We chose our building company carefully. We liked this team’s approach best: they took us to a construction site, suggested ways to optimise the budget and patiently answered all our questions in detail. Our individual design needed reworking, so we commissioned a new one from them. The design fee was refunded after construction was completed.
The structural shell of our two-storey house with a garage — slab foundation, aerated concrete walls with brick cladding and a roof — was built in six months, from April to September 2023.
We are happy with the quality, speed and communication. There were no major faults, and small issues were fixed almost immediately. We did not commission independent construction supervision and checked the work ourselves, which meant learning a lot. Ask for photographs of work that will later be concealed. We still need to turn the shell into a finished home and move in. Time will tell what living here is like!
If you want the company to handle utilities, rough finishes, fencing or other extras as well as the shell, I recommend planning and contracting for those jobs from the start. During the busy season, crews are booked months ahead, and otherwise you may have to organise those jobs and find contractors yourself.
They recommended reinforced concrete slabs for the attic floor and suggested a single-storey home. We should have listened!
A camera is connected during construction so you can watch progress on your phone. As a bonus, they filmed and edited several drone videos for us to keep.