What Goes Wrong When Building

For clients in or about to enter the construction phase, please find below a series of questions asked by past clients in this project stage.

We have published these unedited questions and answers to help guide and educate future clients.

We have named this section "What Goes Wrong" as things do go wrong when building. Hundreds of individual selections, components, and 50+ trades and professionals need coordination and communication.

Our business has a systems-first approach to problem-solving.

Please take the time to read, and ask any additional questions by completing the form at the bottom.

Can you announce when trades are coming and ask them to coordinate their arrival and departure?

On average, there are 50 trades and employees per extension and building project.

These trades and trade partners run their own businesses as well. To get the best trades, for example, plumbers or electricians, they will have employees, to deal with the demands.

When timetables get pushed back generally because of delivery delays or progress slowed by inclement weather, we then have to play catch up with the sequential stages of the project.

The administration involved in trying to organise and coordinate all the affected trades can become complicated.

It may be challenging to have all the different trades specifically contact each project owner when they will be onsite, and this is a task that we can't reasonably or honestly meet.

If you wish to ask for a period to be blocked out, we can arrange this, but we will need fair notice as it is hard to cancel trades within a handful of days' notice.

When scheduling jobs, we factor rain delays and public holidays, but supply delays are much harder to factor in because the national suppliers are very hard to get predictive data from.

We will send you a weekly PDF calendar of the future project work and stages to assist with the planning so you can organise your days.

We are now building our application where the weekly and forecast calendars will be live and interactive. As of June 2023, it was in the test stage https://constructioncalendar.com.au/

Additional time arbitrarily applied to the completion date?

We will only add time delays to your project if it is fair and reasonable and there is a justified basis to do so.

The primary reasons (80%) for time delays during construction are material delays and wet weather preventing our ability to work.

The primary reason for delays in the planning phase is the ACT Government not meeting its legal timeframes to make a decision.

If a project is going to be delayed, we will communicate to you generally via email, letter and, in some small cases, via phone - if the impact is only a handful of days.

Additional delays or unavailable items causing further delays in completing the project stage?

It's very frustrating for our employees and trade partners when 95% of deliveries arrive on site, and we are waiting on a few items (5%) to complete the project stage or component.

We often can only complete a stage when all the relevant items from suppliers have been delivered and completed. For example, if we are completing a specific stage.

Hence why delivery delays have been our major time delay issue and have caused frustration for customers; we have built two tools and systems that track delivery orders and can now track when an entire order is not complete.

We then log the supplier into our construction alert report, which can be included in you, the customer. Then daily, the supplier is emailed and called to remind them to complete the item delivery.

When deliveries are made on-site, our site coordinators audit the deliveries to ensure that all items are supplied and that this delivery form is uploaded to our database!

We hope this will help mitigate some of the additional delays being experienced.

Why are deliveries dropped off out the front, and left there over the weekends?

On average, 20 deliveries are delivered on-site per project.

National companies like Harvey Norman, PGH Bricks and timber suppliers manage many of these deliveries.

Our business provides detailed site and delivery plans to these national companies outlining the location for the items to be unloaded.

We have developed stand-alone 1300 numbers for delivery drivers and provide detailed on-site signage to educate drivers about where stock should be placed. However, no matter how good our signage, documentation or procedures are, if a driver decides to unload where they want, there is little we can do.

If delivery is placed in an inconvenient location, please contact your appointed "site coordinator" during business hours, and they will arrange the relocation of the order on your block. For after hours, please call 1300 979 658 as this phone is answered 24/7.

Can extra time be added to the project timeline?

Yes. As per our agreement, if there are delays outside our control, we naturally write to outline the reason for the delay. In most cases, the time delay is either rain impacting construction sites or delays in items for delivery.

Our HIA agreement is very clear about the impact of time delays and how these days can be added to a project completion date.

Because we are one of the very few builders that can provide a fixed price quality agreement, we want to ensure the start and completion date is on time, as there are very few reasons we can ask for a price adjustment to the agreement, and unless you delay the project requesting price variations because of time delays is not something we want in our projects.

I have just seen my selected tiles installed, and I don't like my choice any more, can I change the tiles?

We understand that you might like to change an item you selected in the inclusions process and dislike it now that it has been installed.

We can change the items; however, it will come with a financial cost and a time delay as we need to order items and reschedule trades and labour.

If you want to change one of your selections, post installations then you need to email ASAP our inclusions team at inclusions@cgfb.com.au

Can I change the location of something on the plans?

We want you to have a world-class project that you are happy with - this is our overriding principle.

Most changes, about 80%, are easy to accommodate if we address them early in the process.

If your proposed project change requires formal development and building approval, we need to submit an amendment to the DA or BA approval.

Amending DA and BA-approved plans can be costly but possible. If you wish to do this, please speak to your Inclusions Coordinator as soon as you know you want a change.

Email your requested change to our inclusions team: inclusions@cgfb.com.au

It looks like some of the contractors/trades have not followed the agreed project plans?

Our HIA agreement states that clients should not access the construction sites for various reasons, including safety, insurance, etc. However, there may be reasons why you need to confirm details, in this case, please let us know if you want to access the site anytime, and we will arrange.

In addition, if you wish to have a walk-through audit at any time during the build, please email or call, and we will arrange this with Nick Constable, our head of Construction and Builder.

In each significant project stage, we provide a written quality assurance report. These are provided to customers at each project milestone:

Floor System
Wall and Roof Frames
Close Up
Fixings
Painting

Whilst undertaking these quality assurance audit reports, any variance to the agreed - customer signed - plans would and should be picked up.

If the agreed plans and inclusions have yet to be, or are not, followed, we will remedy and suspend the component stage payment until rectified.

It's rained heavily and water has gone into the primary residence, close to where the construction of the extensions is, what can we do?

On average, we build 60 projects per annum in Canberra. More than half of these are extensions; our goal is that our clients can stay in situ and remain in their homes while we manage the extension.

This saves money for our clients and reduces the stress of having to move and relocate while the extension is underway.

The trade-off to being able to stay is that there are generally minor interruptions.

The leaks and related issues are contained within the areas of the existing home where the extensions connect or are impacted. If something happens during the build, such as a roof leak (less than 5% of projects affected), please call our 1300 979 658 24/7 and report.

We will be accountable for fixing and remedying any damage that may occur during the extension process.

Some minor works have not been completed, like hooks missing in the bathroom, why?

You may know the supply chain issues our industry has been experiencing since 2020. These are less of a problem as we write this in the first quarter of 2023; nevertheless, supply issues still exist!

Small items like hooks, towel racks and some lighting components are often delayed in delivery orders. These items are considered minor and non-structural and should not delay handover.

It is frustrating for our clients and us, and how we approach these supply inconveniences is to document the missing items and track them in our web-based delivery report.

We can hand over the property, and as the items are supplied, we batch and install them. The smaller items could generally cause a 2-6 week delay.

Part of the tarpaulin covering our roof has come off during a storm or strong winds, what do I do?

If any safety barrier or coverings are removed or broken during storms or high winds, which can happen, please contact our office asap.

We ensure that the temporary roof covering is for as short a period as possible. We may need a temp roof covering over your extension for practical reasons.

However, if the strong winds blow off the tarp covering the uninhabited section of the extension, please call us on the 1300 979 658 number.

We employ our own roofers and can act quickly in an emergency.

If there is water damage due to the leak, we take full accountability if we are the cause, which, if the roof is uncovered due to the wind, is most likely our full accountability!

People are wandering onsite we don't know about?

This is the nature of a residential construction project. Government inspectors, utility providers like Evo Energy, and private certifiers can and do turn up during a project and have the legal powers to enter the site.

As a medium-sized enterprise, we do not have the resources to track governments, utilities and third parties who access your site and project. Unfortunately, we can not control who comes onsite and when they come.

All our trades and staff are documented and work to a project calendar and we have site cameras to track their attendance and actions onsite.

Something was missed in the planning and design phase of the project and now we want to add it in the construction stage?

You may change your mind or wish to add something to the project after we have commenced onsite.

If this is the case, we can accommodate if the change or addition is legal and practical.

If you wish to include something that was missed, you should contact the inclusions coordinator.

The missing element or item would not be mandatory because DA or BA would not have been granted under this basis.

The element or item would result from customer wants or need, and we will, where possible, accommodate this.

If we can make the requested change and there is a change to the value of the project, we will apply what is called a project variation to accommodate the change, provide the cost and then update the project plans.

The doors and windows of the extension are unlocked.

Our 1300 979 658 number is answered 24/7, and at any time there is a potential safety or security issue, you must call this number; the messages are sent to the business directors, and they can act promptly.

All calls to this number are logged into our database so we can track our minimum response guarantee!

The mobiles of the site coordinators are not answered all the time, and staff may be on personal leave or days off.

If you have an urgent issue, please call 1300 979 658 so we can take action.

Trades come onto the site, sometimes leaving doors and windows unlocked.

Please note that if we manage an extension, the connection to the existing home will be sealed until a breakthrough.

There will always be a locked site fence around the site where we are building is being undertaken. We also have 24/7 site cameras active on our website: https://buildingsitecameras.com.au/

The power was cut off for 2 hours today.

It is rare for power to be cut-off while undertaking an extension or constructing a Secondary Dwelling.

As an example, if we are relocating or upgrading power connections, this might happen.

We will inform you in writing (email) if we plan a power disconnection that will impact your family.

The project was orginally set to be handed over on June the 15th, is now August for take over date.

In this instance, we had the flow-on impact of a mandatory territory-wide shutdown and unprecedented rain at the end of 2021.

The impacts of these delays had flow-on implications, and most handovers were impacted/delayed by 12 weeks which is less than the accumulated rain and government shutdown.

A week-six delay was a fantastic result, to be blunt.

The skip bin has been placed on our drive, blocking access.

Like delivery drivers, skip bin drivers often place bins where they - the specific driver would like to put them - without considering the impact on our business or customers.

Sorry, these situations are unavoidable, but it doesn't mean we don't try.

Yes, we have written guidelines and procedures, but to be frank, this will occur during a build.

We have developed site plans and instructions that are provided to third parties.

The high staff turnover in these industries means we don't deal with the same staff daily.

We take accountability if the bin is placed in the incorrect location. If this happens, please call 1300 979 658 and ask for our construction team to relocate the bin, and if it can practically be relocated, then we will arrange it.

The windows were delivered some time ago and were laid flat on the slab and gravel out the front.

This really upsets us when our window supplier, mainly Monaro Windows does this. To provide certainty that the windows are not damaged they are generally wrapped in a plastic cover. Our onsite staff will move and place them correctly when on site. However, if the windows are damaged they will be replaced or repaired by the supplier.

Utility providers like Evo or Icon water come onto the site unannounced.

We are undertaking an extension and looking at the tradespeople that are not working correctly?

We provide a lifetime workmanship guarantee and home warranty policy on our work.

We have not had a single contract dispute about the quality of the work or our trades; if you have legitimate concerns about the credentials of the work, please email us at construction@cgfb.com.au with the date and time of the suggested circumstance, and we will investigate.

At each significant project stage, we undertake a quality assurance report provided to you, the client.

If there is faulty work, we will pick it up in this stage, and if you are not comfortable with the work undertaken in the relevant stage, we will resolve it before advancing the project to the next step.

We have decided we want some minor concreting work done on the property?

Yes, we can facilitate changes to the project.

However, there is a specific process requiring you to email the inclusions co-ordinator inclusions@cgfb.com.au the proposed change or variation requested,

These are essential considerations we need to deal with.

What is the value and scope of what is proposed to be added to the project?
Does the proposed addition or change trigger a development application or a variation to the building approval?
Will this impact project timelines if approval is required, and how easy will it be to schedule trades?

Canberra's planning and zoning laws are some of the most onerous in the world.

If we add something to the project that requires approval and we have not obtained it, then this might impact the final certificate of occupancy.

You would be surprised at Canberra's volume of unapproved and uninsured project additions.

We have finite resources as a medium-sized business, so please allow time for the proposed addition or variation to be assessed by the construction, inclusions and planning team.

This should generally take five working days.

We have materials stored in the carport? Any chance of having it removed?

At the beginning of the build phase of your project, our construction team will hold an onsite meeting to outline with you and agree on where materials will be stored. This is called the pre-construction meeting.

This will also include an agreement on skips and site fencing.

We will update our construction package and plans to reflect the agreed locations. This information will be provided to employees, trades and suppliers at the beginning of the build.

If someone has left materials in an area that we have yet to agree or outline, we will arrange to move the materials.

In this instance, communciate with construction@cgfb.com.au, and they will arrange for the movement of the items; if it is an emergency, call 1300 979 658, which is answered 24/7.

We have not had a response to an email that we sent to the construction team?

We are sorry that this has happened, and in the case where you don't feel that you are getting communicated with effectively then you can call the Client Services Manager Frank Walmsley 7 days on 0400446605.

Why do we have two or three days with no trades onsite then, five or six trades turn up at one time?

Yes. This happens as we might be waiting on a delivery of the items to complete a construction stage.

The delivery is delayed, and then it arrives, and we schedule trades and employees.

The delay in activity is generally related to a need for more materials onsite. Also, we need several people onsite for activities such as framing, which requires multiple trades at one time.

We receive a weekly schedule but it appears to be different to what is actually happening?

Each Thursday, we will send you a weekly PDF calendar forecasting the events in the pipeline.

We are unaware of any other residential builder providing the PDF construction calendar, and while it could be better, it's a general guideline for the sequence of events.

As mentioned in the section specifically about the significant reasons the projects in the construction phase get delayed.

Materials or supplies are being delayed and preventing our construction team from advancing. 60%
Weather is impacting our ability to complete components. 30%
Sickness or unavailability of staff - this has been prevalent in 2021-2023 because of Covid 5%
If an event is delayed after your weekly PDF calendar is provided, the dates and times will not align with the Thursday PDF.

We are developing a real-time construction calendar: constructioncalendar.com.au, which we aim to deploy in September 2023; that will be updated daily and sync with trades, suppliers and customers.

The below image shows the weekly PDF calendar that a customer receives:

We want a sole contact point onsite?

Our business model can not provide a single contact point because if one of our colleagues and staff gets sick, take leave and have to cover for other staff.

When building with us, there is a straightforward organisational structure that we have developed over the years.

Our builder Nick Constable is accountable for the project and is the leader. You will have his direct mobile - 0407 237 765

Reporting to Nick, some paid employees work for us on full-time hours, and specialists work part-time.

We have essentially organised our construction teams into south-side and north-side projects.

We have site coordinators on one south side and one north side. Their role is to manage deliveries to support our trades and ensure that the sites are clean and safe. You will get to know your appointed site coordinator as they are generally onsite, moving between their geographical list of projects based on the location of the project (south or north of the lake)

We have two project schedulers in the office, one north side and one south side. Please imagine professional cat herders rining up trades, organising trades and suppliers to get onsite, dealing with arrived delivery drivers, and re-scheduling trades.

These four key positions all have different roles and systems, and while it may not be a perfect system, all the data to track the progress of projects, communicate with the 50 humans per job and the same amount of suppliers, are managed through our proprietary system called GCONS.

Employing one person per job would be inefficient and create untold errors because the person retained all the project knowledge without a system. When and if that sole point of contact took annual leave, personal; leave, or a family emergency, the entire project would fall in a heap.

People get sick and need to take family leave; therefore, we manage our projects with an integrated documented system.

What happens if a delivery is left on our driveway or in an inappropriate location on our block?

If this happens, firstly we are sorry, as organising the national suppliers is beyond our control.

We have developed a delivery app that our site coordinators use. However, as mentioned in the previous answers, it is unavoidable to coordinate brick, timber and general deliveries.

Often the supplies are coming from interstate, and orders are cancelled at the last minute. Stand-in drivers are then used to complete the delivery. These stand-in drivers are unfamiliar with the agreed and documented site delivery areas.

We provide written guidelines, and we have provided a specific 1300 number for deliveries on the project site fence.

This is not an excuse but an explanation. If delivery is placed in an inappropriate location, please contact the construction team, or if the site coordinator is onsite, ask them to help.

If it is an emergency, please call 1300 979 658 so the director, Nick Constable and Frank Walmsley know they can take action. This number is answered 24/7.

What happens if the construction site is left untidy?

We will have fenced the construction site where the secondary residence or the extensions is underway. If the untidyness is contained with the fenced area we will make it a priority to clean and tidy within reason. Construction sites are messy and we do have site coordinators who's role it is to ensure the sites are safe and tidy.

We have just watched the news and it appears that many builders are going broke! Are you ok?

Our business model has a very narrow and niche business focus.

We only work in Canberra
We do not invest in any speculative projects of our own
We only work directly with the consumer market in residential construction
We do not work for any other developers or government which has a significant impact on business cashflow
Because of our business model, we are not exposed to speculative developments and don't need to manage the variabilities of changes to property values

Every six months, we ask our accountant to provide a written statement regarding the business's financial position.

We can’t access the site

The terms of the signed HIA building contract clearly state that the customer can only access the construction site with the written approval of the builder.

We restrict access to construction sites for customers and the general public for many reasons.

If we enter into a general agreement that you can access the site, then the terms of this access will be provided via email.

Please understand that you breach our building agreement if you enter the site without our written consent.

We have family staying unexpected and would like to pause construction for next week.

Suspending construction work can throw our entire calendar out more than the requested shutdown period.

We can accommodate these requests, but please note that the project delay will differ from the days you request to prevent access.

If you wish to restrict access, please provide as much advice as possible so we can schedule trades.

Can't access the calendar.

As we write this, we currently use a PDF written calendar sent each Saturday.

We are now developing our website -constructioncalendar.com.au - to link to our project management software.

Our goal will be that you can access real-time calendars and links to your project.

As outlined above, the current PDF calendar is set for a point in time, and that calendar changes every week as trades become available and unavailable and supply and weather limits access.

If you require the most recent PDF calendar, please email construction@cgfb.com.au

When will Warranty jobs be completed?

We need to reference a specific milestone event with the HIA agreement, and that is when the Practical Completion of your project is reached.

The final project invoice is due when Practical Completion is achieved or by mutual agreement to alter the final payment terms.

Within our agreement, the 65 working day defect period commences once the final invoice payment has been made unless there is a written to amend payment terms.

If progress payments are not made, the 65 working day defect period will not have commenced.

We have invested in creating our online warranty log that tracks any defects we have committed to resolve.

We will send you a weekly email tracking the progress and timeline of the warranty issues and the corresponding warranty log number.

Power/water was cut off for longer than planned.

Power and water connections required when building may require a temporary disconnection of power, water, gas, sewer and stormwater services.
When and connecting to existing services there may be issues that arise that cannot be foreseen.

Excavating underground services is not a perfect science as the exact location of pipes and cables is not surveyed in the large majority of cases.

Services on existing properties may also not be included on building files and dial before you dig documentation, and may not have been documented at any stage of the life of the block.

The search for underground services and reconnection may then take longer than planned.

While excavating it is also possible that unknown services may be damaged and need repair.
This may also prolong the time services remain out of use.

Electrical and communications cables are most commonly placed in wall an roof cavities.
This may result in finding and connecting to the these services difficult and time consuming.

External organisations such as Evoenergy and Icon water may also be required to inspected new work and the additional management of these organisations in addition to the organisation of our trade partners can result in delays to reconnections.

Can I use my own contractors?

If you have this intention, let us know in the design and sales phase. This way, we can provide price breakdowns and component allowances and determine if the proposed trades can align with our standards and systems!

To help our team meet timelines and standards agreed to in our project agreement, it is preferable that the team we work with regularly complete the work on site.

Training processes and agreements are in place regarding time, quality and price.

Using external contractors will require training and a special agreement for the work to be completed, and we reserve the right to decide not to work with external contractors or suppliers.

Cannot find lockbox key/Key is loss

An average of 150 people visit a project site during construction.

Keys and lack of access to the site may arise during construction.

A trade, supplier or staff may misplace a key on the site, and may lock the site without realizing the key was not placed back in the correct location.

When this occurs, either the following trade or a customer may find out that access has become difficult.

We will locate the key or provide a replacement, but this can take up to 2 working days from when we are notified.

Until access is gained again it may be a requirement for extension and renovation projects to have access through the main entries of the existing home.

This is allowable in our HIA Agreement, and stopping access is a breach of our agreement for site access

Our finance contact is away and we can reach them to release the progress payment.

We understand the frustrations of working with banks and financial institutions.

Let us know your circumstances quickly, and we can work out arrangements.

We can carry some customers some of the time. However, it does become difficult for a sustained period as we have our employees and suppliers to pay.

If you wish to ammened the payment schedule or wish to delay payment, please email accounts@cgfb.com.au or contact Frank Walmsley on 0400446605.

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