Demolition... setback
Last week has been filled with drama. Drama we didn't want. It's all sorted now but it was quite stressful on Tuesday morning.
I've been keeping Mat from AAAGS in the loop about our progress as we had to push the demolition back from 30 May to just after the June long weekend as we had to organise the CDC and it now takes a lot longer than it did prior to the changes in February 2014 (some State government CDC thing) where we have to notify neighbours and let them think about it for 14 days (they don't get to complain... just need to be notified) and that it takes another 7 days after that before any work can commence. AAAGS couldn't start work on the 9th so had pencilled us in for the 15th. On Friday 6th June I checked in with ABC Certifiers to see where it was all at... and apparently all ready to go once we paid. So I asked for the invoice so we could pay for it. (Why do suppliers always wait for us to ask before they give it to us? *sigh*) So I thought I better keep Mat and gang in the loop to say that we had it and to see how we get it to them.
On Tuesday morning I get an email from Mat:
I mean seriously!?!?! And you needed to wait for me to ask about it before letting me know the bad news? Or maybe it was just happenstance that I was emailing?
Mat did offer 3 companies for me to try (ie his recommendation). The first was State (which I hadn't heard such great things about and had also had a previous quote from), Democorp (who don't do battleaxe blocks and I had contacted previously) and the third one was Active Demolitions. I called Active Demolitions and Bill was going to get someone to call me as it was too tight for him to do.
So back to square one. I then jumped onto H1 and Google to find some demolition companies. I called and emailed and form'd up a few companies. I made it clear that I needed it done ASAP.
3 companies not only were professional and responsive -- they also provided reasonable quotes of between $17 - 18k inc GST.
The companies were:
1. sydneyhousedemolitions.com.au (Gabrael Demolitions) - seems to have a great rating on ServiceSeeking
2. homedemolitions.com.au (aka Corporate Demolitions)
3. Jim from Landcon Civil (sourced via Active Demolitions)
Home Demolitions got the job from us. All 3 were neck and neck price wise. Gabreal we didn't meet on site so we couldn't get a sense of what they were like although they seem to have great ratings on ServiceSeeking. Jim was great but the quote wasn't at all detailed and so we were just a bit wary that there would be those unknown 'extra' costs that we hadn't allowed for. Anesti from Home/Corp Demolitions was professional and seemed to know what he was about.
So hopefully in the next two weeks our house will be knocked down!
At this stage the house is being stripped out and there are some groovy photos of the state it's in currently... with a few more bits being stripped out tomorrow.
I've been keeping Mat from AAAGS in the loop about our progress as we had to push the demolition back from 30 May to just after the June long weekend as we had to organise the CDC and it now takes a lot longer than it did prior to the changes in February 2014 (some State government CDC thing) where we have to notify neighbours and let them think about it for 14 days (they don't get to complain... just need to be notified) and that it takes another 7 days after that before any work can commence. AAAGS couldn't start work on the 9th so had pencilled us in for the 15th. On Friday 6th June I checked in with ABC Certifiers to see where it was all at... and apparently all ready to go once we paid. So I asked for the invoice so we could pay for it. (Why do suppliers always wait for us to ask before they give it to us? *sigh*) So I thought I better keep Mat and gang in the loop to say that we had it and to see how we get it to them.
On Tuesday morning I get an email from Mat:
I unfortunately have nothing but bad news Yvonne.
We have run into a significant variation on a commercial site in Umina last Tuesday and we are now trying to recover from the damage. We have uncovered an estimated 300 tonnes of asbestos contaminated soil that needs to be handled appropriately.
The bottom line is, we will be unavailable for a forecasted 7 weeks, weather and excess variations pending. This means that all of our residential demolition and asbestos projects will need to be put on hold for this amount of time. Once we have finished the variation, we begin catching up on these projects.
Realistically, your project would be second in line after this variation, meaning a potential wait time of around 8 weeks.
I mean seriously!?!?! And you needed to wait for me to ask about it before letting me know the bad news? Or maybe it was just happenstance that I was emailing?
Mat did offer 3 companies for me to try (ie his recommendation). The first was State (which I hadn't heard such great things about and had also had a previous quote from), Democorp (who don't do battleaxe blocks and I had contacted previously) and the third one was Active Demolitions. I called Active Demolitions and Bill was going to get someone to call me as it was too tight for him to do.
So back to square one. I then jumped onto H1 and Google to find some demolition companies. I called and emailed and form'd up a few companies. I made it clear that I needed it done ASAP.
3 companies not only were professional and responsive -- they also provided reasonable quotes of between $17 - 18k inc GST.
The companies were:
1. sydneyhousedemolitions.com.au (Gabrael Demolitions) - seems to have a great rating on ServiceSeeking
2. homedemolitions.com.au (aka Corporate Demolitions)
3. Jim from Landcon Civil (sourced via Active Demolitions)
Home Demolitions got the job from us. All 3 were neck and neck price wise. Gabreal we didn't meet on site so we couldn't get a sense of what they were like although they seem to have great ratings on ServiceSeeking. Jim was great but the quote wasn't at all detailed and so we were just a bit wary that there would be those unknown 'extra' costs that we hadn't allowed for. Anesti from Home/Corp Demolitions was professional and seemed to know what he was about.
So hopefully in the next two weeks our house will be knocked down!
At this stage the house is being stripped out and there are some groovy photos of the state it's in currently... with a few more bits being stripped out tomorrow.
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| Kitchen stripped out |
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| Good job with the kitchen being removed! |
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| Pavers salvaged |
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| Wardrobes also salvaged and being taken out via Kitchen |
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| WIR also removed... hmmm... Asbestos alert! |
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| Wardrobes are going to find a new home! |
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| There were excess shelves before and now they will find a new home! |
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