Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Nov 03, 2008 11:02 am Hi,
I am in the process of building a new home in Brisbane on a plot that has H class soil. It is a new estate and the developer has planted a 3m high 'Common Brushbox' tree (also known as 'Lophostemon confertus') near the kerb. I have recently received a fixed price quote from my builder and they want to charge us $4500 above and over the H class slab for piering (Provide Piering to the slab edge in close proximity to the "zone of influence" for a tree as per Engineers report). They argue that the tree would grow to 15m in its life time and as they give a 25 yrs warranty, they have to allow for piering. The developer, on teh other hand, says that the tree planted is a council approved tree with non invasive roots. Apparently, its not the roots that the builder is worried about. The tree suck the moisture from the ground and cause a moisture imbalance leading to cracking of the slab. The other option is to cut down the tree and not do the piering. The tree can be cut and removed and the builder will credit us the periing allowance. This does raise a couple of issues... - Does this mean that we can never plant a fruit tree in the plot? The plot is 600sqm and we have left around 7m from the back fence, 7 m from the kerb in the front and and around 2.5m on either side. - Given that we don't need to get piering done once the 'offending' tree is removed, how does one prevent a neighbour from planting one on the other side of the fence. Our side walls are 2.5 m from the fence. How would this impact the 25yrs structural warranty? Any answers/suggestions or pointers on the next step would be really welcome. Re: H Class Soil and Piering allowance 2Nov 03, 2008 12:11 pm I'll be very interested in hearing what people in the know have to say about your question geekonline, as I have posted in another thread we have had an adjustment of $15,000 and part of this is apparently trees, when you read though all the "gobbledygook" in the engineers reports etc much of it looks likes it is to protect the builder from future problems! Re: H Class Soil and Piering allowance 3Nov 03, 2008 2:34 pm Maybe a use of the search facility on "foundations" might clear the gobblydegook...
https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.p ... 077#122077 https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.p ... foundation https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.p ... sc&start=0 mmm....donuts Homer Simpson 1956- Links: Site Costs Ready Reckoner | H1 Addiction Medical Advice | Château TDL: The Backyard Re: H Class Soil and Piering allowance 4Nov 03, 2008 6:28 pm Get an arborist to provide report to the engineer. The tree is over 7m away yet still young tree. The zone of influence will be determined by the arborist, they will determine the CRZ of the tree and its impact on soil condition. I suspect the engineer and subsquently the builder is being very conservative due to their PI insurance conditions, while the builder is probably taking this opportunity to charging considerable extra for a bunch of bored piers etc. Tree Root barrier might be cheaper option that stops the roots spreading and therefore changes the pattern of the moisture content of the ground.
As for your neighbours thats always going to be a problem but generrally the reason its H class is due to its reactivity of the area with trees etc expected these days. Many years ago current H class sites used to be ok to be classed as M but now due to greater insurance legal risks the classification have been toughened up to cope with more realistic long term conditions. In my opinion a tree thats only 3m height at current age thats more than 7m away is an overreaction by the enginneer but then again he is the one that must sign the compliance certificate for the builder. good luck 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 13098 I don’t think so as the floor area over 300 square meters then it is class 3…. 12 17936 |