The First Home Builders building process

You’ve signed. So, what happens next?

Once you have signed the completed Preliminary Works Agreement, your Sales Consultant will then submit your job file for sign off. Your house file will not be activated until we have received your Preliminary Works Agreement Deposit of $2,000.

Upon receipt of the deposit, the works as outlined in the Preliminary Works Agreement will commence.

It will take approximately 10-12 months to build your new home, and to help you understand all that is involved, we have explained the step by step journey into two easy to follow Stages.

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STAGE 1

Preconstruction: Approximately 20-24 weeks 

Engineers site inspection report + site survey

An external company that specialises in this field conducts the engineer’s inspection report. This is the industry standard in Western Australia.

The report indicates to the builder the classification of the soil content (does it have clay, limestone, rock or peat in the soil) as well as providing the wind rating for your location.

The site survey, or “contour survey” as its often referred to, is conducted by an external company. This is the industry standard in Western Australia.

The site survey indicates to the builder where the main services such as power, water and sewer are located, the existence of retaining walls, the existence of vegetation such as trees, the height levels between your lot and those adjoining lots, where the North point is and location for energy efficiency and so on.

As with all builders we rely upon external operators for these types of professional services and as such are dependent upon their turnaround times.

Upon receipt of the two reports, First Homebuilders will then add these reports to your file, which is logged in our Drafting Department.

Drawings

Once the working drawings have been finalised they will be sent out for an energy efficiency certification.

Siteworks quotes

The working drawings are now ready to be quoted on for the siteworks. This process can take up to 10 working days because we are dependent upon external contractors.

Contract documentation issued

Having received the final site works quotations your file is sent to the Contracts Department where the contract documentation is prepared. Once completed these documents are then issued to you.

You will receive a builder’s copy, finance copy and client copy.

 

Finance application

With contracts in hand, we will provide the ‘finance’ copy to our inhouse Finance Broker, or alternatively, you will need to provide the ‘finance’ copy to your Finance Broker or Finance Lender.

Contract documentation signed & returned

You are required to sign the ‘builders’ copy and return that documentation to First Homebuilders as soon as possible.

Finance pre-approval

Once we have received confirmation of your loan being “Pre-Approved” by your Finance Broker or Finance Lender we are ready to lodge with the relevant authorities for their approvals.

Water corporation approval

We will now submit your plans to the Water Corporation for approval.

Developers approval

In most cases we are required to seek developer approval from the Land Developer that sold you the land. This is to ensure that we have complied with the Restrictive Covenants, Design Guidelines, Detailed Area Plan requirements and any other issues as outlined in your land sale contract.

Shire lodgement

In accordance with the new Building Act that came into force in Western Australia on May 1st 2012, First Homebuilders submits your plans to Shire in order to seek a building permit.

This process is conducted in two stages.

  1. Submission of all documents to our private building surveyor for Building Compliance Approval (BCA) approval.
  2. Upon BCA approval, the certified documents are submitted to the Local Authority for a building permit.
Prestart meeting

Let the fun begin! Selections such as roof colour, benchtop and cupboard front colours, tiles, paint colours, changes to your standard electrical plan or product upgrades. Prestart is not designed to address structural changes because the engineers have certified the plans by this stage.

Final client copies signed & returned

First Homebuilders will amend your working drawings and inclusions to reflect your Prestart Meeting. These final documents will then be sent to you for signing. You should sign and return these final contract documents as soon as possible to avoid any delays.

Finance approval & land settlement

Your file is now subject to First Homebuilders receiving your unconditional finance approval and a land title showing the owners of the land match the parties on the contract.

Shire approval

With all of the boxes ticked First Homebuilders is now waiting on a building permit so that it can book your job into the Construction Department.

Construction commencement – ready to start

With all approvals in hand the Construction Department is now is a position to schedule your earthworks and commence construction.

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STAGE 2

Construction: Approximately 22-26 weeks

Ready to start

Earthworks - 2 weeks

Slab down

Load bricks on slab, deliver window frames - 3 weeks

Plate height

Bricklayer, roof carpenter, electrical & plumbing tubing: 4-6 weeks

Roof cover

Concrete floor, ceilings, white set - 4 weeks

Lock up

Cabinets, tiler, painter - 4 weeks

Practical completion

Paving, plumbing & electrical fitout, pre hand over meeting, final check: 5-7 weeks

Key handover

Set your move in date

When specifying “construction time frames” most builders are referring to the time that it takes “from the pouring of the house slab”. First Homebuilders construction timeframe is an approximate date from the Commencement of construction (Earthworks) to Handover and Key Collection. There are various elements that can affect the construction timeframe such as the size of the home, availability of materials, availability of trades and of course the weather.

A sales consultant can only tell you the average time frame based upon the previous 12 months of work. Unfortunately, no one can predict the future, we will always provide you with our best estimates.

Please keep in mind that any timeframe quoted will not take into consideration the Christmas and New Year’s closure. On average, the Western Australian building industry closes for approximately 4 weeks during this period. Therefore, if you have been quoted 22 weeks then you will need to add 4 weeks for the Christmas and New Year’s closure period.

First Homebuilders have high expectations on quality therefor will not engage trades people or suppliers who are known to be sub- standard in order to “speed” up your construction times.