Ferntree Homes

I completed brickwork in Gymea for Ferntree homes. Nobody was ever on site to assist with any of the design issues and I was expected to address these issues or work around them at my own cost. My final invoice was not paid in full resulting in a $2386.00 loss to my business. The basis for the non payment being that the brick cleaner was inexperienced and used too much pressure and ended up destroying the mortar between bricks laid weeks prior, this was somehow my fault and as I refused to go back and repair the damage for free I was not paid in full for the work I had completed. Furthermore, before I started the project the terms of the work was agreed, however John refused to pay me for work that was stipulated and agreed as an extra prior to start of the job. Ferntree homes are not builders, they are a project homes business, this means they do not do any physical work themselves, they subcontract the work out and take a cut. Nobody is ever on site and they take days to come and address any concerns tradesmen have leading to a loss of earnings. John is a compulsive liar and a thief!

Upon meeting the builder and being satisfied we started building in October 2013. Process was clear and all questions were answered which ticked all Our boxes! Very custom design type of builders and the quality of the products used from gyprock brand to door, window company is of excellent standard! All communication was negotiated/ answered on the phone, but everything tracked and always backed up by emails.

Met designer for product selections, colour selections and she also digitally designed different house facade/colour options for us to choose from, which was so professional and so convenient to help make final decisions. Throughout the building we were always phoned or emailed if any changes or delays were expected and we thought this was genuine professional communication. The labourers all had sound knowledge of their area of expertise which was excellent! Have to say that we were very pleased with the team at Ferntree homes and the high quality of workmanship and products used. Will definitely build and use Ferntree again

We built last year & took possession on Xmas eve of a beautiful new home. In general the workmanship was very good. We did have minor issues around some of the completed work & we had to follow this up ourselves but the completed product is impressive. The site foreman Alphonse was terrific in communicating with us about the progress of the build & the staff at ferntree are all very experienced & friendly which made them good to deal with. They did work very hard to get the house completed for Xmas which we didn't really appreciate enough at the time. Like any build we suffered with weather & bureaucratic delays as well as a shortfall of funds due to a lack of contingency. The owner, John is a very reasonable guy & after finalising the outstanding issues I would recommend Ferntree to friends & family in future.

I thought I would post a review on our builder Ferntree Homes. We had been referred to them by a family member and we found them to be really helpful. They helped design a home for us that met our needs but stayed within the budget that we had set.

The few variations we requested were reasonably priced and generally speaking we didn’t have too many issues at all. The minor issues we did have were attended to without question and the project was completed within a reasonable time frame as well. It was only 5 months from start to finish. Most people have said that is unbelievable.

We've had so many people comment on the standard of our home and the fact that we could design the home how we wanted and it was very reasonably priced. We even had complete strangers knock on our door to ask who built our home. All people working for Ferntree were fast to answer our calls and emails and were always on to getting minor hiccups fixed up. Lovely people to work with.

Overall our experience with Ferntree was good and not too stressful and we wouldn’t hesitate using Ferntree again in the future.
reliable, inexpensive, lovely staff, fast build
minor hiccups

We recently built our first home with Ferntree Homes and loved the finished product we were given. Whilst our home was not that large, we found the inclusions and overall quality much better than the standard finishes you get with the larger builders and the communication from their office was very good.
The supervisor was friendly and helpful and willing to explain anything we didn’t understand. Everyone we communicated with during the process were a pleasure to deal with. Our block was a fairly flat and design was simple so they said it was a very project for them but at the end it looked like a designer home to us. I have read some of the other negative reviews which I find surprising and can only say good things about Ferntree homes and would have no problem in recommending them to anyone.

We waited 5 years to build our Ferntree Home.After looking at many designs, my wife and I kept coming back to the Ferntree. We have 6 children and found Ferntree easy to deal with when custom designing our home to fit our tribe. My wife has built 2 houses prior to this one and I had built with Ferntree before.

We did have some lengthy delays with our 5.5mtr angled front windows ( no fault of Ferntree) and our shower screen - Stegbar ( once again no fault of Ferntree). [name removed] kept us updated to minimise stress.

It is a custom design and the positive feed back we are constantly getting makes up for the few delays and adjustments that had to be made.We enjoyed doing business with [name removed] and his team, especially the Draftsman and site supervisors.
Custom design and the positive feed back.
We did have some lengthy delays.

Regrettably, we choose Ferntree Homes to build our new home in 2011 and 20 months later, it’s still far from finished.

In desperation, we turned to the NSW Department of Fair Trading.

During a site visit at the start of August, Fair Trading then highlighted 16 issues and Ferntree committed to addressing 14 of the 16 issues by today 30th August.

As of today, only 1 of the 16 issues has been addressed! We are devastated.

But a biggest concern is outside of these issues.
We have now realized that Ferntree has constructed a suspended concrete slab which is a quarter the depth stated in Ferntree’s own commissioned Structural Engineering plan.

Every day, we live with the consequences of their continual decisions to build “cheap” without ever consulting us.

Others examples of our disastrous experience include:

1.) Pointing out very early on to the Site Manager that the location of waste pipes appeared to be incorrect, only to have our concerns ignored, leading to 4 waste pipes being set in concrete in the wrong position.
2.) Seeing countless brickwork mistakes and rework with windows being bricked in the wrong place, windows being bricked over and bricks being cut-out in the wrong place – delaying the build by months.
3.) Delays and compromises in the build with the windows order being placed way too late in the build and then seeing the windows damaged whilst they sat on site for 3.5 months.
Delays then followed with the windows either being incorrectly-sized or the brick-work being incorrectly built.
4.) Realizing that all the trades had to travel considerable distance to get to the site every day. This resulted in numerous trades simply not showing up and when they did, the work was rushed & compromised with little to no quality assurance and no one showing any interest to return to the site to correct faults.
5.) Observing trades “working without lighting” resulting in, for example, tiles being laid in the dark and numerous return visits, even to present day, to address the poor workmanship.
6.) Requesting to see a simple “Project Plan” detailing what? would happen when? for over 14 months and never receiving anything.
7.) And finally on 11th April 2013, taking matters into our own hands and writing, emailing & managing our own schedule of outstanding work required for occupancy. That schedule did run to time and concluded on 17th May 2013 when we finally moved in.

However, our house is now a renovation project as we can see, first-hand, the poor workmanship & lack of quality-control.

So sorry to say, but there are too many to mention! - please see the review.

We had Ferntree Homes build our first home and completed it a couple of years ago. Although we recently sold it to move closer to the city (for work purposes) we were extremely happy with the service we received and the quality of the build. The staff at Ferntree Homes were friendly and helpful. They kept us up to date and since we worked in the city and had little time to call in, we appreciated that they took care of most things for us, making the building process efficient and stress-free. There were no major issues and the minor hitches that we had (which were mostly due to the design specifications of the development we were building in) were quickly fixed at the end of the build. The house was straightforward to build and we didn’t make any major changes so the project went quite smoothly. Even though we have now moved, we would have no hesitation in getting Ferntree homes to build our next home when the day comes

We built with Ferntree 3 years ago and I noticed they've recently revamped their image/logo etc.
Please don't be fooled - they are still terrible builders.

To be completely honest, I'm genuinely surprised they are still in business.
I don't expect them to be trading in 12 months time.

We had countless delays, numerous mistakes, trades onsite less than 50% of the available time & little communication or explanation. In the end, we had to involve a lawyer.

The owner will say things like "Do you want a fast house or a quality house?"
Don't be fooled - I can tell you, you'll get "An average build quality after a very, very long time of waiting!"

Please this website to find a better builder!!
Our design that we provided without any help from Ferntree!
Slow, slow build with countless mistakes, average build quality and countless excuses where we had to engage a lawyer to set things straight.

We searched online and found that this business has an active Facebook page with 14 followers. From our experience this can indicate that the business is either not actively engaged with online communication or is new and growing. We have discovered that this business has SSL (secure sockets layer), which means that this business handles your data, such as personal information or credit card details, with secure connection. We discovered that the domain for this business is relitevely new, which means that it could be a start-up business that does not yet have a huge amount of customers. We found that this business has an Instagram page, where they communicate with their customers using images and videos. This is usually an indication that the business has some visual aspects that it wants to showcase.