Eden Brae Homes - The House that Eden Brae Built

Eden Brae Homes Special Report This is a report concerning defects in an Eden Brae-built home. All listed faults were either immediately visually apparent and/or fully documented in email and other correspondence between home builder and home owners. Most of the problems have now been rectified. The House that Eden Brae Built A Litany of Building Defects 1. Defectively-installed solar hot water system For at least two weeks after the house was turned over to the owners on so-called substantial completion in December 2008, no hot weater was available in the house. Complaints to the builder resulted in much buck-passing among the builder's plumbers and electricians. A solar hot water system tradesman subsequently said the connection to the rolar panels had been installed incorrectly. In late January the Rheem outdoor hot water unit was discovered to be rusting. Eventually Eden Brae Homes had the Rheem unit lifted off the ground to prevent ground water from causing further rusting. Were the problems resolved? The connection to the solar panels was corrected in January 2009. On April 19, 2010, the hot water unit was lifted to a few centimetres above ground so it would not be affected by ground rainwater. The owners undertook to treat the rust and repaint the affected sections. 2. Spa bath that didn't work A spa bath installed by Eden Brae failed to switch on and properly work. It was later discovered that no electrical connection had been provided for the motor for the spa bath. Was the problem resolved? A missing powerpoint (which should have been provided in the first instance) was installed. 3. Were they color blind? Either they didn't read the specifications, or they read the specifications and used the wrong can of paint, or they were simply inefficient, Eden Brae workers painted a highly-visible rectangular column at the front of the house the wrong color. Was the problem resolved? Repainting was done. 4. Then the door fell off! The front door installed by Eden Brae fell off its hinges. The door itself was damaged at the bottom. It looked like the door frame was of poor quality wood and the hinge screws were not able to hold the door. Urgent work was needed to make the house secure. The door was reattached by Eden Brae. A later inspection showed that the door's vertical alignment was faulty in the first place, and the misalignment caused continual and irritating squeaking. A later check showed the door starting to sag, scraping the door frame at the bottom and looked in danger of falling off its hinges again. Was the problem resolved? Repair #1: Longer screws were used to reattach the door's hinges but problems remained. The door was in danger of falling off its hinges again. Repair #2: Larger hinges were used this time to realign and fix the door within its frame. Will it work? Or will the door fall off again? 5. Uneven flooring caused pooling problems The concrete garage floor and concrete alfresco floor were incorrectly levelled. Water accumulated in the centre of each floor area instead of draining outside. Eden Brae declined to rectify the garage floor pooling problem. Eden Brae attempted to fix the alfresco floor pooling problem several times without success. The fault existed from the moment the floor was laid and could not be fixed by Eden Brae. Alfresco area after two of the attempts to fix the pooling problem failed Was the problem resolved? No. 6. Badly-laid pavers The pavers laid at the front of house and on the driveway were badly and unevenly laid with gaps along walls, columns and sections. Eden Brae had the gaps filled. A post-work inspection later revealed the shoddy work done where the filled gaps were visually imperfect. Also, the filled gaps did not match either the pavers or the front column in color, and apparently no attempt was made to make the poor work less obvious.This was particularly bad being at the front of the house — and was much like someone showing off dirty knickers instead of a well-dressed appearance. The "remedial" work also caused much soiling or staining and ingrained dirt on the paved area. What a mess Was the problem resolved? Eden Brae had the base of the column repainted to cover much of the imperfect work and had the pavers cleaned. Some soiling could not be removed. 6. Badly-aligned windows and uneven window frames At least one awning-type window at the front of the house was badly aligned with gaps allowing rain and other moisture to enter the house. The window and door frames in the living area were not perfectly square resulting in extra work to make shutters fit. Was the problem resolved? The awning-type window was fixed. The uneven window frames remain. 7. Ceiling insulation all mucked up Ceiling insulation appeared to have been laid in a helter-skelter manner. Eden Brae workers themselves who were sent to correct the problem described the situation "a mess". Eden Brae said they rectified the ceiling insulation problem. A later inspection of the ceiling area showed nemerous squares cut out of the ceiling batts but were not all centred on downlight locations. Eden Brae was asked if this was the industry standard. Update: On October 15, 2009, a representative of NSW Insulation was requested by Eden Brae to inspect the ceiling insulation. The NSW Insulation supervisor informed the home owner that the ceiling insulation was a "bit of a mess" and needed fixing. He fixed some of the more apparent problems, took numerous photos, and said he would return to complete the job. In early November an insulation workman checked on the ceiling insulation and said he had fixed all the irregularities. Is this the industry standard? Was the problem resolved? The work is still to be inspected. 8. Cracked roof tiles At least 10 roof tiles were found on inspection to have been cracked and still used. A cracked tile over the second bedroom was particularly bad and rainwater had started to leak into the ceiling cavity, soaking the ceiling batts. Moisture had begun to appear on the ceiling which would eventually have weakened it. One of a number of cracked roof tiles Was the problem resolved? A number of cracked tiles were replaced. But wait, there's more... Wood window frames splitting apart and bleeding at joints, paint smudges and smears that were not rectified properly, a kitchen cupboard door that could not close, downlights connected to the wrong switches, a "missing" deadlock for the laundry door, the lack of a standard wall push button for the garage door, badly installed flashings, unacceptably high wind-caused noise from the roof... Were the problems resolved? The lack of a standard wall-mounted push button for the garage door (as specified in the manual) was noted. In lieu of a wired wall-mounted push button, an extra handset was supplied. The kitchen cupboard door was fixed. A deadlock was installed on the laundry door. Flashings on the roof appear to have been corrected.