Our Tender appointment was completed last month. One word of warning... it is very very long! We started 9am sharp and still had open items past 5pm. In the end, we ended up getting our Tender emailed to us which was great because we got to review it over the weekend and spot a few more errors.
I remember reading someone else's comments saying their Tender was long and at the time not understanding why it would take that long. I had emailed all my changes I wanted before hand so assumed it would be a matter of going through the Tender document and ticking off all the boxes. Not quite! Here's how the day went..
9-11:30pm: Walk through Tender page by page, line by line. There is Site siting, how far the minimum set back is, whether you want dispensation to bring it closer, where all the silt pits are for collecting water, which trees and vegetation need to be cleared, which windows and overlooking and need to be glazed, and all the floor plan mark ups.
11:30 - 12:30: Go through all the changes we wanted, all the errors that were in the floor plans, confirm pricing on some changes with their estimator.
12:30-1:45: Lunch Break.
2pm - 5pm: Go through all the updates / corrections to the document that they did whilst we were at lunch. Some back and forth about pricing, our windows exceeding their maximum sizing, more typos and omissions.
By 5pm, there were a couple of minor items outstanding that they couldn't get pricing on because the shops were closed or their estimator had gone home already so we agreed to call it a day.
So there you go. A very long day indeed. We are forever grateful to my sisters and brother-in-law for helping us babysit. Without the two of us reading through all the material, I am sure I would have missed a lot more things.
Here is a few items we upgraded in case any one else is thinking of what to upgrade. Upgrades are the worst aspect of Porter Davis because apart from the standard floor plan options they give you, they tell you nothing about what else you can have.. and what you don't know, you don't know.
Update: The insinkerator was too expensive to add with Porter Davis. Much cheaper to do post handover
I remember reading someone else's comments saying their Tender was long and at the time not understanding why it would take that long. I had emailed all my changes I wanted before hand so assumed it would be a matter of going through the Tender document and ticking off all the boxes. Not quite! Here's how the day went..
9-11:30pm: Walk through Tender page by page, line by line. There is Site siting, how far the minimum set back is, whether you want dispensation to bring it closer, where all the silt pits are for collecting water, which trees and vegetation need to be cleared, which windows and overlooking and need to be glazed, and all the floor plan mark ups.
11:30 - 12:30: Go through all the changes we wanted, all the errors that were in the floor plans, confirm pricing on some changes with their estimator.
12:30-1:45: Lunch Break.
2pm - 5pm: Go through all the updates / corrections to the document that they did whilst we were at lunch. Some back and forth about pricing, our windows exceeding their maximum sizing, more typos and omissions.
By 5pm, there were a couple of minor items outstanding that they couldn't get pricing on because the shops were closed or their estimator had gone home already so we agreed to call it a day.
So there you go. A very long day indeed. We are forever grateful to my sisters and brother-in-law for helping us babysit. Without the two of us reading through all the material, I am sure I would have missed a lot more things.
Here is a few items we upgraded in case any one else is thinking of what to upgrade. Upgrades are the worst aspect of Porter Davis because apart from the standard floor plan options they give you, they tell you nothing about what else you can have.. and what you don't know, you don't know.
- 600mm eaves to the upper floor. Don't like houses with no eaves
- Extended width to garage. 5.5m wide garage is the absolute minimum for a double garage. You want at least 6m wide to be more comfortable
- Extended alfresco to the width of the back house. Love a big alresco. We were deciding whether the money would have been better spent going towards the extra games / family room instead but ultimately chose the alfresco as we think we have enough rooms already. It was a close call though so I might regret this a fews years later when I run out of rooms!
- 2740mm (9ft) ceilings to ground and upper floor. We actually wanted 10ft but they were adamant they don't do 10ft. The higher the ceilings the more spacious the feel.
- Raised garage door height (from 2150mm to 2250mm)
- Roller door to back of garage. So a car can drive straight through
- Wider and taller windows throughout
- Raised door, bulkhead, window, shower, mirror heights to 2340mm. Taller doors compliment the 9ft ceilings and everything else was lined up to the door height so it won't look all wonky.
- Moved manhole from WIR to outside the bedroom. Why would you put a manhole in the WIR?
- Added a Rinnai Infinity 32 with deluxe bathroom controllers to service the upstairs only. With a big house, one hot water unit is not enough.
- Upgraded heating / cooling unit to Brivis Hx35i. This is the top end high efficiency model. Their standard one is not suitable for a 48sq home. They should really at least put the Mx35i as standard.
Added Insinkerator. Love these.- Upgraded ducted vacuum to the EVS 2808. The 2808 has more power and is rated for medium to large homes. Same as the heating, why don't they make this standard?
If there is one tip I can give to anyone who is just starting out with Porter Davis, like my earlier post, it is to get ALL your changes into the Sales Quote. The Sales process can be over several weekends and visits. The Tender by comparison is a massive rush job.
Update: The insinkerator was too expensive to add with Porter Davis. Much cheaper to do post handover
Great Blog!
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking the time to put this together for everyone looking at building the Waldorf through PD.
We are currently looking at the Waldorf 48 and I am thinking of doing the same with the Infinity Hot Water for the top floor and am wondering how much PD charged you for it?
Thanks again, appreciate the time you have put into the blog, very informative.
Hi Troy,
DeleteThanks for the kind words. Comments like yours make it all the more worthwhile :)
The Rinnai 32 isn't cheap! It's ~$3k just for the unit and $321 for each bathroom controller. They are going for ~$2k from the shops so I guess that's about $1k for installation & builders markup.
If it comes together like how I envisage it to, it should be well worth it though!
Hi, thanks for the post, so valuable i wish i found it much earlier. How much did you pay for the Insinkerator?
ReplyDeleteIt was too expensive in the end. Around $1000 from memory. Much much cheaper to install later.
DeleteHi Jerry, Thank you so much for putting lots of time and effort to share your experience with everyone.
ReplyDeleteI am also in the process of getting start with PD. we are at the first stage and already putting the deposit in last week.
Originally we choose Stirling facade but latter change to Chatsworth instead as we saw one already built and put in the market we really like it. However,could you tell me, is $9400.00 for Chatsworth is including the Balcony? Because our one is quoted without balcony for $9400.00.
Thanks,
Paul
Hi Paul, you've probably already completed your tender already but for what it's worth (pardon the pun), ours included the balcony. That was 2 years ago now though so not sure if the pricing structure has changed. I quite like the balcony. Hardly use it but it's good that it's there for when I do use it. Currently hanging some LED strips for Christmas lights :)
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