name Removed] had not submitted required documentation, which resulted in an additional six-week delay. While [Name Removed] helped restore our confidence, by this stage [Name Removed]’s mistakes had caused an overall delay of approximately nine weeks to the build.

Despite this, we were then somehow reassigned to [Name Removed] as our client liaison. She was completely disengaged, rarely responded to emails or phone calls, and we were constantly chasing her for updates. We had Ian as our site supervisor, who was initially very helpful. Unfortunately, when Ian became unwell, there was no communication regarding his leave. My husband had to call and was passed between four different people before finally speaking to [Name Removed], who was taking over temporarily. [Name Removed] was unhelpful, did not take the time to understand our build, and incorrectly scheduled works, which caused further delays (this was later confirmed by other Shelford staff). Once again, we dealt with someone who showed little care or effort.

When Ian returned, things initially improved, however he was still unwell and this noticeably impacted his level of care and attention, which was unfortunate for both him and us. After lock-up, our house was frequently left unlocked. We also discovered that the rear sliding doors were not recessed, despite us having paid for this upgrade. This issue was raised with both Ian and [Name Removed], yet nothing was done for weeks. We were repeatedly asked if we could “just live with it,” which we refused. Eventually, we were informed that the incorrect door frame had been installed and that the proposed solution was to use a grinder on our brand-new door frame just prior to handover, which is far from acceptable. No refund was given on the incorrect door frames either.

At our PCI meeting, I began to notice how poorly the house had been finished and was told I was “being picky.” Site supervisor appeared to be concerned only with structural soundness, not the overall finish. This is unacceptable, as a brand-new home should look new. Fortunately, we had an independent building inspector attend, who validated several issues I was criticised for raising.

Since moving into the home, we have identified numerous defects, including: downlights and power points not being aligned, overspray on doors and windows, lights and PowerPoint not straight or don’t line up, uneven flooring that can be seen and felt even under the carpet, benches not meeting the floor due to incorrect floor levels, poorly finished bathroom cornices with dents and holes, and dents and poor patchwork in our $40,000 raked ceiling. The list goes on…

Also like to add that the house was not clean when we got the keys. We got told it was a “builder clean”, there was rubbish in the cupboards and pee over the toilets and floor. Overall the house was still very dirty but those two things should have been cleaned before giving us the keys.

I sincerely hope this is not the standard Shelford holds itself to. From the way we were treated throughout the process to the final quality of the build, this experience has been extremely disappointing. Depending on the outcome of our six-month maintenance review, depends if we actually would ever recommend Shelfords.

What should have been a beautiful home became a stressful experience and a poorly finished build. We really felt like we got put in the too hard basket, even after how understanding we were with certain things.

Loved our build with Shelford! – We started our building journey at Shelford after we received a significant price rise from another company. We came in feeling pretty defeated but from the minute we started with Shelford we knew we could trust them. George Stranadica was our design consultant and our initial contact through Shelford. He was super helpful coming up with ideas to… Read more ·  1

include in our home to make it very functional and was open to all of our requirements. He designed the most beautiful and functional home with us and we are so thankful for his knowledge, ideas and commitment to making our home perfect for us! Thank you George!! Kelly was our prestart consultant. She was extremely friendly, patient and knowledgeable. She helped us decide on so many things we really needed guidance on! We are so happy with all of the finishes and colours. Sue our client liaison officer is one of a kind. She was always so lovely to speak to and followed things up for us very promptly. Any changes or minor issues were resolved with professionalism and in a timely manner. Joe was our supervisor. We really appreciated the frequent updates on what was currently happening and upcoming with our house. He was honest, approachable and continues to communicate with us even post construction when we required support! Thank you Joe! Overall we are so pleased with our build, our double storey house was completed within 15 months from slab down thanks to everyone’s hard work. We love our home! Attached some photos of our build along the way.

A [Content Removed] Builder to Avoid – TLDR; Shelford talk big, plan small and deliver as little as possible. If you’ve read all the 5-star reviews or dealt with one of the sales people and think you found a builder who’s a step above the rest, you need to lower your expectations. Shelford will tell you anything you want to hear until you to sign up, then tell you anything they can… Read more

think of as a reason why they’re not doing what the plan makes you think they will be doing. However, if you enjoy being continually disappointed and want your house used as a [Content Removed] while under construction, Shelford might be the builder for you.

We found Shelford based on reviews from this site, sadly our experience did not live up to the standard we expected by reading them. We definitely did not get the valued customer experience that other reviewers seemed to have received and all the trades that ‘take pride in their work’ seemed to be unavailable during our build. Initially we looked at Shelfords website and liked the Nu Arte design, so we went to see the display home. Being impressed with the quality of the display, we contacted Shelford via email, and it wasn't long before we were customising the Nu Arte to suit our block and us. The salesman was great to deal with, nothing was too much trouble. Every question was answered quickly, really quickly, within an hour, even on a Sunday. We spent a while customising until we were happy with the plan and even got a few extra upgrades thrown in for free… if we signed up that week. We fell for that and the whole “part of the family” spiel… we signed the paperwork, paid the deposit and that's when the honeymoon ended. As soon as the deposit was paid, Shelford had zero interest in keeping us happy and did us the favour of ignoring our emails. The salesman’s job was done and during the time between signing and the prestart meeting, there’s no specific contact to deal with, so it took multiple follow-ups over weeks to get a response to a simple query. Sure, they might be busy, but a simple ‘I’m looking into this and will get back to you’ is better than being ignored. We were told that all changes after prestart will attract exorbitant admin fees, on top of the cost of the change. So I guess it’s beneficial for them to ignore any contact before prestart, even if the topic is regarding something to be finalised at prestart. Prestart only lasts a couple of hours and anything after that will attract those excessive fees, so you need to be prepared, despite not having all the information required. Shelford were not helpful with supplying details of inclusions until it became very expensive to change them, so you can't do any research until your stuck with it. Don’t be fooled into thinking the prestart consultant knows what they’re talking about either. We took advice on a few items which turned out to be a complete waste of money. We now have a conduit running in the wall where our TV is, sounds like an awesome idea for a wall mounted TV but the conduit is so small that nothing can fit inside it. I have no idea what it's meant to be used for.

Once the plans were finalised, they had to receive council approval, but were rejected because Shelford didn’t design to R-Code specifications. Due to this the entire house had to be shifted back. At the time, we thought the drafting team did an excellent job of taking small bits out of several rooms to minimise the overall impact. However, once the walls were built we saw it was just another half-baked job by the drafters resulting in off-centre windows. We had to be careful with each new plan Shelford sent and examine it carefully as they don't seem to have a working plan that they adjust. It’s like every new plan is done from scratch and can be missing elements like power points. Either that or they do modify the same plan and purposefully delete stuff hoping we won't notice, which sadly is the more likely scenario. We had a steady flow of issues with Shelford during construction, as well as living with the annoying way they do things. Shelford don't pay for power or water during construction, we have to. I don't know if that is standard these days, but it was a special condition added to our contract by Shelford. We weren't happy about it, although it wasn't a dealbreaker as were didn’t foresee the build taking so long. Even if the services aren’t being used, which was most of the time as we were lucky if there was someone on site for one or two days a month, there's still daily service charges we had to pay. From signing the final contract until handover, the build took over 2 years. There’s nothing special about our house to make it take that long, we were just not very high on Shelfords list of priorities. To be honest, I don't think we were even on the list. The lack of available tradesman is a convenient excuse, but it falls short after being told several times that Shelford only use their own vetted and trusted group of tradesman. Not to mention countless houses being built around us while ours just sits there untouched. Their lack of interest in building our house also put us outside the time-frame for us to benefit from the bonus provided by the estate where they install fencing and landscaping, so that's another cost we had to wear that we didn't account for. Shelford use a plumbed toilet connected to sewerage rather than a portaloo like every other builder. They also connected the gas early, so there were daily service charges we had to pay for power, water, gas, and sewerage, which makes the fact there was rarely anyone on site even more frustrating.

We have a rendered brick wall on our fan shaped block. All plans up until the final plan, the wall was drawn as we expected. On the final plan, it was not. We questioned the drawing and were told, to copy & paste quote: “Apologies for this error, im unsure what the draftee has done, this will be fixed”. I’m unsure what the draftee has done, must be a common phrase uttered in Shelfords office. We find out later regarding the air conditioning and sink drainage on top of the wall and window positioning, that Shelfords drafting team are outright incompetent. No new drawing was supplied and many months down the track the wall was built as the incorrect drawing, which was basically a garden feature, not a boundary wall. Our only point of contact was our prestart coordinator, we were not given the supervisor's details, not that it mattered because he was following the incorrect plan given to him. We didn't get updates or regular catch-ups on the build like other reviewers. The only contact we got from Shelford was the arrival of an invoice or a request to sign off on a downgrade based on lies. We were only notified of downgrades if it involved something we had to make a colour/style selection with, otherwise the downgrade was just done without notice. We had already been passed on to a different “Client Liaison” to the prestart coordinator we were initially dealing with. When contacting her, we received an auto-reply stating she no longer worked at Shelford, the inbox is unmonitored and the email had not been forwarded. With no one left to contact, we forwarded the email to the generic prestart email address and to no surprise, after 2 weeks we had received no response. I then forwarded it to the salesman we dealt with and finally got sent in the right direction. After another 2 weeks of back and forth convincing them our boundary wall was not what we sign up for, they agreed to fix it. Sure, I may have had this sorted out sooner over the phone, but I would prefer to keep everything in writing in case we need it later. Having written proof of what was said became an obvious requirement when dealing with Shelford. After all that, we were put on our third client liaison, and while the new liaison seemed a bit more interested in helping, that interest only went so far. Not to mention when she has to get information from someone else in the company were back to delays lasting weeks or more, with nothing being resolved. As soon as the supervisor made contact regarding the air conditioning, all communication from our client liaison stopped. At least that's what we thought, but it turned out she was away sick for a few weeks. At Shelford, when someone is away, no one covers for them by responding to emails or even sets up an autoresponder letting you know what is happening.

Like other reviewers, we have also faced included products being discontinued or unavailable, resulting in being downgraded to cheaper/inferior products. The cost difference is not passed on, you have to go through the process of questioning why but never getting an answer. Seems Shelford have discovered a hack for fixed price contracts, supply cheaper, lower quality items to what's in the contract and class the cost difference as profit. We were building a Signature spec home, Shelfords top of the line, apparently. At prestart the coordinator mentioned Signature spec builds are rare and that she hadn't been involved in one before. On the spec sheet Shelford provided for the Nu Atre it has a picture of the display facade. Nowhere on the brochure does it state the facade is not part of the Signature spec, it simply has Signature spec written all over it. It does mention the landscaping pictured is not included but doesn't mention the facade. This is blatant false advertising and is illegal in any other industry. We didn't find out until prestart that the house we thought we were buying is not the house we’ll actually be getting. We were not far away from the facade being built and the product Shelford were planning on using, they could no longer get, so we were getting something different. Something that by all reports is cheaper, and it doesn’t get rendered like was previously planned. The new product has a “rendered look” but in all honesty it more resembles weatherboard. We asked if we are entitled to a credit for this downgrade and if instead it was possible to just render the weatherboard, so it looks the same as originally planned. We were told rendering the weatherboard was not possible and were given the option of a different product that could be rendered. This new product and the weatherboard were both available at Bunnings and the new product is half the price of the weatherboard. I’m sure Shelford get a better price than Bunnings retail but of course, Shelford keep the price difference. So in the end, not only did we not get the facade that was sold to us, we didn’t even get the downgrade that is part of the Signature spec. We got a budget copy but paid the premium price.

As construction slowly progressed, we passed the “lockup” stage. Lockup is in quotes because our house was rarely locked, the front door was usually flapping in the wind. We were living not far away during construction, so I drove past when I was in the area. Frequently the front door was wide open. Probably due to the fact it wasn’t fitted correctly and didn’t close properly. When we visited on weekends, if the front door wasn't wide open, another door was often unlocked. Shelfords “fix” for the front door was to stack stuff behind it, so the wind couldn’t blow it open. It's amazing a self-proclaimed “quality” builder didn’t just fix it rather than dealing with the inconvenience of working around it. We highlighted this at the completion inspection and request it be fixed, but it took 2 &1/2 months after handover for it to be fixed. By fixed I mean I no longer have to slam by whole body into the door for it to shut properly. But there’s still light leaking through one corner while the adjacent corner narrowly misses touching the frame. Turns out the light leaking is not a problem of the way the door is fitted, it’s because the door frame is wider at the bottom than it is at the top. Due to this, the hinge at the bottom has a spacer fitted so the door can close. That’s the level of quality you can expect from Shelford. When our tiling was ready to be done, the tiler contacted us and requested a meeting on site to discuss tile orientation etc. We met him at the house, had the meeting and all was good. He had to leave and told us if we wanted to have a look around it was fine, just lock up before we leave, warning us of the [Content Removed] front door. So he left, and we started looking around. I opened a cupboard in the laundry and inside the cupboard was enough [Content Removed] to make [Name Removed] blush. This was not a little bit, it was ‘a lot’ and some of it had been divided up into little bags ready for sale. I decided to let Shelford know rather than the police, I thought I’d let them handle it but in typical Shelford style, we received no response or acknowledgement of any kind. I realise [Content Removed] is on the lower end of the [Content Removed] scale, but it’s still illegal in WA. If you want to do it, fine, but do it in your own house, not while you’re meant to be building mine. [Content Removed] tradesman likely accounts for a lot of the poor quality work that been done to our house. At handover, this cupboard was the only part of the house that was cleaned properly, so that’s something… I guess.

We paid a lot of money to upgrade 3 aircon vents in the main living area to linear vents for the sole purpose of being installed in bulkheads. After everything was confirmed and moving forward we were told 2 of them can't be installed in the bulkhead due to structural beams running behind. We weren't offered to go back to the same vents used everywhere else and after talking it over, we didn't push for it thinking it might look better if all the vents in the living area matched. When visiting on a weekend we noticed there were cut-outs for all three vents to be installed in the roof. We questioned what was going on and even though Shelford had all the details of what was required, we were told the other vent doesn't fit in the bulkhead. Their response was along the lines of nothing could have been done to avoid this… except I guess they could have planned it correctly and built the bulkhead to accommodate the vent? The supervisor contacted us and requested a meeting on site together with the air con people to discuss solutions. We met them there, and it turns out the air con people advised Shelford drafting team way back when we were still in the designing phase that the vents could not fit in the bulkheads as designed. The drafting team ignored this advice, didn't update the plan and continued moving forward with full knowledge of what they were telling us was going to happen, was not going to happen. We then had 2 options, go ahead with the current layout with the vent in the roof or install 2 smaller vents in the bulkhead, but they would be noisy. So we begrudgingly decided to keep the current layout. Once again thanks to Shelfords lazy drafting team, the bulkhead vents we paid a lot of money for are all being installed in the ceiling so the only noticeable difference to the standard vents, is the price.

We took the prestart coordinators advice and had the sink/basin wastes chased into the wall to make more room for the pot drawers. When visiting the site one weekend we saw the rear sliding door was left wide open. There wasn’t much left to do in the build and while there's always at least 1 door left unlocked, leaving sliding doors wide open is a bit stupid. We thought we’d take advantage of it and have a look around as the sinks were now installed, and we wanted to see how they went about chasing the wastes into the wall. When we looked, we saw the drafting teams incompetence had struck again. The wastes were installed as normal into the floor with draws cut around them. More money flushed down the drain thanks to Shelfords useless drafting team.

We paid over $3000 to have our paving sealed with a wet look. Pictured is the “wet look” sealed pavers compared to some spare, unsealed pavers I laid myself next to the shed we installed. If you can't see any difference between the “wet look” sealed pavers and the unsealed don't worry, nor can we. The image also highlights the quality of paving that was done by Shelford which can only be described as, nothing short of pathetic, and this isn’t the worst of it. I have never laid pavers before and what I did is not great, but it’s a much better job than that of Shelford. If it looks like the “wet look” pavers are closer to the wall at one end than the other, it’s not perspective, they are! When the “sealed” pavers get wet, the water soaks in. We questioned this and were told that pavers are porous, and they may appear unsealed…. huh? I know pavers are porous, why do you think people “seal” them?? Sealed and porous are antonyms, they can't be both. They claim “they believe they have fulfilled they contract obligations regarding this matter”. I guess that is the Shelford way, do the minimum you can get away with and if the outcome in no way resembles what has been requested and paid for, just say that it does. That’s over $3000 flushed down the drain. In my mind this equates to [Content Removed]. Shelford charged us for something and didn't provide it.

At a point during the build, just after “lockup”, our house was “broken” into. Broken is in quotes because the door into the house from the garage was smashed open, but that wasn't necessary. There's always a door unlocked or left open, but I guess it needed to be done for aesthetics. For some reason, anything and everything that was at some point going to be fitted had been delivered that week and was being stored inside. From the hot water system to toilet roll holders, it was all there and it was all taken. I drove past and saw it happening, but they were just tradesman in the middle of the day, so I thought they were there working. It’s strange that our hot water system was there, but its replacement didn't turn up to be fitted until just before handover. I’m not making accusations of insurance [Content Removed] or anything like that. I just find it strange that all of a sudden, so much unrequired stuff was delivered to the house, blocking access for work that did need to be done and then everything be stolen in the middle of the day. It’s almost as if they knew that nobody from Shelford was going to show up. Or maybe it’s just dumb luck? What would I know…

After more than 2 years, we finally we had finally taken possession of the house and moved in. The first time we used our “integrated” dishwasher the floor flooded. Over the next 3 months we were back and forth with Shelford as they did their best to wipe their hands of it and blame the dishwasher. This was a dishwasher we had installed under a “Owner to supply & Builder to install” arrangement so if the problem was the dishwasher, Shelford take no responsibility. 3 or 4 of Shelfords people came out to look at the dishwasher, each of them telling us they don't know anything about dishwashers and were just here to determine if it's an installation or appliance issue. Each determining it was the appliance. I don't know anything about dishwashers either but to me, it was obvious the door was unable to close properly. In the end Shelford “did us a favour” of arranging a warranty service. The technician arrived, looked it over for 90 seconds and said this is an installation problem and reinstalled it properly. Initially our “integrated” dishwasher did not have skirting like the rest of the kitchen, and now the door is not flush with the rest of the cupboards, but at least it closes properly. As this was an installation issue not the appliance, it’s not covered under warranty. We had to pay $200 for someone who knows what they’re doing to fix Shelfords poor workmanship. We asked if Shelford will be reimbursing us this cost, but in typical Shelford style, we have received no response to multiple requests. They even replied to an email requesting reimbursement but addressing a different topic. I expect this is the first in a long list where we will have to pay again, to get things done how we have asked and already paid Shelford to do it.

There are a lot of other issues I could add, but we have moved in and are still trying to get Shelford to fix their [Content Removed] work. Sadly that has become difficult as they have stopped responding to emails. Issues like power points that wobble in their socket, water taps that rattle in the wall, a roof space full of unconnected ducting pipes, docs that say “Mitred tiling included throughout” but not receiving mitred tiling anywhere, dented roll-a-door fitted… The list could go on indefinitely. While some items have been fixed, there are a lot of defects Shelford refuse to fix, and then there are issues that can’t be fixed. We have to strategically place furniture in spots where they don't rock due to the floor being uneven. The process of fixing defects is Shelford lets the tradesman or company know you complained about something, and then you are left to fight it out with them as they try and weasel their way out of fixing their [Content Removed] work that Shelford have already signed off on. Some of them are happy to fix the issues, some are very rude and aggressive. Shelford aren't a [Content Removed] builder due to callousness, they are strategically [Content Removed] by design, it's all intentional to maximise profit. Pictured is a collage of some of our window/door fittings, while some of these look like they are waring damage from years of neglect, these photos were taken the day we got the keys, some at the completion inspection. Every window and door frame is some variation of this. Window fit and finish is normally something you don’t take notice of unless it’s bad. Now I have been taking notice and no other house I have been to has a finish as bad as we do. It’s just pathetic, like it was done by a child. We highlighted this at PCI, and it was on our list of things that required attention, but Shelford said it's fine and refused to do anything about it. I don't know what a supervisors job description is, but I would have thought a significant part of it would have been to “supervise”. Ensuring the trades do their work to a satisfactory level. Obviously, that did not happen when building our house. Even the outside looks terrible where render is all over the window frames and the manufacturer protective plastic was left on. This is now embedded in and can’t be removed. How Shelford have a reputation as a quality builder doing this sort of work is truly beyond me. In the end, it’s disappointing that our dream home turned into a nightmare thanks to Shelfords corner cutting, downgrading, and lies. Judging by the number of 5-star reviews they have, at some point Shelford must have been a quality builder. Sadly that time has passed. There’s no aspect of our house that I would call quality, everything is a half-baked rush job. Shelford are far from a ‘cheap’ builder, the base price of this house went up over $13K during the time we spent dealing with the salesman. We tried to make it easier for them by settling on some additions being from their ‘Ultimate Living’ range while we were still under the delusion that Shelford were a quality builder, supplying quality products, but that was a mistake. We now have the worst air conditioner you could ask for. It doesn't have the power to cool the house on a hot day, but it sounds like a diesel generator in the backyard. We have to keep the thing running 24/7 to receive any benefit at all. Our first power bill after handover was just under $1000, and we were only in the house for 6 weeks. The only option left is to pay to get it replaced with a completely new system by reputable company. With all the modifications and additions we made, this house cost close enough to half a million dollars, but the end result does not reflect that price. I have made many mistakes in my life but getting Shelford to build my home is at the top of the list of things I regret the most. This was meant to be our last home, and we went all in. However, the house we received is a pale shadow of the house that was sold to us and I can't see myself living here for the rest of my life. It’s a shame that on top of not being anything like the home we thought we were buying, it will forever be tainted by a bad experience with a [Content Removed] builder, and living with the ramifications of their [Content Removed] tradesman.

Images: 1. Measure twice, cut once... nope! eyeball it and fill in the gaps with offcuts 2. I don't even know how you get over-spray painting a house? 3. Paving as described in the review 4. Window positioning as described in the review. 5. A small selection of window frames as described in the review 6. Towel rail that took the weight of 2 wet towels to detach, and chip the wall as it fell

All talk no substance – We built with Shelford and I can say it was an ok experience. Lots to like about Shelford and are probably a lot better than most project builders. Our biggest issue was very little of what we chose in their secretion studio was available when they built the house and what they replaced it with was of lesser quality. Also communication with… Read more

head office was really difficult and that was disappointing.

What we like was the build itself and the trades they all seemed to take great pride in their work.

Site Supervisor saved the day on this one as he kept us up to date and had regular catch-ups.

In the end we got a house we liked, but not one we loved.

Update we had practical completion of our house in September we were told the items on the list would be rectified within 2 weeks so we signed and the bank made final payment, well it’s February still not fixed and maybe a Supervisor will come and have a look in March.

Nobody minds that mistakes are made or things break, it’s what you do about it that says everything and Shelford have done little

Would I recommend Shelford? No I would not, they are a builder with a few admirable qualities but in the end I was wrong to have thought so highly of them.

Very happy with the new build – Built a new home with Shelford. George was very helpful, throughout the entire process, it was great to have him on board. Compared with stories from my peers, the build ran quite smoothly without delays. Overall, very content with the final product. Have recommended Shelford to friends. Really happy with the tradesman as well. Show details ·  1

Kitchen Renovation – We used Shelford for a kitchen renovation. This required some major structural changes. George was fantastic in getting the ball rolling, meeting with us to discuss what we were looking for in our new kitchen and liaising with the designers to create our vision. George followed up with a site visit to see the final product. He was also proactive… Read more ·  1

in following up on our concerns when the job was complete. The design presented to us was pretty much what we were looking for and there was no issue in making the minor changes we wanted. The pre-start phase was reasonably painless although there were some glitches between what we thought we were getting and what was actually included. I feel another meeting with the client once variations have been made would be of benefit due to the the amount of paperwork that needs to be interpreted. Greg, the site manager, was great. Any issue we raised he endeavoured to correct as soon as possible, especially with the many concerns we had with the poor cabinetry. He communicated with us every step of the build. The staff at Shelford were great to work with and the kitchen looks great.