Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Soil Test ? 2Mar 03, 2022 5:24 am Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Re: Soil Test ? 3Mar 03, 2022 6:04 am A few points. Yes you need a soil test. Good idea to get one before even buying the land. It should also come with a land survey so, will tell you the fall of the block. If the test comes back that it is worse then M class then an engineer needs to design the foundation. A few more things.... No, concrete piers are not superior to screw piers. Used for different applications. No concrete piers are not only designed to find rock for support. Some sites they bore down to a depth so that the static friction or suction of the pier supports the foundation. Yes generally your builder will quote based on the house being on a slab, but whether it be M class is dubious. No your framing material sizes has nothing to do with your foundation design. Usually wind rating and loading. Larger or wider timber framing sizes are used to accommodate the insulation. Usually a 70x35 stud at 600cts for partition walls which allows the plasterboard to flex more which is good or bad but not structurally weak at all. Builders are not a charity. At the end of any blurb should be the disclaimer... we are in it for the money. So the variation is where they make it. I don't think your architect gave you good advice. Re: Soil Test ? 4Mar 03, 2022 7:03 am Ardo A few points. Yes you need a soil test. Good idea to get one before even buying the land. It should also come with a land survey so, will tell you the fall of the block. If the test comes back that it is worse then M class then an engineer needs to design the foundation. A few more things.... No, concrete piers are not superior to screw piers. Used for different applications. No concrete piers are not only designed to find rock for support. Some sites they bore down to a depth so that the static friction or suction of the pier supports the foundation. Yes generally your builder will quote based on the house being on a slab, but whether it be M class is dubious. No your framing material sizes has nothing to do with your foundation design. Usually wind rating and loading. Larger or wider timber framing sizes are used to accommodate the insulation. Usually a 70x35 stud at 600cts for partition walls which allows the plasterboard to flex more which is good or bad but not structurally weak at all. Builders are not a charity. At the end of any blurb should be the disclaimer... we are in it for the money. So the variation is where they make it. I don't think your architect gave you good advice. Ardo You have totally misread and miss-interpreted my post. I will put it in dot points to make it easier for you: 1. Technically it is always a good idea to get a soil test and have as much information as possible. I finished the post by noting that the engineer will most likely put a notation on the drawing requiring one which the OP can then put back on the builder. So the architect could be coming at it from the perspective of your custom build being a design and construct scenario where the builder is responsible for confirming that the design is correct for the site. 2. If you have a builder who always builds the slab to a P standard then unless there is some unique site condition, ie you are on a landfill, I don't believe soil classification tests are necessary. If all we are testing for is soil reactivity, then why not just put some extra steel in and some extra concrete for insurance purposes? Have you seen how many cases some of the big builders fight, especially in Victoria when peoples homes have structural issues and they fight them all the way. Big money wins most of the time. 3. Concrete piers are far superior to screw piles. Come back to me when you have had a home sink by 50mm (when working for a project home builder) that is on a P site and the engineer had specified screw piles and tell me you would not have been better with concrete piers bearing to rock. Until that has happened to you, and you are responsible for the structural warranty there is no argument. Concrete piers cost us 4 times the price of screw piles, we choose spend more so customers get better quality and we dont have future structural issues. 4. Framing - No half decent carpenter would ever build their own home with 70x35 at 600mm centres, everyone of them would use 90x45 at 450mm centers for structural walls and 600mm for non load bearing. Enough said. My house is framed with 90 x 45, held together with over 2,000 75mm-100mm bugles, dynabolted to the slab at 600 centres, and I tell you what, whenever those southerlies hit my bedroom wall at night, I sleep like a baby! 5. It's the same with sarking, Australian Standards only require you to sark the trusses. The only project home company that I have personally seen who sarks walls in Metricon as that came out of Victoria. You cant tell me that having insulation in the wall cavity which is designed to be a wet cavity is good building practise. We sark and tape all our walls to keep that separation and also create an air barrier for better thermal comfort. Ardo, we are talking about two different styles of building. The sausage factory style versus the custom method. Off to work now. Simeon Architectural Homes & Duplexes - specialising in custom designing homes to your budget Get a Free Onsite Consultation Today or send a PM for information, questions or advice. Re: Soil Test ? 5Mar 03, 2022 8:21 am Perhaps you should read my post. 1. Not technically. It's a must. Most if not all councils require it. 2. I said that whether a builder will quote a price based on a M class slab is dubious. Unless they specify what it is then to assune that is a m class mistake. 3. Concrete piers are not superior to screw piers. As I said it depends on application. Plenty of concrete piers sink, or lift because they are squeezed out of the ground. Problem is builders choose a side and rubbish another method. Concrete piers are about 50-75 a metre based on a 450mm metre and screw pier is about 80-90 or standard 8kn. But the deeper you go the screw pier is cheaper. 4. Clearly I said partition wall. Did not mention load bearing. And I did say larger or wider timbers. F7, F11, mgp10, mgp12.... 5. Sarking? Oh you could mean vapour permeable membrane perhaps? Or impermeable membrane, or anticon blanket. And yes the standard is the bare minimum. Insulation is about removing convection. Reflective wraps reflect heat. Which one does 'sarking do?' Let's now debate steel v timber frames. Yellow tongue in bathrooms v cement sheet, raft v waffle... etc etc. Many ways to skin a cat. I'm at home on the pooper. Bit of youtube, bit of study, might go to work, might not.. Sorry to OP. Re: Soil Test ? 6Mar 03, 2022 8:27 am Sorry re soil test. It is a requirement that a soil test is done before construction. Whether you do it or the builder, it gets done by someone. Just note some builders won't accept your soil test because they trust their own engineers. If you want to do get it done, you really should know where you want your house build so they can localise the testing area. 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 37158 Three options 1 Ask the liquidator 2 Find another PD customer and ask the source of their report 3 Pay for new report 3 12345 Hi Building Expert, Thank you for the feedback, much appreciated, there is also a code of conduct for building surveyors which they need to follow as well. I am looking… 4 3679 |