About to settle on our block of land and looking into build contracts. I’m a first home builder and have engaged with a builder for designs & quotes.
In our preliminary quotes, we had an allowance of $100k for site costs and were told that it should be an overestimate. However, since then, a soil test has been performed and due to rock being discovered underneath, we are now being quoted a FIXED price of $153,000 for site costs (which I did not expect at all and am now quite anxious about)
The fixed price quoted apparently includes amounts for works including:
- excavation and removal of rock
- AG drains
- silt pits
- slab upgrade as required
- brick retaining wall to side & rear of garage
- deepened rebate to front of home & brick rebate to porch
- site access requirements for steep block
Exact price breakdown hasn’t been given and not sure if it’s something the builder can give me. But I’ve been told that the excavation & rock removal itself is ~$80k alone. I knew that building on a sloped block would have its complications and generally be more expensive to work with, but $150k just seems absurd!!! And at a fixed price too!!!
I’ve provided a bit more detail about our block and soil tests below. Any advice on this and opinions as to whether this pricing is reasonable is much appreciated. Haven’t yet engaged with any other builders – but will definitely be researching and asking.
Lot size: 614m^2
Approx. 6m fall across land from back left to front right corner of lot
Proposed building size: 341.43m^2
Site classification: P site
Slab type: waffle raft
From 3 sites tested – rock was found around the 600m depth and was unable to penetrate deeper.
Please HELP this nervous first time builder!! Thanks in advance.
(Also happy to clarify anything above if it doesn’t make sense – will have to make sense of it myself as this is definitely not my expertise)