Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Oct 07, 2021 9:29 am Hi all, I just joined this group and hoping to get an input on the below. I have some things happening in the background but I am still feeling quite unsettled. I was given an estimate of $52k for footings allowance (at the time I was told this is higher than normal for the area). Then I was thrown a $27k variance for extra deep trenches and the additional materials to go with it. They wrote on the variance if rock is encountered they would charge additionally for this. They finally started the earthwork on my land and they have come across rock. Yay.... I received an email yesterday stating that it would cost $72 per tonne for removal and that they estimate 150 tonnes from the earthworker and an additional 180+ from the trenches. I calculated this out to be roughly $25k..... This has now doubled what they originally estimated. I understand that Hewett land is difficult to work with but this is getting out of hand. I am doing this on my own and I can't afford for these variations to keep coming up before they even really began the works..... Any advice or input is appreciated. Re: Footings cost in Hewett 2Oct 07, 2021 11:31 am There are always alternatives for extra deep footings etc. as you are not in Arctic where it is a norm due to freezing levels, but even there are ways to create foundation with shallow footings. For example, you could easily invested this extra dollars into reinforcement and more concrete and put together a shallow 250-300 mm floating slab with no footings at all. Engineers in Australia have to be challenged to do thinking out of the box and offer alternatives to the customers. Also, you do not really have to start digging to realise there is a rock down there, this is what geotech surveys are for and this is what your engineers had to use as a reference to design the right foundation system for you. At this stage, however, you would have to just pay these extras and hope for good... I am quite sure this is listed/specified in your contract as unpredicted costs. 7 11931 We were lucky in that our old house was so small (86 square metres) compared to the new house, they were able to take enough readings around the old backyard house before… 8 37085 Fair Trading can issue orders to rectify and complete but once the matter goes to NCAT these orders are automatically vacated. You will have to terminate contract and sue… 21 29679 |