Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Oct 08, 2010 7:40 pm Hi I have been reading through numerous forums and thought I would finally post something in the hope that someone else might have had a similar issue with building on a block with fall. I have a block in Bacchus Marsh (VIC) which has about a 2m fall across the entire block from rear to front. (Over a 50m length) Believe it or not our block is one with less fall than most others in the area. I would estimate we would be about 1 to 1.2m or so across the actual building area. The fall is a gradual slope and there seems to be little rock in my particular stage. (De goldi Estate Stage 3) I have spoken with Henley and Porter Davis who are willing to estimate around 20k to 25k for site costs? Would this be a fair estimate? Has anyone out there built in the same area or have a block with similar fall? Particularly if you have dealt with either Henley of PD? I have read some reassuring and some horrible figures being posted around. I understand that I will require a 'H' class slab and obviously a cut and fill but would love to hear from anyone in the know. Would greatly appreciate any feedback. Re: Site Costs Involving Site Fall 2Oct 09, 2010 7:34 am Hi, We were quoted something similar for a similar amount of fall with PD. Our fall was 1.2 across the builidng site, the actual costs at contract time where 32K, and they wanted to drop the garage down about 1.2m( to make the driveway gradient less). We were expecting these charges as we have gone through the process with M*con in the past. What you need to know before they present the price to you : *Find out the Driveway gradient that your council will allow. Most builders go for a 1 in 6 gradient(for every 1 metre of fall they have to put the garage back 6 metres) however councils allow up to 1 in 4 gradient. This would mean a steeper driveway but less site costs. In our example site costs went from 32K to 24K. * Position the house as much as possible on the land that has the least amount of fall across it. We moved it 1/2 a metre to the right and probably saved 5-10K in costs. * Instead of having these guys put retaining walls everywhere(they charge an arm and a leg for simple retaining walls) see if they can batter the land around the site cut. This means that they dont have to put retaining walls if they can angle the dirt around the site cut to 45 degrees. After constuction you could get the retaining walls done or work out an alternate way of landscaping. Unfortunately with site fall and building with these volume builders you dont have too much flexability. They do not build on stumps or do not do split slabs so a large cut and fill is required and the costs are pretty big. Also expect your quote to come in anywhere from 5-15 K more then they have quoted. They put in 25K but know if you except that you will be willing to pay another 10K if push came to shove. Re: Site Costs Involving Site Fall 3Oct 10, 2010 9:29 am Thanks for the reply. What you have said makes good sense. We have a 7m front setback and 3m side setback which pushes things in our favour and have fall that sounds similar to what you have described in your case. We are looking at building a single storey (approx 30 squares) so hopefully we can position it to one side to limit the building area affected by fall. I agree that avoiding retaining walls will be a main mission. I really appreciate your detailed response. It is helpful and confirms a few things we have found out. Did you end up going with PD and if so how have things progressed to date? We are looking at them and Henley. Thanks again. Travis Re: Site Costs Involving Site Fall 4Oct 10, 2010 1:58 pm We built in NSW so no help there but we built on a block with nearly 3 mtr fall from front to back over 42mtrs. We put a step down in our house- 3 steps- giving us nearly 10 foot ceilings through back half of the house. We also had dropped edge beams so that we did not have a 1.5 mtr high retaining wall out of our back door. Now that the house is almost finished I wish we had dropped the back even lower as it is quite high- photos on my thread Good luck with your block Built our Granton in 2010 Handover December 3rd- wooohooo! Now the hard work has began.... Retaining walls and landscaping Re: Site Costs Involving Site Fall 5Oct 10, 2010 8:54 pm FYI- I also have a 2m fall. I was quoted 20k by pd & mine came to 46k! Costs broken down: Cut & fill = 18k Retaining walls = 21k Piercing = 7k Ag drains = 1.6k Mel Re: Site Costs Involving Site Fall 6Oct 14, 2010 8:24 am mel_mox FYI- I also have a 2m fall. I was quoted 20k by pd & mine came to 46k! Costs broken down: Cut & fill = 18k Retaining walls = 21k Piercing = 7k Ag drains = 1.6k Mel Hi Mel Thanks for your post, In your case was it a 2m fall across the building platform or your block? Are you building a single or double storey home and what area are you building in? I notice with PD that they have site costs included at the minute but only up to 10k. Gee the retaining walls cost a bit. How many and how long were they? How has your process been with PD to date. Communication/quality etc. Hope to hear back from you soon. Regards Trav & Jo Re: Site Costs Involving Site Fall 7Oct 14, 2010 10:39 am Hi there, We have just done our own site preparation because we are putting in a small lap pool and our builder PD wont let you access the block once they start to build. Our block is short and wide but on an incline and we needed to excavate to around 1.4m at the back of the block. Our house is two story with the driveway set back around 8 metres with the front alcove only 4 metres from the pavement. Block size 18.9w x 27.67 depth Our costs were huge because we had to have extra deep posts/pierings for the pool and the retaining wall was pretty much industrial strength as recommended by PD. Site cut $13k (35 truck fulls of soil to cart away) Retaining walls 26k (19 m x 1.4m deep at back plus additional sidewalls tapering down to front of property including agi drains PD also charged an additional 4k on top of that for additional piering Waffle H class slab required So all up $43k plus cost of slab Hope that sheds some light Caz Re: Site Costs Involving Site Fall 8Oct 14, 2010 8:18 pm Hi trav & Jo, It's 2m across building platform! My block is 18 x 35 Building a dbl storey. Building in Doreen. Cremorne 42. We signed up in august, so no free site costs, but we got evaporate cooling, slab upgrade & app now our house base price has gob up! We only need one retaining wall - on the whole right side of our block. Apparently 2500m! Porter Davis sales guy at epping awesome! Really helpful with ideas & help in getting our first sales quote together. And porter Davis have been good in communication & efficient. Even though I got a huge shock at tender with my site costs it's all understandable now! And reading cazs post above has made me feel better. In terms of timeframe - signed up on aug 31st, tender was last wk oct 7, col selection next week 21 oct & contract will be 3 nov! Site start is booked for dec. Waiting on my land to settle! Hoping this is in nov, was supposed to be oct! Search 'building blogs' & u will find heaps of blogs with pd houses. I also have one to help others with their building experience. This forum actually helped me decide to build with pd. Especially reviewing lots of peoples blogs. Private message me if u have any specific questions. Caz - this makes me feel much better seeing your site costs similar to mine Where u as shocked as I was? Pretty much the same except u are cutting as I am filling which is costing more 18k. Ahhh Mel Re: Site Costs Involving Site Fall 9Oct 15, 2010 12:27 pm Thanks Mel & Caz I appreciate your experience and info. I am confident our block should have no more than about 1.5m fall across the building envelope. We are looking at a single storey with PD (Churchill 33) and hopefully can avoid retaining walls which seem to add the greatest amount to the overall cost. We are dealing with a sales rep at Williams Landing who is very helpful and is aware of our concerns. The current deal with PD includes up to 10k of site costs including slab upgrade (which I know we will need) so I suppose that takes a little of the sting out of things. The sales rep stated that after a soil test/survey is undetaken once the land has been titled that the site costs would be known and FIXED! Does this sound right? I was also told that PD would provide a full refund of the deposit if we were not happy with the costs and that they guaranteed to beat any other builders site costs. Once the tender was presented to you guys were the site costs fixed or was there a clause for them to increase them if needed after contract stage? Sorry to annoy you with more on this topic but the more info available the better armed we feel. Thanks Trav & Jo Re: Site Costs Involving Site Fall 10Oct 15, 2010 12:56 pm Hi mel Yes I was shocked as I was only planning for around 15K of extra cost including slab and my slope didn't look that bad but once I saw the huge amount of work in the excavation and retaining wall I realised it was massive. The retaining wall specs are commercial strength - think we could build a shopping centre on ours they are that sturdy!! Also happy to have the waffle slab as this should minimise any plaster cracking because of the flexibility of the slab. We are building the Marina 42 as it it perfectly suited to a short block with the front alcove closest to the road then stepping back to the porch and a further stepback to the garage giving more illusion of space at the front. PD have just finished the roofing and we arenow waiting on the brickies. Trav and Jo You absolutely need to get you soil test and survey drawings done to know what you are up for. They are really worht it and provide a lot of detail. What your sales guy says and what is reality is far and away two different things. Be prepared for the worst so if it is better news you are not so shell shocked. We were ignorant and unrealistic as we are first time home builders. What seems a gentle slope isn't always the case!! As we decided to do our own site works because of the pool I cant tell you if the cost is locked in but I would think it was perhaps Mel could tell you more on this. Caz Re: Site Costs Involving Site Fall 11Oct 15, 2010 10:23 pm Hey caz & trav & Jo, No site costs are not locked in. And have been told that another site test will be done after land titles. So costs could go up. But due to my costs being so high pd have said that it would not be much. I'm praying they come town, but realistically they have said this is what it will be! Sales reps r not builders. If u submitted to say 4 different builders u would get different site costs! Sloping builders do not charge much! My cousin had 5m drop & only 12k in costs but the base price of her house was much higher! It all comes down to the house & if u love the land, like we do. We thought about our other options & maybe selling but we love our block. Sloping blocks are costly! Don't feel u are annoying me at all happy to hep. Have had so many people do so for me on this forum. Trav - yeah i had 20k as my budget as thought my block only had 1.5m drop. I was told by another builder who I initially was going to go with not pd. They said my costs would be max 18k! So yeah ahhhh then my hubby & i went out & measured our block before tender & yeah we freaked that it was more than we were told! We now love the land & the cremorne, so we r willing to fork out the money The marina is a nice house. Start a blog? Really easy. Would love to see your progress of building Mel Re: Site Costs Involving Site Fall 12Oct 20, 2010 8:58 am Hi Trav&Jo, It's great to see you doing your research and asking all the right questions. Do you know from all the builders you have looked into, what single storey design you are considering at this point in time? I suggest contacting each builder that you are interested in and getting a good idea of what they can offer you for your particular block of land and what site costs will come with the fall. I understand that you have made contact with PD, but if you want to send me a private message with your name and number I can organise someone to give you a call and answer your questions. Let me know, and goodluck with the research Porter Davis Homes Questions? Call 1800PORTER Mon - Fri 9am-8pm Sat - Sun 10am-4pm info@porterdavis.com.au http://blog.porterdavis.com.au/ http://www.porterdavishomes.com.au Re: Site Costs Involving Site Fall 13Oct 23, 2010 8:12 pm We have a 2m across our house area (3m across the block), but as our block is 25m wide we could batten and did not need conventional retaining walls except next to the garage, which we did after handover. We built single storey 40sq house with PD. Site costs came in at around 18k, but we did a rock garden (which is adequate to retain due to the slope of the batten) after handover. The rock work (around 30m on the fill side and 30m on the cut side) and a 6m long concrete sleeper retaining wall at the side of the garage cost 7.5k. PM if you want more info or pics. I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: Site Costs Involving Site Fall 14Nov 02, 2010 8:27 am mel_mox up! We only need one retaining wall - on the whole right side of our block. Apparently 2500m! Mel Hi Mel, How high is the retaining wall that was specified by PD? Was it over 1.2m high? Thanks in advance, Chorlton TIMING OF BUILD 25Feb - Site Start 25Mar - Base Stage Complete 31Mar - Frame Completed 11Apr - Roof Tiles 20Apr - Brickwork Started Re: Site Costs Involving Site Fall 16Nov 02, 2010 12:59 pm Over a 2m fall, our site costs were approx 7K. S class. Semi rural. That was just for the battered cut/fill. No retaining wall reqd. Very small amount of rock, nothing the machine couldn't get through. All the big volume builders quoted us 25K or more. But of course you get a 'free' kitchen upgrade or 'free' ducted air conditioning Re: Site Costs Involving Site Fall 17Nov 02, 2010 4:25 pm mel_mox They said 2.5 metres! Mel 2.5m high wall !! Wow !!!!!!! I've never seen one that tall before.... Thanks for the info TIMING OF BUILD 25Feb - Site Start 25Mar - Base Stage Complete 31Mar - Frame Completed 11Apr - Roof Tiles 20Apr - Brickwork Started Re: Site Costs Involving Site Fall 18Nov 02, 2010 6:41 pm That is what they have said, we will see though! Lol I doubt it really to be honest! Re: Site Costs Involving Site Fall 19Nov 10, 2010 1:17 pm Hi Trav I have 1.1m fall (left to right) within building area, 1.2m fall at front and 8m set back to achieve driveway gradient. My site cost is 11K plus. i am building with Places. its 32 sq single sty. site cost included cut/ fill, bored pier, retaining wall and agi drain mm Thank you Splashers. Tomorrow I might check if I can get a few packs of 300x300 in the same tile finish. It may be good to use these could in the shower recesses. I'm not… 4 4670 I've got a challenge here. Background is the builder has cut too deep for the slab and the slab is now below the very substantial retaining wall. It's failed occupancy… 0 18371 I am not sure whether Perth has its own way of doing things in regards to this. Most of Perth has class A (sandy soil), except for some areas near rivers or hills. 2 12991 |