Ask the Builder – your questions answered

Thank you to everyone who has submitted their questions to our friendly Construction Manager, Graeme, regarding the ins and outs of building a McDonald Jones Home.

We know that building your home brand new can sometimes be a daunting task so we are committed to helping you to understand the process of turning one of our innovative floor plans straight from our Architect’s drawing board, into a state of the art home built to cater to the way you love to live.

Graeme is one of a team of Construction experts who use their experience to help turn our customer’s dream homes into a reality under the philosophy that every home they build is one that they would live in with their own family.

Graeme has shared his insight to answer your questions below.

When choosing your new home, why does each design have a range of different optional extras? How are the costs for these extras determined?

When it comes to building a home, we believe that no two families are the same in their needs and desires. We have developed a range of designs to suit the diverse families across Australia, their lifestyles, locations, budgets and tastes. With each home, we offer a range of design optional extras that have been carefully considered based on the practicality of including them in the basic floor plan. The costs for these can differ from design to design based on how easy or complicated it is to construct this additional feature to the new home. For example, the cost for the Balinese Tropicana Façade for our Monte Carlo may differ to the cost for the same façade on another one of our designs, simply due to the complexity in constructing this look. Our goal is to ensure we build what our customers want, not what we want. So we’re happy to review all ideas, as everyone wants their home to be special.

How do you safeguard the quality of your homes by ensuring you employ the services of leading contractors?

The contractors and tradespeople we use are the extended family of McDonald Jones. The greater percentage of our contractors have been with us for years, while the newer additions have been handpicked and nurtured to complete their jobs to our standard. Once we have our contractors on board we have a number of ways to safeguard their performance on each job, these include:

• Our Construction Supervisors are only given a limited number of jobs each to ensure they are able to supervise each job efficiently and control everything that is going on.
• Mandatory inspections are conducted by our Supervisors at various stages throughout construction, some with the customer and some without. Our Supervisors are required to report back from each inspection on whether the work has been completed up to our standards for that project.
• We also conduct our own independent quality assurance inspections, completed by our senior Construction staff, to ensure the build quality on each home.

What is the actual process for building new? What does each step involve?

When you first set out to build your new home with us, we sit down with you to go over the different steps involved in the process of bringing your dream to life. We do this for two reasons, to keep you informed of each step so you know what to expect next and to give you an idea of the timing for the construction of your new home.

We are often asked why different steps in the process take a certain amount of time, and the answer is that there is a lot of things to think about and people involved in building your new home. McDonald Jones is required to liaise with a number of different bodies and companies (such as your local Council), to get the approvals and materials to bring your home to life.

To help you better understand the process and to ensure each step runs smoothly, we have prepared an 8 step walk through guide to show you the exciting journey ahead, including the instances where we need your help to progress your build.
You can view this guide on our website by clicking here.

What’s the advantages of building with steel frames?

McDonald Jones uses Truecore steel from BlueScope and the Supaloc precision-engineered steel building system in the majority of our homes. Our steel frames are manufactured especially for Australian conditions, are strong, durable and designed to stand straight and true. Steel frames are not only 100% termite proof, every piece offers the same grade of material – i.e. every piece offers the same level of quality. As well, our steel frames offer an unparalleled level of accuracy as they don’t shrink, warp, sag or move.

Another benefit is that, with the Supaloc steel framing system, our steel frames are lighter for our team to use and therefore homes built with steel frames can sometimes be constructed faster. To top it off, our steel frames come with a 50 year warranty to give you peace of mind that you are building with the best. 
For more details visit our website

Why do we need to conduct a soil test prior to building our new home?

The Soil Test is an essential step to obtain a Building Permit for your new home and to help us in preparing your slab design and piering. Typically conducted by a geotechnical engineer, a Soil Test involves drilling small bore holes in the area where the home will be built to obtain a soil classification. The Test will help us to understand the conditions of your site (for example whether fill has been placed on your site or if your site is in close proximity to rock), which will then help us to design the slab, determine the cut and fill required and aid us in understanding how much piering is needed to create your new home.

Did you miss out on asking Graeme your questions about your new home? Don’t worry, we are happy to answer your questions anytime. Simply phone 1300 555 382.