Little Constructions

For the first 3/4 of our build with Little Constructions, everything went very well. It was clear that Mark (Little) wanted complete control with as little input/interference as possible from us, but this was our first build (despite being an older couple!) and at this stage we had 100% confidence in him, so were happy to accede to his demands.Our first hint of disharmony came following a weekend 3/4 into our build, when we had a fencer out to quote us on future works. By coincidence, the site supervisor happened to be present at the time, attaching plastic temporary sleeves to the downpipes. The following Monday, I received an abusive and vitriolic text from Mark telling me he had explicitly told us not to commence works like fencing and that he would not accept responsibility for damages or injuries caused as a consequence of us proceeding with the fencing that had commenced. At the time, I did not put 1+1 together, and didn’t know whether someone near our property had started some contracting (because I knew it wasn’t us). When Mark finally realised his mistake (wrong ‘intel’) and that we had not commenced works, he did not apologise, but just stated that ‘all was good’. In my opinion, if you get it wrong by making such hostile accusations, you need to apologise to set things right.The next cause for conflict came after the site supervisor gave me a date for hand-over. On return to the office, the site supervisor had obviously not cleared this date with Mark and rather than admit his mistake for fear of his job (he was relatively new at the time), he lied and said that he had not told me a hand-over date, and Mark believed him. So, the next thing that happens is that Mark rings me/us and tells us to back-off from putting pressure on his site supervisor. Like last time, we initially had no idea what he was talking about. Eventually we understood this accusation to be in reference to us putting pressure on the site supervisor to give us a date and the next thing that happens, is that we are all in a ‘conference’ call and I am forced to call the site supervisor for lying - and of course he denies this in front of his boss (Mark). The outcome - Mark believes his supervisor’s story.At the time of signing contracts, I wanted it specified that Little Constructions would remove all site dirt on completion of the project. Mark would not put that into the contract, but agreed that he would settle for a 50/50 split for the cost of this at the end of the build. Fast forward to the end of build and I find myself with a bill for removal of site fill to the tune of 75% (Little Constructions with 25%) - Mark had added a ‘builder’s fee’ to my 50%. In my opinion, Mark had not honoured his original ‘gentleman’s agreement’ to split this cost 50/50.Next we have the ‘paving disaster’. After 4 weeks of having lived in our new home, my wife rang Mark, when after rain, water was pooling against the house - it was running off the paving towards the house. Within an hour, the concrete contractors employed by Little Constructions, turned up and admitted to my wife that 3/4 of the paving they had done around the perimeter of our home, would have to be ripped up because it was sloping the wrong way (towards the house rather than away from it). Despite them accepting responsibility for this mistake and us having photographic evidence of water pooling against the house from the time we moved in, Mark accused us of creating the problem by causing ‘concrete heave’ because we had not put in a back lawn at this stage.There were other problems which I need not mention, because I’m certain that all building projects experience similar things. The problem for us, was that the major problems effected how we approached Mark to attend to these other things and in some cases, he was less than agreeable to fixing them. One example is that when we pointed out that there were sandpaper scratches on the glass of an internal sliding door, he suggested that we had done this.Our experience building with Mark was extremely distressing.

Wouldn't recommend this guy to my worst enemy

My wife and I engaged Little Constructions with a budget, that did not change, a written brief, that included some must haves, which were confirmed verbally with Little and a concept, which was not mandatory. Prior to signing Little presented a plan based on the concept but it was not in scope of brief as it was too big. When Little stated they could meet our needs we signed up and paid a deposit. The planning stage then started and we informed Little that they did not have to follow the concept and could start afresh. Knowing our brief and budget Little presented a smaller version of the original plan they had done and we decided to proceed with this, inc some minor modifications, to the initial costing stage. This is where the wheels begin to fall off. I asked what were the standard inclusions. They said they do not have any, despite there being some on their website, and said they cater to the customers wants and needs. So finally the initial costing was delivered. The must haves, inc the most important feature and main reason we chose Little, being the raft slab, was missing. Multiple items which were left on the design, were missing from the costing. The design too, had been modified, and with no consultation. The costing missing many features came in right at the top end of our budget. If the raft slab had of been included as requested and directed, it would have exceeded the budget. And our budget for a 30-35 sq home was 750k. Yet we were delivered a costing on a shell, missing many features. We communicated our disappointment via email to Little and then response was take more items out of the house. My feedback to Little is to be honest, if you can't deliver, let the customers know, if you know you couldn't deliver, don't mislead us. Little should have said the costing for what you wanted comes out higher. Let's see if one, we can revisit budget, or two start afresh. A different design. But too hard. In fact Little made little effort to solve the issue. Our experience was poor with Little Constructions. We were honest, transparent, excited and keen to build our dream home, but clearly not with Little. We have now gone to another local builder. One which had told us, been upfront and honest, that they could not build what we wanted with our 750k budget. But our heart told us, we should build with them, and we increased our budget, to do so.

I can't recommend Little Constructions more highly! Mark, Lisa and Glenn have been a dream to work with. The final product of our home is absolutely impeccable and is everything we dreamed for! After planning for almost 12 months, the team and Little Constructions were supportive, understanding, helpful and inspiring throughout the process. Our ideas were supported to grow into reality along with the team providing their feedback, tips and hints. We are extremely appreciative of everyone at Little Construction for making the process of our first build to be so stress free and easy!!

My partner and I first approached Little Constructions to build our new home in Bannockburn back in 2015 and were impressed with their professionalism and personal touch from the start. Over the next 12 months they helped us plan our home from the ground up and made the process as simple as possible. They consulted with us every step of the way and were more than accommodating when we had any questions or concerns. Throughout the build process they have ensured that any issue, big or small, has been addressed and have been able to come up with solutions to any of our problems. Their level of workmanship has been outstanding and they hold themselves to a very high standard. We would definitely recommend them to anyone looking to build their dream home.

We were lucky enough to have the team at Little Constructions build our new home. From start to finish we had full confidence that we'd made the right decision. The whole team were an absolute pleasure to work with and we felt like we were more than just another customer getting a house built. The teams ability to be honest, flexible and transparent gave us total piece of mind that we were going to walk into a brilliant home in the time frame and budget we were shooting for.Even with the additional challenges that the building industry as been facing, Mark, Paul and the rest of the crew still kept delivering at the key stages of the build.This was our first build and we couldn't have been more happy with how the process and most importantly the house all came together.Thanks again to the whole family at Little Constructions, you're all guns,Pat and Niamh

Little Constructions built a beautiful home for our family. When searching for a builder we found ourselves continually comparing the quality of display homes and nothing compared to Little Constructions. This high quality workmanship definitely translated to our home and we couldn’t be happier.All of the office staff were fantastic during the pre-construction phase and we appreciated working directly with Mark when designing our home. Leesa helped us enormously during colour selection. Site Manager Paul was amazing to deal with during the construction phase, always keeping us informed along the way.Little Constructions made the building process an enjoyable one and we definitely recommend them to anyone thinking of building their home.Brad and Virginia

The experience building our home with Little Constructions was first class! From initial design concept to final handover, the team were professional, responsive, and able to suggest solutions to suit our requirements within budget.Mark's building experience gave us the confidence that our family home would be delivered to our expectation.Their close-knit and friendly team made us always feel part of the journey - thankyou Paul, Edin, Kasey and Leesa!We loved using a local company. Paul was an excellent site supervisor, and very accommodating of our requests.We'd be very happy to recommend Little Constructions to anyone considering building in Geelong and surrounds!Thankyou Team Little! :)

We have recently received handover of our new home from Little Constructions - WOW would be an understatement.From start to finish their team have been exceptional to deal with!We had always put off building a new home as we had heard all the horror stories from friends and family - certainly not the case at all with Little Constructions. Absolute professionalism in all our dealings and delivered our dream home way within the time frames which has exceeded our expectations. Could not be happier!Thanks to the whole team! You guys are certainly all passionate about what you do - building country homes for country people!

When it comes to building houses these guys are outstanding.Having spent 3 months talking to a volume builder about building our home the difference in approach was huge. They were honest and upfront at every stage of the process, from working on the design of our house to discussing costs, challenges and timelines.The build process was seamless, from site cut to moving in, we always felt that they were in complete control of the build.The use of local trades and suppliers was very important to us. If there were any issues we were able to speak to the trades directly, always getting the right advice.Now that we have moved in there isn't a single thing we would change.So thanks to Edin for designing our beautiful home, Leesa for her valuable advice with colours and fittings. Kasey for constantly keeping us up to date and of course to Mark and Paul for their amazing work in actually bringing our home to fruition. You guys are the ultimate professionals and we wouldn't hesitate to recommend you to anyone looking to build their dream home.