About Highwater Homes, Toby and Elizabeth Searle

We specialise in custom home building, so we encourage you to be involved in the design of your new home – it is such a rewarding experience! We are able to work in partnership with you and organise an initial meeting with our designer to establish your new home requirements. Using the information discussed, the designer will commence drawing and provide the concept plan for your new home. Throughout the design process, Toby provides support with feedback and suggestions on your plan from a professional and practical builder’s perspective. You will find more details under OUR PROCESS.

This will depend on the stage you are at with your drawings and design.

If you do not have any drawings available we have options available to get you through the concept design stage all the way through to Council submission in a seamless and efficient way.

There will be costs along the way before contracts are signed, but they are all costs that would have been incurred and therefore included in the contract price. Instead you are paying these costs along the way, getting something back in return and not paying for it again at contract stage.

All clients receive the option of our professional design and colour consultant to assist in all design aspects and colour selections for your new home.
This service is available before you proceed to construction drawings and also when completing your selections after contracts have been signed. Please refer to OUR PROCESS for more information.

Your tender price will only change if an allowance has been made for an item in the contract and you go over that allowance. Also, any selection item that you upgrade when finalising your selections may incur an extra cost. You will always be notified of an increase and we will never proceed with any changes that incur extra costs without your electronic approval via our On-line project management system.

Each home is viewed individually and the construction period will be defined in the Building Contract and you can follow your individual construction schedule online. Know exactly what is being done on your home and when. Generally speaking, an averaged sized single story home (up to say 30 sq) will have a minimum construction period of 26 weeks and a double storey home (up to 36 sq) 32 weeks. Each home is viewed individually and a construction period is nominated in the building contract. We organise our construction schedules in a streamlined way that allows us to complete your home to the desired standard you would expect and the quality that we are renowned for.

There will always be flexibility given to each client to engage one or two tradespersons or suppliers of your choice. As long as we are made aware before construction commences and that each tradesperson is fully licensed and insured and adheres to the Highwater Homes Safety Policy, we are more than happy for you to use some of your own trades/suppliers.

We use cutting edge technology that keeps you up to date with your construction schedule every step of the way. Our on-line project management system allows you access to all of your job information including your very own calendar which will inform you of what is happening each day of construction. You will also have regular contact with Toby and your Project Manager to ensure you are receiving the best possible service.

We have regular site meetings to ensure that your home is being built exactly the way you imagined. At any stage, you are welcome to make changes if time permits and the changes don’t affect the structural integrity of your home. We understand the need for flexibility during the construction phase to ensure the home of your dreams is being built.

You are welcome to come on site as long as you are accompanied by a representative from Highwater Homes. We adhere to a strict safety policy with all of our tradespeople, suppliers and visitors to site. It is imperative to maintain this policy throughout the course of construction.

We build in brick and keep our numbers small so the same trusted trades work on every home, which is our first line of quality control. On top of that, every home carries a six year structural warranty and a two year warranty on non-structural work. You also get a three month defects period after handover, and we don't leave it all to that one window. We walk the home with you several times during the build so small issues get caught and fixed before you move in. At the 90 day mark, you log anything you've found through our project management system, and your site supervisor goes through the list with you in person, allocates each item to the right trade, and tracks it through to completion. We would rather prevent defects through consistency than promise a home with no problems, because the second promise is one no honest builder can make.

Usually not, and we would rather say that plainly. Most of our clients are building their second, third or fourth home, often after a volume builder, and they come to us because they know exactly what they do not want to repeat. If you want a custom home built by someone who is honest about what can go wrong and has a process to prevent it, we are a good fit. If you mainly want the lowest base price, a volume builder may genuinely suit you better.

The preliminary stage, where we finalise your design and selections and do the site reports, usually takes four to six months. That is where every cost gets found and priced before you sign. Once you sign, you take the next available construction slot. Because we only build up to ten homes a year, spaced about four to six weeks apart, your start date depends on when you are ready and signed, not who enquired first. We give you your timeline early and hold to it.