Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Poor Soil Test Result 21Jan 09, 2009 12:22 am This is so far just preliminary costings. As I have fill going down almost 2000mm this is going to cost a fortune for piers as it has been classified a P-Class. If only I had a stupid compaction certificate it would be classified a S/M Class.
Im definately going to give the developer an ear full. How can he compact the blocks around mine and leave mine and my other neighbours block uncompacted? (Maybe he did though? But he would have included the certificates with the others surely). Can I hire an independant tester to see if the fill on the block actually IS compacted and he can certify it? Here's a few comments from my report. It does say the fill is dense? Maybe I can get lucky? Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Poor Soil Test Result 22Jan 12, 2009 11:03 pm Well - we had our soil test redone explaining that it cant possibly be fill and it came back as a S/M class now
They said the examied the "fill" more closely and it was just a type of soil that appears to be fill but actually isn't Our entire site costs are now only $3k which is great Re: Poor Soil Test Result 24Jan 13, 2009 8:04 am thanks ozzroo! I believe on only need 200mm of fill in the back corner of my block as it is already very flat
After reading around here and the horror site costs other people had to pay, I consider myself very very lucky! However I have a few more council fees due to applying for a boundry relaxation. How did your soil test go? Re: Poor Soil Test Result 25Jan 13, 2009 8:12 am Our's came back M/H. Slab classification as M.
All natural ground, no fill. 1500mm fall across building pad. No piering required The stage we are in, well probably the entire area has a sandstone shelf running through it. Some of the blocks have hit this and has mainly become a problem for the inground water/sewer tanks. We are at $9600 costed in for site works. Bulk of this is slab. Re: Poor Soil Test Result 26Feb 05, 2009 9:36 pm Hi All,
I'm in Toowoomba, had a soil test on a 1,000sqm block slope came back P class, hit rock at one point 25mm, so I didn't buy it, now have found a 2300 sqm block 15min's out of town found out today it has come back as an E class gentle slop no neighbours at the back and got it down from 97k to 90k do you think maybe I could build at a resonable price taking into consideration the 7k reduction, I'm starting on my own, have built before so have some experience, just not the foundation stuff, Re: Poor Soil Test Result 27Feb 05, 2009 9:55 pm I am told by my engineering friend that "E" represents EXTREMELY REACTIVE... very often black soil or river wash affected soil..... He suggested over and above a standard "M" slab an additional cost of $25000 to $30000 could be expected on a 250 sq m house for the slab and special piers plus extra concreting 1m wide all around the house. .. and after all this the house generally experiences movement and cracking. Don't touch it with a barge pole unless you love the view. Trust in the Universe Re: Poor Soil Test Result 28Feb 06, 2009 11:04 am Hi Robbuilding, You and your engineering friend where right on the money I have taken your advice and cancelled the contract. The guy who did my soil test told me the same thing too, maybe third time lucky Cheers and thanks again Re: Poor Soil Test Result 29Feb 06, 2009 12:06 pm As a long time lurker on this forum I have never seen anybody use or refer to screw piers.
http://www.instantfoundations.com.au/intro.html Let me give you a bit of background. 10 yrs ago I built in Palm Beach Qld and at that time there was a lot of trouble with subsidence in the area. 20 years previous to this a developer had put in a canal estate by bulldozing down all the trees/vegetation and then putting through a dredge and dredging all the sand up onto the vegetation to form the building blocks. Subsequent to this the trees gradually rotted away forming large voids that houses started to collapse into. I was present when they did my soil test a I saw the penatrometer "dissappear" into the ground. That gave me a P classification. The soil tester was employed by a civil/structural engineer and they designed my slab using screw piers. They were basically a 100mm steel pipe X 2.0m long with a 350mm dia helical screw welded to the end and screwed into the soil via a excavator with a torque meter attached. They had to achieve a torque of 5,000nm or an additional length is attached and the drilling continues (never happened with mine). I could literally see the earth trying to push the screw back out of the ground. 10 yrs ago they cost me $5,000 (45 of them) but my builder said the cost would be the same as I used a lot less concrete (only a 100mm slab is poured over them). The slab sits 100mm proud of the ground and the brick veneer is layed on the top. At the time they had also just banned the really toxic termite poisons so the slab acted as a physical termite barrier. Termites cannot be exposed to sunlight so it's a physical inspection of any nests being built up into the house and no gardens to built up past the slab. The internal pipe intrusions are treated with GraniGuard http://www.kassempestcontrol.com.au/serv06.htm A physical barrier of graded stone developed by the CSIRO, so we have no toxic chemical treatment at all, just physical barriers The end result is that after 10yrs the house has not even the hint of a hairline crack in any of the plaster board and although we have seen termites in the garden (remember all that vegetation buried under the ground) there has been no intrusions into the house. 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 37142 Three options 1 Ask the liquidator 2 Find another PD customer and ask the source of their report 3 Pay for new report 3 12336 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 3671 |