Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Sep 29, 2022 8:33 pm Hi all,
Attached below is a pic of our site several months following site cut, there have been sporadic days of rain here and there, but even sometimes after a week, we see pools of water sitting like what you see in the pic. We are low down the hill. Should we be concerned about this? Our slab will be waffle pod. Any solutions we can consider before slab goes down? For some reason pic didn't work in the post so I have replied below with the pic. Re: Site drainage, water pooling 3Sep 30, 2022 11:00 am if no works have started, i wouldnt worry too much. Your builders engineering plans will require them to manage site drainage throughout the build to ensure this doesnt occur. HOWEVER, what tends to happen with many builders is they dont care and do what they want. My advice is to stay on top of them about it as the site works start and start making records regarding this - ie all your communication about any drainage concerns or non compliance should be done in writing. Doesnt have to be combattive, just in writing so you have records in the event you end up with problems. Take lots of photos, check the site after rain, if there is any ponding against the slab, address it with the builder immediately, keep their response. Remind them of their engineering requirements and hold them to them. They may sort it or continue to ignore their obligations. If it is the latter, you will have the records of their negligence. While not ideal, its often the best you can do under the circumstances. Our builder has kept the earth graded away from the house on our site throughout the build, but i found that various trades would circumvent things like the temp downpipes. The brickies would often take them out of the storm water pipes so they could put their scaff up etc, so i'd just go around and put them back in and send emails to the builder telling them that its occurred. Hire a private building inspector for all stages too. Just be aware that your private inspector doesn't check the drain plumbing that goes in before the slab. If you want gold standard, find a drain plumber that does inspections and get them to do one before the slab formwork has been done (ie on the day the drain plumbers are there) underground drains are often laid poorly and it continues to happen because once the slab is down its impossible to verify the install Dark matter scientist, can breathe underwater, mind reader and can freeze matter just by willing it. Trust me, its in my sig. Re: Site drainage, water pooling 4Sep 30, 2022 12:02 pm ![]() if no works have started........... Excellent post!!! 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using siphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost, siphonic, eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: Site drainage, water pooling 5Sep 30, 2022 12:28 pm ![]() if no works have started, i wouldnt worry too much. Your builders engineering plans will require them to manage site drainage throughout the build to ensure this doesnt occur. HOWEVER, what tends to happen with many builders is they dont care and do what they want. My advice is to stay on top of them about it as the site works start and start making records regarding this - ie all your communication about any drainage concerns or non compliance should be done in writing. Doesnt have to be combattive, just in writing so you have records in the event you end up with problems. Take lots of photos, check the site after rain, if there is any ponding against the slab, address it with the builder immediately, keep their response. Remind them of their engineering requirements and hold them to them. They may sort it or continue to ignore their obligations. If it is the latter, you will have the records of their negligence. While not ideal, its often the best you can do under the circumstances. Our builder has kept the earth graded away from the house on our site throughout the build, but i found that various trades would circumvent things like the temp downpipes. The brickies would often take them out of the storm water pipes so they could put their scaff up etc, so i'd just go around and put them back in and send emails to the builder telling them that its occurred. Hire a private building inspector for all stages too. Just be aware that your private inspector doesn't check the drain plumbing that goes in before the slab. If you want gold standard, find a drain plumber that does inspections and get them to do one before the slab formwork has been done (ie on the day the drain plumbers are there) underground drains are often laid poorly and it continues to happen because once the slab is down its impossible to verify the install Thanks Noname for your very comprehensive and helpfull post. We will be engaging an independent inspector. Council does the drain plumbing in our area, and the private certifier all the rest is my understanding. We will also get a independent inspector just as a second opinion. Is this something we should raise with the certifier or builder already? The site is graded toward the site cut, which is where our house will be. Re: Site drainage, water pooling 6Sep 30, 2022 1:59 pm I've not heard of council being responsible for the underground plumbing of a private home. Your builder is building the house which includes all of the plumbing work. They will contract this to a their preferred plumbers. The drain plumbers will connect thier work to the sewer and storm water that the council is responsible for. In vic, and I'm sure elsewhere, plumbing is self certified. As you can imagine, a plumber is not going to do the work and then say their work is non compliant. Its a conflicted situation. So they tend to cut cor ers and just make sure they dont make a conplete mess of it and say it meets compliance, because youll never know any different. So no certifier will be coming around to check the works. In vic, the vba on occasion send somone to do a spot audit, but this is far and few between. As to the inspector, you can tell the builder. It's helpful if they're receptive. Some builders will try to put unreasonable conditions above the standard contractual notice requirements. E.g. will charge you 500 buck per inspector visit or refuse to let them on due to OH&S. All of which is BS. If your builder tries that, get a different builder. Trust me. Best to find out early where they stand so you're not locked in only to realise your builder was planning to hide defects all along. Even though your entitled to choose your own surveyor, builders will often require you to chose theirs. It's a conflicted relationship. However if you have your own inspector, have a good relationship with the builder, aren't an a$$hole when speaking to them, it's not an overly massive problem. Just know the surveyor will be doing bare minimum. How the cut is angled is just a factor that will have to be taken into account when managing site drainage. It sounds like it will be problematic, but as long as the site drainage is designed and managed appropriately from the start, it should be a problem. If it is a problem, photos photos, photos and keep records. Dark matter scientist, can breathe underwater, mind reader and can freeze matter just by willing it. Trust me, its in my sig. Re: Site drainage, water pooling 7Sep 30, 2022 9:58 pm ![]() I've not heard of council being responsible for the underground plumbing of a private home. Your builder is building the house which includes all of the plumbing work. They will contract this to a their preferred plumbers. The drain plumbers will connect thier work to the sewer and storm water that the council is responsible for. In vic, and I'm sure elsewhere, plumbing is self certified. As you can imagine, a plumber is not going to do the work and then say their work is non compliant. Its a conflicted situation. So they tend to cut cor ers and just make sure they dont make a conplete mess of it and say it meets compliance, because youll never know any different. So no certifier will be coming around to check the works. In vic, the vba on occasion send somone to do a spot audit, but this is far and few between. As to the inspector, you can tell the builder. It's helpful if they're receptive. Some builders will try to put unreasonable conditions above the standard contractual notice requirements. E.g. will charge you 500 buck per inspector visit or refuse to let them on due to OH&S. All of which is BS. If your builder tries that, get a different builder. Trust me. Best to find out early where they stand so you're not locked in only to realise your builder was planning to hide defects all along. Even though your entitled to choose your own surveyor, builders will often require you to chose theirs. It's a conflicted relationship. However if you have your own inspector, have a good relationship with the builder, aren't an a$$hole when speaking to them, it's not an overly massive problem. Just know the surveyor will be doing bare minimum. How the cut is angled is just a factor that will have to be taken into account when managing site drainage. It sounds like it will be problematic, but as long as the site drainage is designed and managed appropriately from the start, it should be a problem. If it is a problem, photos photos, photos and keep records. Thanks again noname, from what I understand the council sign off on the plumbing and the private certifier does everything else. Our certifier and council have both told us this but mabye it's something else, and I have misinterpreted? I'll ask to attend whatever sign off happens with my independent inspector. Completely agree re those clauses, they are unconciounable - we have something similar unfortunately. Thanks again! Re: Site drainage, water pooling 8Nov 15, 2022 5:28 pm The two general types of drainage practices are surface and subsurface. Surface drainage is the removal of excess water from the soil surface. Subsurface drainage is the removal of water from the soil profile.All shuttering gaps must be correctly sealed before casting a slab, paying close attention to the column cap, beam junctions, beam side to slab bottom connection, beam side to beam bottom junction, and jointing between two plates. Dipped roof is either a structural weakness or damage to timber frame from termite activity. You should invest in a competent inspection. 3 8715 ![]() Thanks a lot. 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