Help! 2-3m slope in land map. Site cost!!

Hi all,

We are looking into a 497sqm land in schofields. We took the plot map to 3 builders. One of the builder told me there is 2m slope (three wavey topography lines drawn on the map marked 42, 42.5, 43 and there is no unit next to this figures, doea ot mean meters?) and this will cost addional 20-30k extra in the site cost. This was masterton homes.

Fowler and wisdom homes told us the slopes are not an issue because the depth of the building will only be buildinh within 1 m slope, so would not involve much extra in the site cost.

Now the strange part is, we checked the land and it was prety evened out block! We couldnt even noticed any slope, not even .25m on naked eye! I called the land agent and the lady had no idea on the sloped/ elevations. Is it possible for a block of land to look even, and being considered to have 2-3 m slopes in it!!!

I wish i could attach the photo of the plan/ map here so that you guys could help me understand!

Estimates are just that, an estimate. Once the site manager or building manager does a physical site assessment and soil test they will be able to work out the blocks elevations and tell you for sure what the go is.
If you're unsure, I think you can get yourself a building site surveyor and they can do it for you.

The lines are usually metres and the stand for metres above sea level.

You have a metre of fall between the 42 and 43 line. There are usually spot levels near the corners of the block on the engineering plans, they might say something like FS43.000 (FS is finished surface level), you can work out the fall across the entire block by subtracting the the front from the back or vise versa.

Fall is very difficult to judge by eye until they cut your site. We have a metre on ours and it looks flat. The blocks in our estate that have 2-3 metres fall don't look flat however you would never guess that they have anywhere that much.

I'm not sure what the wiggly lines mean, but we have 7 of them on our lot and we've been told that there is about 1 metre of fall, but to the untrained eye, it's flat enough to call flat. I have some pictures on my thread which may help.

Hi, we originally put a deposit down on a block with a 2m drop

As you can see in the pic, you can see that there is a slight dip but the naked eye couldn't identify it as 2m.
We swapped it for a slightly larger block with only a 0.2drop, the difference in site/footings costs was only around 5k for us, the saving was made with fencing. Our quote for fencing and retaining walls was in the $16-18k mark but the almost flat block is less that quarter that cost. I'm not saying that it'll be the same in your case as I know there are several factors involved, I just wanted to tell you our experience

We have a 2 m slope on our block. The actual build didn't cost any more than on a flat block but we had to pay about $5k to get excess soil removed. Also consider what the slope will require in landscaping and retaining walls. You might be looking at 20-30 k extra. Some builders will offer to build your house as a split level which might reduce some of this. That would mean stairs in your house but could also add interesting design features and appeal and take more advantage of views and light

We have a fall of about 4mtrs over the span of 36mtrs. To get the driveway gradient to pass and not have a massive fall off the alfresco we put a split into the design. It actually only cost another 2500.

Not sure if you can really see it from that pic. My thread has heaps tho.

Thanks everyone for your valuable inputs.
This forum has helped me a lot in understanding the hidden facts of buying a land and building on it in just 2 days. I had zero idea before thinking its just like buying a block of land, and get loan, choose a building design, get loan..... I was about to deposit for a piece of land last Sunday in Schofields. The agent supplied a map of plot showing many lines and signs. I asked her to explain the map and she said it was nothing special.... I did not deposit that day thinking I should read a bit and now I know there are no many facts to consider. Thanks God the lady gave me the contour map without me asking them. Otherwise I would've just deposited for the land...

needsausername & MJT: thats a very good idea, Thanks for the ideas
Marshall5858: no it definitely look anything closer to 2m, 2M would be close to the ceiling lol. lucky you were able to swap
Mrs_W, Craig, Bank: thanks and yes now I an getting it, the lines are trouble.
Unfortunately all the plots we looked at, all of them have something like 2m and sometimes larger slopes in the area

Guys I would be very grateful if you could check out my other post and help me understanding the contour maps. I need help to understand their impact on site cost/ driveway gradient/ fencing/ landscaping/ pool building cost etc....
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A million thanks again