Metricon

Moved into our Agar 28 bp which is one of Metricon Award winning home (for them but not for us - very disappointed)
Our building construction process itself has been a nightmare from dealing with SS [name removed]. We had to constantly follow up with him to get an update of work progression; It has not been a time where he contacted us for an update without us following up.
We moved into the house end of July and day of handover, what needed to be fix at walk through still the same.
We did most of the upgrades in the house and the work quality that we've got is disgraceful.
- Bedroom door frame not pained :(
-Living room ceiling from Natural lights, you can see lines marks.
- Paid $10,000 for Pagoda facade and the work we got very disappointed- downpipe has been put on side of facade where according to building construction plan it should not be there. Wood frame damage.
Its a facade that is seen by everyone and yet poor quality work.
On side of facade there is a big hole which is very obvious, we did mention on handover day but hasn't heard back from anyone yet.
-upgrade our front entry door to wooden door costing $1900, the door is uneven, big gap that let air flow in and the sound it does each time opening it is shocking, this too was brought up on handover day and yet nothing heard back.
We choose Metricon because we wanted to built our dream house and the amount it cost us did not matter as we just wanted the Agar 28 but with good quality.
Where is the award winning design that Metricon you are advising your customer to look into.
At the end of the day it's poor workmanship, you pay big money but you don't get what you paid for.
Its Beautiful at contract signing but once handover seem like Metricon just don't care.
Metricon love where you live but you can only love where you live where you are at peace of mind in getting the quality building from the builder not when you walk into your home with frustration in seeing all the defeats.
Now, we have lodge all defects to warranty team, time will tell how long till they get back to us and get things fix.
Very disappointed

I'd like to put 3 stars because Metricon does not match my expectation. I thought Metrion is top 5 building company in Australia, that's the reason why we chose it. But actually, I cannot feel this is a top 5 builder.
And after serious consideration, I changed my mind, Metricon only deserves 2 stars.
Here I list some major issues for Metricon during my experience.

[Good] When making the decision, we met a very good consultant in Metricon, [name removed], he is very experienced people, help us on a lot of things which we don't know.
[Good] Before the final inspection, everything was going well. Building progress was fast, Base construction, framing, lockup, etc. Only 3-4 month.

[Bad] During the final inspection, we observe the sliding door in the family door is not fit, and the door frame is not flat, it causes the door cannot fit with the frame, and it is obvious. We told the site manager the problem, the result is, he won't fix it, he told us that it matches the standard in Australian, honestly, I doubt how deep the Australian building standard is. What he did is just adjust the door height, and it causes the door is hard to close now!

[Bad] I asked the site manager when we can hand over the key, he told us it might take 3 or 4 weeks after the final inspection. I am surprised, so triple confirmed with him, and got confirmed. So I was happy to prepare the movement. But actually, it took 8 weeks! I am lucky I didn't trust him but prepared enough buffer days.

[Bad] In hand over day, we found site path is not cleaned, Rocks, crushed concrete block, some timber, some tools rubbish are there. The land is not flat, and some sand is not moved out. Can you believe it is the top 5 builder's clean up job?

[Bad] There are something needs to be fixed, for example, a hole in the wall behind the entry door, and we wait for 2 weeks after moving in. Then, the worker came and fix it, but the worker challenges us why we broke it. Are you kidding me? This is a pre-existing bug in the property and confirmed by the site manager, otherwise, how could you be asked to fix it? I don't understand how could the Metricon choose the supplier.

[Bad] 2-3 weeks later after we moved in, we found the entry door is not fit with the frame. We upgrade the door to a bigger size, and they still use a very short screw to mount the door in the frame, someone came and fixed it, and when we ask them why using so short screw, we are told it is Australian's standard AGAIN!

[Bad] We upgraded one item: Rangehood duct to outside through the roof, it costs us around $600. And for the final inspection day, the rangehood is not installed yet, and we didn't see the duct pipe is installed and through the roof, so we asked the site manager. He promised us it will be there when the rangehood is installed. And we asked him how could we or you know it is installed, can we/you go to the attic to check it. He told us we are not allowed, we should trust him or Metricon. We did!!! After 5 weeks, because I need to put something in the attic, I went there, and I found the duct to the outside is not installed at all!!! And the rangehood pipe is covered by an insulation.
I do need to show you the picture of the attic, I'd like to ask Metricon, who are you hiring to do the job. It is really messed up.
Back to the rangehood problem, I call Metricon to send someone to fix it, 3 calls,
The first time, told me the site manager will contact me.
The second time, told me, I should be patient, wait for 24-48 hours, the site manager will contact me.
The third time, told me, really, the site manager didn't contact you? OK, the site manager will contact me.

Now, you can understand how could Metricon handle their customer. Metricon does hire some experienced support guys!

There are more minor issues, I won't waste my time to complain Metricon, because I will not choose them anymore and I will not recommend it to anyone.

In conclusion:
If you are building an investment house, build it, rent it or sell it. Metricon is your choice, it is faster, it looks like good.

If you are building for yourself to stay, and you don't have high-quality requirement, just need someplace to have a sleep, Metricon is your choice.

Othewise, you need to spend a lot of time and patient to deal with Metricon.

It started off as a quick build - around 20 weeks. Got occupancy permit on Date of issue: 10-July-2018.
Did the Metricon QA and also used a third party to do a quality inspection. First QA was done on June the 1st 2018. Its coming up to 9 weeks just to get defects finished so we can move in. Lots more to add after we actually settle!!!

Started our engagement with Metricon in July 2017 and current at the construction stage of our new home build.

Our experience to date initially has been very disappointing.

I’ll summarise it into the following categories

1. Pre-construction Stage
This stage has been a nightmare taking at least 11 months to complete
• Studio M Tour and Variations
o Kitchen, Carpet and Electrical appointments were fantastic – received all our variations via email within days of our appointment and all changes acknowledged, revised and sent back for our sign off. Staff were on top of their game.
o Internal, External and Tiling variations – very different story. Examples:
 - It took over 10 months (til April 2018) for our final tiling variation
 - Internal variations took over 5 months to get from version 2 to version 3 with many items requested missing from the first version.
• Continue delays to receive final plans and costing
o It took more than 1 year (May 2018) for Metricon provide us with all final plans, variations and final cost and payment schedule. Multiple incorrect versions and missing various variations.
o In this time
 - We had our existing tenants vacate from our property leaving an empty house for at least 4 months (Feb 18-Jun18) after encountering delay after delay on Metricon’s end.
 - Unable to finalise our final finance approval and demolition as we were waiting for all the final documents from Metricon
• The Biggest Red Flag – Misleading Price Promise Guarantee
o Metricon has what they call a “Price Promise Guarantee” where they will keep the base price of the house static for up to 240 days. If the customer causes delay to this process, the house base price is increased at a pro rata
o Despite all the delays and receiving late variation (All within the builder’s control) and having an empty house for 4 months. Metricon still charged us a Fee/Variation, even though Metricon clearly could not deliver the documents in a timely manner! Madness.
o When trying to resolve these issues. Metricon has been reluctant to provide a response to some of our specific concerns (especially in writing). We still haven’t received a response.
• Staff Interactions
o Our Customer Service Representative (CSR) has been courteous and friendly however should have been more proactive and accountable to address our concerns.
o Dealing with the Customer Support Manager (CSM) was painful. She was unresponsive and added no value to the situation. Multiple calls and emails for days were left unanswered when trying to contact the CSM to seek clarity on Variations where there were clear deadlines.
o Interestingly, our calls were not picked up when we called the CSM and CSR directly however, our calls would be picked up straight away when we were redirected from the head office switch line on the website. So, I know definitely our calls were avoided.
o Operations Manager - It was only until we have had our issue escalate to the Operations Manager very late in the piece (we should have done this earlier) that things started to move. I feel sorry for him for having to pick up the mess left behind. But overall, he did a good job to mediate the conversation, including finding a suitable resolution to the “Price Promise” Variation, required to get into the construction stage. However, once we got to the “Construction” stage, we have not had any response to date regarding our “Price Promise/Contract Expiry” variation issue.

2. Construction Stage
• To date, construction has been a breath of fresh air from the Pre-Construction stage.
• The site Managers we have had Danny and Michael have been fantastic. Responsive, contactable, transparent and delivering as promised.
• The Construction support team have also been very responsive and helpful
• No complaints and only praises here to date, happy to have them onboard.

My advice for others building or looking to build with Metricon
• Write down and keep track of all the selections you make during your Studio M tour. In our case multiple items were missed in our variations which we had to proactively inform the team ourselves
• Have all responses and corresponds in writing / email. There will be no trace of it in a few months’ time.
• Do not feel pressured to sign anything if unsure – always ask questions
• If you encounter any issues which can not be resolved in under a week, escalate it quickly
• If you’re walking through a display home and see something you like. Take photos and take note of small things which you may not think about such as how many lights are in the room

I hope this helps anyone looking to build with Metricon. I’m confident that the construction will be fantastic and of high quality however Metricon has a very long way to go in terms of customer service and end to end experience. Charging customers for delays within Metricon’s control is a disgrace and disregards basic consumer rights.

Especially when Metricon themselves have a “Price Promise Guarantee”.
We are still in the process of disputing the additional Price Promise variation, which Metricon is yet to communicate with us to get this resolved.

I will post another review once construction has completed.

Feel free to send me a private message if you have any questions or experienced any similar issues

We’ve been asked by many of our friends, family, work colleagues and even some complete strangers, for our experience and feedback on building our new home with Metricon.

Firstly, some details about our home build and please refer to our previous review for more information. In summary, we chose the knock-down-rebuild option with Metricon, in an inner Bayside suburb in Melbourne. Our home is one of Metricon’s higher spec and larger homes in their range.

This is the first time we’ve built a new home, so we’ve taken the time to jot down some of our experiences, feedback and learnings from our new home build with Metricon;

1) Firstly, and this is the most important point we would like to emphasise and in hindsight, we are also extremely thankful we did this, as this advise was also given to us prior to starting our build.

If you want to ensure you have a quality built home, which is structurally sound and defect free, then you need to engaged the services of an independent and reputable Building Inspector, who works directly for you, before you begin your build.

We really can’t underestimate how important this point is and we highly recommend that anyone undertaking a new home build with any builder, always engages a reputable Building Inspector to thoroughly inspect each stage of their build.

Although you may believe your builder has high standards, they are still engaging third party independent Contractors, many of whom will vastly differ in their experience, professionalism and expertise, all of which will definitely impact the quality and structural integrity of your new home build.

We were referred to [name removed] from IOA Building Inspectors and Consultants and have found him extremely professional and diligent, identifying hundreds of defects throughout each stage of our build (point in note, many of these defects were not identified by Metricon staff or their Contractors). These defects, some of which were also major structural defects, did not comply to minimum Australian Building Standards. It’s important to note here, that any builder is only required to comply with minimum Australian Building Standards. That said, another reason why you should not undertake any new build without first engaging a reputable and experienced Building Inspector and be sure to have them also check the workmanship after each major Building stage. Yes, this is an additional expense to your build, however what price do you place on your home being structurally sound and defect free?

2) Ensure your builder has captured all your selections before you sign off on the final paperwork.

When making selections for your home, especially your Electrical selections, thoroughly go over the paperwork and review all the detail to ensure your builder has accurately captured all your selections and choices.

In our case, and due to the large size of our home, we had three full and solid days of appointments at Metricon’s Studio M selections Centre and despite our experience being overall an positive one at this time, we noted that once our build began, many of our selections were either missed or mistakes were made. We had to then review again all our selections and correspondence with Metricon to get these mistakes rectified.

Something we found very disappointing though, was that on several occasions during our build, and despite us having clear and pointed evidence that the mistakes and oversights were of Metricon’s or their Contractors fault, Metricon either refused to make good the mistakes or we were charged many thousands of dollars in Contract Variation fees to have their mistakes corrected. And despite us being railroaded into paying Metricon this money, many of their mistakes to this day have still not been rectified.

Not only did we find this component of our build very disappointing, but also dishonest on Metricon’s part, as we had clear and pointed evidence (such as email correspondence and paperwork) that these mistakes were of Metricon’s doing. However, given we were locked into the web of building with Metricon, we really had no choice but to pay Metricon thousands of dollars in their dishonest fees and additional charges to resolve the mistakes which they had caused.

We also attempted on several occasions to escalate this matter to the highest levels of Metricon Management. However, this was all to no avail and fell completely on deaf ears. All they were focussed on were their fees and charges and us paying them thousands of dollars in additional monies for their mistakes. These fees and charges were all neatly disguised in their dishonest Contract Variation fees and additional fees, which they said we had to pay in order to resolve the litany of mistakes which they had caused.

3) An experienced and professional Site Supervisor makes all the difference.

The experience, professionalism and integrity of the Site Supervisor (whom your Builder will appoint), makes all the difference to your build.

We were quite lucky (and yes, it was pure luck), that Metricon appointed an experienced and professional Site Supervisor to oversee the building of our home, whom we have enjoyed working with. He has also co-ordinated with the many trades to ‘make good’ the defects which our Building Inspector had identified (eg. defects which don’t comply to minimum Australian Standards and there were hundreds of them throughout each of our building stages).

4) Ensure you receive regular updates on your Build.

In our case building with Metricon, our Site Supervisor provided us with weekly phone updates on our build. We also visited site with our Site Supervisor once each building milestone was completed. Due to our build being quite large, we allowed at least 1 hour for each site visit.

And importantly, if you don’t understand or are unsure about anything to do with your build, then be sure to ask your Site Supervisor plenty of questions, so you clearly understand what’s going on and be sure to document their responses.

5) Upgrading ‘standard’ items and future proofing your build

We found that many of the ‘standard’ items included in our Build were simply not up to the quality we expected.

We also ‘googled’ many of the brands and items which were ‘standard’ inclusions in our build and found that on the many web sites (including this site), they had very poor reviews and were rated as inherently breakdown prone or riddled with problems.

In our case, we upgraded our two hot water systems to Rinnai, our windows/doors to double glazing, our kitchen appliances to Miele, our roofing and wall insulation to higher grade ratings, floor coverings (including upgrading the carpet underlay), heating system to a Bosch hydronic heating unit and cooling to an Actron zoned refrigerated air conditioning unit.

We also upgraded many other items, however the mandatory items in our opinion which should as a minimum be upgraded are the hot water system, kitchen appliances, hydronic heating and roofing/wall insulation. It may cost you some tens of thousands of dollars to upgrade these items, however this initial outlay will save you future angst, upset and provide peace of mind knowing you have quality items in your house that are unlikely to break down and also reduce the likelihood of having to replace them into the near future.

For our upgraded hydronic heating, apart from it being better quality and cheaper to run, another reason we upgraded our heating to hydronic is that one of our children suffers from asthma and hydronic heating is radiated ‘clean’ heat, so won’t generates dust and other nasties into the air, which can exacerbate asthma.

Upgrading items will add to the future resale value of your home and we’ve also learned following our build, that Miele appliances can attract substantial discounts, if purchased through your builder (assume due to their bulk buying power), so be sure Metricon or your builder passes-on any of these discounts to you.

We also ‘future proofed’ our home, by including pre-wiring for solar panels and upgraded the internet/phone connection points in our home to fast speed cable for compatibility to the nbn network. We would have preferred optical fibre wiring, however we had to settle for cable, as nbn was only providing this technology as standard to our area.

You may also want to investigate upgrading the garage access to the backyard to a second roller door (instead of the conventional door which is standard). We upgraded to a second roller door in our garage, as we are planning on building a lap pool and landscaping our backyard and this will allow for a much wider access point.

6) Expect and allow for delays in your build

Expect delays in your build, due to either unpleasant weather, defects and workmanship that needs to be made good (due to not meeting minimum Australian Building Standards) or situations where Contractors are overdue in finalising build stages.

Unfortunately, we experienced major delays in our build, due to all three of the items noted above. Firstly, the wet weather in Melbourne (especially during winter) is guaranteed to delay your build, as it did ours... secondly, we experienced additional delays when our Building Inspector continually found hundreds of defects at each build stage. Some of these were major structural defects and we had other significant quality issues during our build (which didn’t meet minimum Australian Building Standards), so Metricon had to facilitate with their various Contractors to have all these defects rectified, which again took additional time... thirdly, we also experienced several weeks of inactivity and delay as Metricon were unable to source a team of Contractors to construct our frame. This was disappointing as there was no work done at our site for several weeks, as the Frame stage is a critical path stage to the successive build stages.

Before we started building and despite Metricon staff optimistically forecasted to us, which was 6 months to build our home, we personally forecast a build timeframe of at least 8 months, from Slab pour to handover (to allow for any delays). However, the actual time take taken was more than double Metricon’s estimate, as it has taken Metricon more than 14 months to achieve handover and deliver our home to us. If we add demolition of our previous home to this figure, then the total time from when we demolished our old home and moved into our newly constructed home was just over 16 months. One percent of these delays was due to inordinate weather, however 99% was due to delays caused directly by Metricon with zero building activity at our site for several weeks (especially during the critical path Frame stage), as well as the extraordinary amount time Metricon and their Contractors have taken to rectify the hundreds of defects identified by our Building Inspector at each build stage (and some of these were major structural defects).

The important lesson here is, expect and allow for delays in your build. If you engage a Building Inspector delays will definitely occur, as Metricon will be forced to make good the hundreds of defects which your Building Inspector identifies. Ideally, you should factor these delays into your build timeframe and budget (eg. in circumstances such as organising alternate accommodation whilst your new home is being built). Consider it a bonus if you move into your new home early or on time!

7) The final progress payment

It appears to be an ‘unwritten rule’ in the building industry, where savvy customers will withhold the final progress payment from their builder, until all build defects and issues are rectified.

We were also advised to do this and so we withheld the final progress payment, until all the defects which our Building Inspector highlighted (again, defects which don’t comply to minimum building standards), were resolved.

Do be aware though that withholding the final progress payment will mean you can’t take possession and move into your home. However, in our view, this is a very small price to pay to ensure you have certainty in knowing that all highlighted defects are resolved prior to moving into your new home.

Also, apparently it can be a ‘challenge’ to get the Metricon Warranty Team to return to your home once you pay the final progress payment and move in, which we have also experienced (point in note, many other reviews on this website also confirm this fact). This is more credence why you should withhold the final payment until all defects and issues are resolved.

8) Feedback on Metricon employees

Our experience with Metricon staff has been a semi-positive one. Many of their employees are professional, provide good customer experience and have an organised approach.

Our ‘Customer Support Co-ordinator’ [name removed] (who was our first point of Contact with Metricon), organised our Contract in a very efficient and effective manner. Although we were disappointed that many of our selections were missed, we did enjoy this stage and working with [name removed]. Our experience at Studio M (where we chose selections for our home), was also pleasant.

However, once we finalised our Contract, we then had to work with a Building Support Co-ordinator’ ([name removed]). Alas, we did not enjoy dealing with her at all, mainly due to her dogmatic and aggressive attitude. We also found her to be in no way geared toward working with us as the Customer. In fact, toward the end of our build, [name removed]’s combative attitude became so toxic, that we requested no further contact with her and instead we only communicated with our Site Supervisor. Shameful and embarrassing really, that Metricon brand themselves as a ‘Customer’ focused organisation and then they allow such individuals with zero customer focus and a toxic attitude, to be placed in customer facing roles.

From our experience and as noted above, the most important person we dealt with in the process of our Build was our Site Supervisor ([name removed]). He steered our home through each stage and was professional. Where he was provided feedback on defect and quality issues identified by our Building Inspector, he had them rectified.

Overall we would have rated our Build experience with Metricon 5 stars, however they lost 3 stars from our rating, due to taking more than 14 months to Construct our home, the toxic attitude of our Building Support Co-ordination and that we remain very disappointed with the dishonest manner in which Metricon administered the selections for our home, where they either didn’t include many of our selections during the build (which we paid them for), where there were hundreds of defects and mistakes made by their employees and contractors throughout our build, or in circumstances where Metricon had us pay them considerable sums of money (many thousands of dollars) in dishonest Contract variation fees, which should never have been applied. Point in note, these fees were charged to us for circumstances which were entirely out of our control and not our fault, and where we had clear and pointed evidence (eg. email correspondence with Metricon) that the mistakes or oversights were directly of Metricon’s and/or their Contractors fault.

We are also disappointed that following handover, we now have to rectify and make good many of these mistakes which were overlooked by Metricon, at considerable expense to us. Again, this was despite us having already paid Metricon for each of our selections or items which now require rectification, in effect we are now paying twice, originally to Metricon and then to the other trades which we now need to engage to rectify the mistakes made by Metricon in our home, additional cost to us to the tune of thousands of dollars.

Further, we have been extremely patient in waiting more than 14 months for Metricon to finish our home. The extra ordinary time taken to build our home with Metricon, was due to their delays, with several weeks of inactivity in building our home and Metricon having to rectify the hundreds of defects (some of which were major structural defects) continuously found by our Independent Building Inspector, during each stage of our build. Apart from this lengthy build timeframe, it also added tens of thousands of dollars in additional costs to our build budget, whilst we were waiting for Metricon to complete our home. Additional costs we’ve spent on accommodation for our family during our build and having to pay for interest on a Mortgage for a home which was well overdue and past the expected move in date.

Overall, may we reiterate ‘buyer beware’, that anyone reading this review and looking to build a new home with Metricon, apart from taking note of above, you should always engage an Independent Building Inspector (who works directly for you), to check the quality of each build stage. In our experience, they are 100% guaranteed to identify hundreds of defects (including major structural defects), which Metricon staff and their Contractors will simply not identify and in our experience, rectifying these defects will also lead to considerable delays in your build.

Predictably, we expect to receive a templated response to this review from a Metricon Marketing Graduate to the tune of, “please contact Bla Bla in our friendly Marketing Department to resolve your issues”. However as we have clearly pointed out earlier, we have already attempted on several occasions no less, to escalate this matter to the highest levels of Metricon Management and this was all to no avail and fell completely on deaf ears.

Disappointingly, in our experience, the collective focus of this organisation is to extract as much revenue from customers as possible, regardless of the consequences, and in our case, this was done so dishonestly. Metricon’s business model is also very un-Australian and against the values which we hold true in this Country.

The many thousands of dollars in fees and charges which were levied against us during our build, were all neatly disguised in their dishonest 'Contract Variation' fees and additional charges, which we felt bullied into paying and clearly we were railroaded into paying this money, so that Metricon would continue to progress with the build on our home and to (partly) resolve the litany of mistakes which Metricon employees and their contractors had caused throughout our build. Our Building Inspector has also provided us with several detailed reports (with pictures) which were undertaken at each build stage, further proof that the litany of mistakes throughout our build, were directly caused by Metricon and their contractors.

One could draw similar parallels of our experience building with Metricon, to that of the Banking sector, where the current Royal Commission into the Banking sector is unravelling page-by-page the dishonest and illegal activities of several banks, were they were charging customers ‘fees and charges’ for services which were never delivered or where the ‘fees and charges’ were levied against Customers, for services which were not at their fault or never requested.

In sum, if we do choose to build another new home into the future, we would not engage Metricon as our preferred builder.

Fixing invoice issued on 22nd March 2018 and still no PCI date yet. Construction period of 45 weeks ends next week, week after week we visit the property and there is no progress - really frustrated. Now I wonder what the quality will be like internally. My friends who built other builders such as Wisdom & Masterton and started construction 2 months after we did have already moved in.

We paid a premium price thinking the end product will be high quality and delivered on time. I've already found some defects externally, pretty sure there will be plenty internally.

If you're looking to construct in the future please make note of Metricon's compensation policy for delays : $30/day only whereas other builders offer more than $40/day.

I found the whole experience up until occupancy permit to be very good, probably 4.5 stars.
But as soon as I paid that final payment, customer service levels plummeted. My site supervisor was suddenly never able to be contacted and it would take days to receive a call back from somebody in the office.
Now dealing with the quality team is even worse. There is a growing crack in the concrete in front of my house, and apparently Metricon is not liable because I told them I drove a Kanga Loader down the side of my house which is over 5m away from the crack! What is also just ridiculous is that the concrete in question is part of and connected to the driveway which is supposed to be able to support a car that could weigh 2 tonnes.....
The second you pay your money its a totally different service level with Metricon.

We found the Bordeaux by chance on the intranet and then visited the Melbourne display twice. We narrowed our choice to either the metricon Bordeaux or the Charleston Hampton. We made the wrong choice.
The contract and approval stage was slow and drawn out. Due to metricon delays getting Council approval, the contract date expired and they wanted to charge us $20k extra as the base price had increased- no more work, just because the time expired by a few weeks. We refused and weren’t charged but you have to be prepared to walk away, which I was and should have. The biggest frustration is you deal with different people throughout, there’s not one person that is continuous.
The build started in March 16 and we pushed hard to be in by Christmas which they did and we were ecstatic about the house. We knew that by pushing to be in by Christmas some things would need to be done later and we accepted that.
In feb 17 we were hit with a hail storm. We made our claim and the insurer refused to get the roof fixed because it doesn’t meet Australian standard. The pitch was below 2degrees and ours had pitch of 1-1.5 in several parts according to their report. After many emails, follow up and calls we had a trade come out and they said the roof is fine. After pushing for a signed report stating this fact, we had a senior manager come to the house in jan 18. He got on the roof with a level and said it’s fine, except for where someone must have trodden on it. I said no one had been on the roof except for metricon and his well rehearsed reply was “ well you have an aerial, so he must have done it”. Is the roof so unstable that someone walking on it changes the pitch?. Another example of metricon well rehearsed responses.
During the same visit I raised the fact that we had an ensuite leaking and had now been re-tiled for the second time with grout left all over the new carpet- showing him pictures. He was very indignant and said he’d get on to it to get it fixed. Well it’s now May and the ensuite has just been re-tiled for the third time and we still have no shower screen. The main ensuite has also had the screen removed for the last 6 weeks and was to be be reinstalled by today and I’ve just been told it won’t be as the tiler didn’t finish part of it, who knows when it will be done- I don’t !!
We got 4 bathrooms for a reason, not to have a backup when 2 are out of action!
Other issues include:
- leaking garage roof to the extent the ceiling was about to fall in.
- Crack in the landing of our $10k upgrade staircase.
- All skirtings and architraves going yellow- metricon would not allow us to use mat paint, only high gloss oil base which goes yellow- who’s living in this house us or Metricon?
- Doors squeak ridiculously loud.
- Doors don’t close properly.
- The front door still isn’t sealed so it lets a draft in and shakes.
- The hebel around each of the external sliding doors is cracking.
- Plus other general paint and maintenance issues.
The most recent surprise was the fact we realised we didn’t have an interim occupation certificate- in the rush to move us in prior to Christmas.
The downstairs rear of the house has 3.5m ceilings so we have three steps leading to the kitchen area. The recent house inspection to get an occupation certificate has revealed these steps are too wide and don’t meet Australian standards so they have to be rectified. I can guarantee that the new tiles that were imported from Italy will not match the previous batch. Are metricon going to retire our whole bottom floor? How can a professional builder get the basics wrong- how do they build 3 brick stairs that fail the Australian Standard? We are still waiting on a resolution to this one!
There’s many more details but frankly it’s too frustrating to continually deal with.
Overall, in my opinion, for the price of a Bordeaux you don’t get the quality you’d expect and would be better off with a custom build.
It’s a great looking house and it’s a real shame I’ve had to write this review as I would have preferred to refer people to metricon. All I want is what I paid for, to the quality you would expect for a $1m+ build or give me my money back and I’ll get someone else to do it.
More updates to follow.
Considering a Bordeaux? Do yourself a favour and Bordon’t!

My journey with Metricon started on a high in May 2017 as my sales consultant was as good as it gets. After finalizing the initial contract I was allocated a customer service coordinator who was in charge of my build and my only contact person and that's where my experience started getting sour.

1. When ever I asked my customer service coordinator for any changes which I was entitled to before signing the main contract, I always received a negative answer that it can't be done or it is not possible (it happened twice) and ultimately I had to go back to my initial sales consultant who miraculously got things done within a day. This made me question my coordinators work ethic and her attitude towards her clients.

2. I signed the finale contract in Oct 2017 and paid the 5% deposit and the whole reason for doing everything so early was to stay ahead of other builders in my stage as the developers guide lines would not permit similar facades/features near each other.

3. My land title got delayed till March 2018. For the first month after the land was titled I kept on chasing my service coordinator for the progress and I kept on receiving different reasons. Sometimes there were changes which they had to do before submitting it for developers approval and I had these changes included but were taken out by Metricon as they were not needed. Then there was some report which was ordered and nothing could be done before the report comes back. I was told this was the norm.
In the meantime I had other builders (Carlisle, Mimosa) who had already got the developers approval and I was not even close to applying. As my approval submission was delayed and hence I was told to change a few things as they were similar to other applications which were lodged before me. If Metricon were as efficient as other builders then my application would have been one of the first ones.

I had to mention that whilst all this was going my coordinator went on leave for about 10 days and my project was on a stand still.

Right now we are still awaiting for the developers approval (after 2.5 months of land being titled) and the there is still the process of applying for the councils approval. As I write Carlisle and Mimosa have already got there fences up to start the build in my stage.

As I had enough discussion with my coordinator re my delay and she kept on reading me her script re Metricon's process and guidelines.

In the end I requested to speak to her supervisor and also requested her to give me in writing the whole delay after the land titlement.

Guess what she was not able to put me through me supervisor as they were also busy but assured me a call back the same day.

It's been two day since and I still haven't received any call back. I have even tried ringing the supervisor/manger directly but they were also not available.

If I would not have paid 5% deposit I would have happily left Metricon and gone with another builder but now I can't.

It's a shame that my journey with Metricon which started on such a high as the initial sales consultant was so good and is even helping me till now had to come to such a low.

We are so disappointed for the experience with Metricon, concerned quality and irresponsible customer service.

Unfortunately, on 26/03/18, the window of our living room (GF) started leaking, and soon spread to the wall and ceiling, then water came down from the LED light which just like a fountain.

It was so sad that we just got the brand new furniture and formally moved in on 24/03/18 (Just 2 Days!). Ceiling, LED light, the plaster wall, sofa and rag all got terribly wet. More importantly, the herringbone european oak flooring were damaged, water permeated to the bottom from the skirting.

All these made us extremely annoying!!!

And even for such an emergency issue, the customer coordinator ([name removed]） initially told me the plumber to be scheduled to come 3 days later which just like a joke. Our home would become a swimming pool.

Anyway, with our insists, she got the plumber to come that night which was appreciated.

Soon after that, we email her to get the trades to come to fix the damage and compensate for the damage.

But it becomes our another nightmare. It has been 6 weeks already from her last email! I recently sent her email for several times, her irresponsible behavior is so disheartened!!!

The other serious issue raised on 20th April, the roof board also leaking from the gap area which made me so frustrated. We email her soon after we found the issue.

But nothing got from her as well.

We have been waited for her final reply for 10 weeks already which is absolutely acceptable!!!

By the way, one star is for the site manager, he is kind and responsible.

I will report the issues to DBDR by this week, and would consider to go VCAT if we still can not get appropriate response soon.

Poor finish of the whole building. Paint work, flooring, wet area tiling, calking etc.
Uses poor quality window frames- Southern Star band.
Poor communication and customer care after the hand over - ( good communication up until the last bank cheque was paid).
Did not complete the 90 days maintenance request as requested.
Got given a letter of undertaking to replace a cabinet door- never heard from anyone so far despite numerous emails.
Certainly not worth the money spent, I have compared with other contemporary houses built by other builders and also with my previous experience with other builders. I was blindfolded by the fact that they will do a better job because they are big in the business and you pay them more than an average builder but it's proven that I was wrong!
I have had a professional building inspector inspected the building and he commented on some of the work as "untradesman like finish"!.
Whenever I asked something from the supervisor he says "its within the standards" -did not care at all about the finish. (in other words- its good enough to get an occupancy permit)

So in my experience pls do your research and compare the builders. Smaller builders are much better than cooperate level builders as they are trying to gain more market share and keen to offer more.

I am now building my home with Metricon. It is under construction .

I have engaged an independent building inspector but Metricon site team has been refusing to follow the independent surveyor’s report. This is the email reply I got from the site team when I sent to them the independent building inspector’s report on frame:

“Thanks for the report. As discussed This report is between you and you inspector. If their are items in the report that we need to rectify then we will but this will not stop us from moving forward. As explained we go by the building surveyors inspections, which is check point.”

There are only 2 defects in the frame inspection report prepared by Metricon’s building surveyor.

However, in the independent building inspection reports, there are 22 types of defects at numerous points, all indicated clearly by referring to Building Code of Australia, Building Regulations and Australian Standards. The defects range from engineering issues, shortcuts in installation to the use of material not complying with regulations.

Metricon sent me the invoice for the frame stage even though they didn’t have the frame approval from Metricon’s own building surveyor. When I replied by saying that I would only pay after receiving approval from Metricon’s building surveyor as stated in the contract, the site coordinator was furious and told me off over the phone.

I understand site works do not always go smoothly and defects do occur. As long as defects and non-compliances are rectified then we can just move on. But the situation now is that I have been told more than once verbally and in writing by th site team that Metricon does not need to address the defects in the independent inspection report because owners paid for the independent inspector, not Metricon, and it is Metricon’s policy to only to respond to their own surveyor’s report.

There have been a number of instances showing the oppressive nature of the site team, One of them is warning me not to send any email because site coordinator would not entertain. At this point of time, I am not ready to share all of these in public because I am already feeling the repercussions. I just hope that all defects will be rectified accordingly before it is too late.

I wrote the first part of the review above after the my frame inspection but eventually couldn’t bring myself to submit it to Product Review, thinking that the situation might get better because my independent inspection company contacted Metricon’s management regarding the non cooperative attitude of the site team. But I was wrong

To my disappointment, at the following pre-plaster inspection, we were told that the piping was not completed (they claimed that it was due to vandalism) and the inspector found out that quite a number of frame defects have not been rectified.

One of the many pending issues is the lintels in a few locations, which does not comply with the minimum requirement of Australian Standards. But the site coordinator still argued with the inspector that Metricon’s engineering team approved it.

Now I’m on the verge of losing confidence with Metricon and have no choice but to spend more money to rearrange for another frame re-inspection and pre-plaster inspection, hoping that the pending issues will have been addressed at the upcoming inspection. I just hope that from now on, the project will be handled more ethically and professionally.

At first we though we are good to build with Metricon. It sounds promising. We supposed to be signing our contract next week. We been through all the changes we want including color scheme and back and fort correspondence -- confusion back and fort too due to the change of Sales Coordinator. Our base price that supposed to be locked for 12 months was increased because the first Sale Consultant left and didnt submit the document to locked it - even if we paid the money to fixed it. Delays due to Sales Rep giving us options of facade that was not fit to our lot or layout that was not compliant to what we already requested and so many times, credit that we supposed to give us due to changing carpet to timber flooring, reduce size of outdoor/dining etc. The supposed to be "fixed site" cost that we signed during the locked price was increased, due to "Slab upgrade due to the existing fill on site that we not counted for the initial fixed site cost estimate". The Standard slab is M but teh fixed site cost supposed to be increased only if Soil Test result to be E or S and need change slab accordingly. Our soil test is H, which is common to Western Suburb areas.
They don't want to give the credit, blaming us for the confusion and correction of the layout that we already requested that didn't reflected on their layouts and wants to charge extra for the site cost before the contract signing when we already got our finances sorted and the Contract price they want us to sign is above our maximum capacity.

We considering to find other builder now. We dont want further stress.

Metricon finished to build our house but leave something need to be fix after settle: the stair case and some part of the wall need to be pain again; my upgrading wooden folding door need to be pain and fix (it cost me over $15,000 upgrade the wooden door, it cannot fold to the end). We paid in full and believed them as they promised if we find out any problem need to be fix in the first 3 months after settle, they will send people come and check. Because we are harry to move in and we agree with Metricon that they can send the painter as soon as they can (because if paint the stair case, we can't go upstairs), we leave all the furniture in downstairs and try to contact with Metricon. However, both the project manager and office lady, no one reply our mail, call and message.

Furthermore, we find out one of window in my master room can not be open up because there is a brick in front of it and the brick need to be remove. And two of the windows are very hard to open because the wall on the side of the window is not straight, so when I open the awning window, the side of the window will attaché the outside wall. that is very very bad construction.

Never paid in full if they are not fix all the problems! However, if they keep delay for few weeks and months, customer have to pay the rent or interest for few hundreds a week and Metricon only will pay $39/day for the delay fee that is not worth as well.

We have a contract for construction of a new house with Metricon in NSW. The house is about 70% complete. In November 2017 an independent building inspector identified many serious defects, some are structural. It was quite fortunate we had organised an extra inspection at this point. Most people would not do this and would be unaware of major defects until the final handover time, if at all. Our experience suggests Metricon’s contractors’ work is not adequately supervised or checked for quality. Metricon seems hurried in moving from one step to the next without checking their contractors workmanship. If any defects are found early on, to keep the job moving Metricon promises they will be fixed later to allow them to issue the next progress payment invoice. It's more likely most customers will only identify defective workmanship just prior to completion in the ’Pre Completion Inspection’, and many others will not notice anything. By this stage, unfortunately, customers are in a vulnerable position, anxious to move in, possibly having nowhere else to live, and their finances stretched. Metricon will promise to fix everything later under warranty and require the customer signs a ’Practical Completion Form’ before they can move in. It seems getting things fixed properly after handover can be very difficult and time consuming. We suggest thinking very carefully about Metricon’s organisational culture and conduct before signing up and, during your build, inspecting their workmanship regularly and carefully - both by yourself, as well as using an independent inspection service.

We did a knock down and rebuild with Metricon in North Sydney council area. We've had 3 site managers in total during the build. When specific issues were identified by my private 3rd party building inspector during construction, these issues were notified in writing (with pictures) to the site manager. Each site manager would always say, "oh yes, we already knew about those issues" and proceeded to PROMISE rectification. Of course, alot of these issues would never be rectified and then along comes the next site manager. The next site manager of course would conveniently forget about those previously identified issues and when we pointed them out to him, he would blame the previous site manager for "not handing over" properly. The problem in construction is that, if an issue identified early on during construction is not rectified before the nest stage begins, then that issue can become a nightmare to fix later on down the track. And of course, that "new" site manager would conveniently quit Metricon again within a few months and then we have a new one to deal with. Admin staff at the office is the same. We would have to change our point of contact multiple times. If we identified any issues at all, it would take months and repeated emails from us to follow up. And then when you finally get those tradesmen attending your home to fix the issues, those tradies are completely clueless as to what the issues are. i.e. there is zero communication between the head office/site managers to the tradesmen who are tasked with the job. We knocked down our house in Feb 2016. Didn't get handover until May 2017. Took alot longer than the initial "9 months" as promised by the initial site manager. We would highly recommend engaging an external building inspector when you do your construction. They have picked up multiple construction issues which I would never have noticed. The latest issue is trying to get a final stormwater certificate from Metricon. Issues at the initial inspection were already highlighted by the consultant to Metricon back in August 2017. Well Jan 2018 is almost over and we still don't have the certificate. You find yourself constantly having to double check Metricon's work and constantly having to chase them. With the revolving door of admin staff it gets a bit tiresome.

Hi guys,

Please be very careful when selecting Metricon to build your house especially their lackluster customer service and build quality. They do not like to take responsibility for the defects that they have done.

The build quality is around 6/10 but there are quite a few issues that we have noticed when after we moved in.

1) We moved in on February 2017. We were given the 90 days maintenance service to fix things. The list were expired on May and they were supposed to come out after that to fix everything up. However, it's November now and still not everything have been rectified. E.g. Raised carpet, small holes on the ceiling, torn flyscreen, broken kitchen light and etc. All of these were happened prior to handover and they failed to pick this errors up. The building manager then told me to put those items in during our handover day so they could be fixed after 90 days. Since then, I have emailed over and over and over again to the support team which they said they will follow up but it is all obviously an empty promise.

2) Slab overflow (encroachment) - https://imgur.com/a/dBRri Here is a link to some photos to show you how bad the defect and overflow. So, my garage is built on boundary and it looks all good at the beginning. However, when my right hand neighbour has decided to build by excavating to get a retaining wall going, they came to me to notify me about the slab overflow. Apparently, that is considered as an encroachment into my neighbour's land even in the legal term (be it underground footing or not). Therefore, I went and talk to a Metricon building manager, [name removed] who is responsible for my case. What do you know! [Name Removed] called me back and told me that is a common practice and it's the neighbour's reponsibility to fix my encroachment? I was like what?!! I don't think it is my neighbour or my responsibility to rectify this since I have paid Metricon to do a good job in accordance to the contract. A building inspector that I have spoken to was saying the same thing as well and he is prepared to write a report about this. Even the building compliance officer at my local district council has called me up to ask Metricon to fix this encroachment. From what I have gathered on concrete slab pouring on boundary, the concrete specialist should have put a metal sheet prior to slab pouring in the first place to prevent this encroachment. Metricon flat out refused to rectify this issue which is a very big fail on their behalf. I am at loss of word.

Initially, I chose to select Metricon to build my home because of all the research and positive feedbacks that i have gotten and gathered. Metricon have even scored 4.3/5 from this site based on thousands of reviews. That equals to 86% out of 100% which is a high distinction in any standard. TWO thing that stick up the most in those positive feedbacks are the building quality AND outstanding customer service even after the built. I really do hope Metricon can live up to that rating and do what is right.

I really just want to live in a quality built house which Metricon has aspired to, apparently.

I haven't even started my build process yet but I am so disappointed and frustrated with Metricon's pre construction stage I felt compelled to start my review now. This was especially so after reading the last review about Metricon. There is virtually no communication between the various sections involved in pre construction resulting in variations not being past on. Changes are not reflected in the drawn plans - there are discrepancies between what is written in the variations and what is drawn. The variations are so hard to follow that it's impossible to know whether you've been double charged for things. The latest issue that happened only today is the last straw. There was a variation available that reflected the display home at Kellyville Homeworld. It included the side of the house being pushed out 650mm to make more space in the living, kitchen, pantry and laundry. It also included upgrades to each of these areas. We didn't necessarily want ALL of the upgrades so we asked for the extra room but not all of the upgrades. It worked out to be cheaper doing it that way, the variation was supplied and we signed the contract and proceeded. Well that was back in July. It's now only 12 days before the contract expires, the house is approved, loans finalised ready to go and we get a variation for over $7,000 because this original variation was not costed correctly - THE same variation I was using to determine options!! The package price is actually way cheaper and we would have received lots of upgrades with it! Attached with this variation was a lovely email indicating that I have to sign it in order to proceed. In order words, if you don't sign it, we won't move on. I've sent an email asking to speak to somebody higher up and will update the review with the result.

So my customer service officer and her supervisor have addressed my issues to the point that I am moving forward. I've added another star for them addressing this issue and hopefully as the build progresses I will add more. Watch this space.

No one would expect a Metricon home that is 3 years young to have horizontal cracking in the middle of the gyprock wall and be told "that's normal, and cracking in the middle of wall will continue to appear, and is part of home owner maintenance". I have never had this problem with my other 6 homes that I have built with other builders. The workmanship is hit and miss. I like the design of the houses, but unfortunately one does not want to spend over $400,000 to build and then be up for repairs in 3 years time (Metricon are not the cheapest builder). If you want quality, good workmanship and knowledge that if there is an unfortunate problem, it will be fixed (for example a Mercedes car valued at only $100,000 you get 5 years manufacturer warranty and here we spend $400,000 and after 3 years, we get "please go away") use another builder, I will be.

I have built my house recently with Metricon. Based on what I had heard, I was so happy at the beginning, to choose them. But, everything turned in a wrong direction.
Very irrespective, impolite and unprofessional team, from sales to maintenance. Poor customer service.
Terrible management system.
I just want to share my experience with you.
I am so disappointed and won't recommend them to anyone.
I'll explain in detail what they did to me, in few posts soon.