Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Mar 29, 2009 11:18 am Hi folks, wondering if anyone has words of wisdom, experience, expertise or otherwise with this recent surprise on escalated site costs? Info: - Fixed price tender stage with Styl3m@ster homes in SE QLD. - Soil test results came back showing Site Classification as S/M "Slightly Reactive" and P "Loose Natural Sand". Apparently the loose natural sand requires screw slab and footing piers through the sand into the underlying clay. - The piering cost has come in at a "Provisional Sum" of $25k and the contract states that they are still quoting for the final cost. - The "S/M" slab cost has gone from $0 up to $4,313 ("Styl3m@ster only allows for "S" class slab") - Land is ~1200m2 and very flat with less than 300mm rise/fall differential over the lot. Old farming land that has never been filled or built on. Not in an estate of any kind and all the other houses nearby are 15+ years old. - Home size is 27 squares (Modified Baybreeze 27) - We are first home buyers and are striving hard to get to contract to beat the June30 deadline on the $21k. So it kind of makes things hard in terms of negotiation. - The original site allowance was $9500, so to have it jump like this is rather unexpected. Questions; 1) Should I get a second soil test done? I have read about others having a second independent soil test and this has dramatically reduced the site cost initially quoted. The folks that did the test on behalf of Styl3m@ster are very well known and widely used but they did only drill two bore holes. Is this enough of a good sample? There apparently were a few trees removed from the property about 12 months ago by the original owner , so I am thinking that maybe the areas they tested were affected by this? 2) Even if the soil test is accurate, is the price quoted for the slab and piers reasonable? When I read on theese forums, I see rarely people having to pay upwards of $25-30k for these site costs, even for H or P class land unless it has alot of rock or a large fall/rise to take care of. Essentially this has pushed us $20k over budget to where we have to pull out the carpet, tiles and alfresco concrete/tiles to help bring it down again. 3) Are there any other options that anyone can recommend we explore to validate or bring these costs down? This house building stuff can be a little stressful at times! Thanks, Emtpyvessel Re: Advice please - Slab and foundation costs came back v. high 2Mar 29, 2009 1:23 pm hi emtyvessell, just wondering where you are in SE qld? this all sounds a bit strange, i was doing some research and spoke to stylem@ster a couple of weeks ago, the sales consultant was very specific that they fix the site costs once soil tests etc are recieved - is this not the case when piering is required? i know it's sometimes hard to guesstimate, but an engineer should be able to say how many piers etc will be required and stylem@ster should be able to break down the cost for you (per pier etc) correct if i'm wrong everybody... cuz i probably am 2014 - Prepping to build the Soho 4 with Plantation homes, industrial style 2009 - Built the Brampton with Coral Homes viewtopic.php?f=31&t=15399&start=280 Re: Advice please - Slab and foundation costs came back v. high 3Mar 29, 2009 1:45 pm Sorry, I'm a bit confused here but what are they actually charging you? Blog: http://bluemistkids.blogspot.com "Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, and professionals built the Titanic." Re: Advice please - Slab and foundation costs came back v. high 4Mar 29, 2009 2:14 pm hi hels - i think they are charging empty vessel a provisional sum of $25,000.00 for piering plus the $4313.00 to have a H class slab...so all up approx $29,313.00 that's why i'm confused too - stylem@aster really pushed the point that they do a fixed price contract and even said that i would "never get a fixed price with coral homes" 2014 - Prepping to build the Soho 4 with Plantation homes, industrial style 2009 - Built the Brampton with Coral Homes viewtopic.php?f=31&t=15399&start=280 Re: Advice please - Slab and foundation costs came back v. high 5Mar 29, 2009 5:11 pm That's correct. 25k provisional sum for piering. They are still getting the final quote for this. 4k for the "S/M" slab. So what I have in my hands is called the "FPT - Fixed Price Tender". If I was to sign as is, I get everyhting listed at the price listed. However, I can't see how it can be fixed if the costing on the piering isn't done. I will ask the sales guy about this tommorrow. There are also a few clauses I need to change in there about me pulling out of the contract but having to pay for costs they incur but haven't accounted for. I don't mind losing deposits, but damned if I will pay for whatever they make up. Don't get me wrong, Styl3m@ster have been ok so far and we do like the design alot. It is just that things are getting down towards the dotted line and the costs coming in a alot higher than the initial quote. Primarily due to this piering and slab cost. I am contemplating pulling out of the build, sitting on the land for a few years and just buy "ready-made" somewhere else. Re: Advice please - Slab and foundation costs came back v. high 6Mar 29, 2009 5:33 pm Building with Coral 2009 hi emtyvessell, just wondering where you are in SE qld? this all sounds a bit strange, i was doing some research and spoke to stylem@ster a couple of weeks ago, the sales consultant was very specific that they fix the site costs once soil tests etc are recieved - is this not the case when piering is required? i know it's sometimes hard to guesstimate, but an engineer should be able to say how many piers etc will be required and stylem@ster should be able to break down the cost for you (per pier etc) correct if i'm wrong everybody... cuz i probably am Sorry I didn't answer the first time --> Building in Deception Bay. Re: Advice please - Slab and foundation costs came back v. high 7Mar 29, 2009 9:13 pm emptyvessel Hi folks, wondering if anyone has words of wisdom, experience, expertise or otherwise with this recent surprise on escalated site costs? Info: - Fixed price tender stage with Styl3m@ster homes in SE QLD. - The original site allowance was $9500, so to have it jump like this is rather unexpected. Emtpyvessel Sorry to hear this, Emptyvessel. The costs seem very extreme to me as I compare them with ours. Can only give you our experience as we are in TL2 stage with Coral Homes who DO Fixed Site Costs. It sounds like your land is very much like ours, we bought old farmland in SE QLD with about 3 meter fall over 2 hectares. Soil: a lot of clay and some sand. Soiltest came back as: M / P. No rocks. No fire risk. No flood history. We were quoted as followed: Provide excavation and filling works to produce a level house pad (cut/fill) area to 14.78 AHD with a max. crossfall over the house area (300mm2 + 1200mm extra slab) of 0.45m. Costs: $1,600 Site classification: provide monolithic style concrete slab and screw-in piering system to engineer's design recommendations for a M / P site class. Costs: 9,600 We got lots of mature trees on the land and therefore we got the following note added: The builder cannot provide a fixed price until the Engineer confirms all the site work have been completed and verify exact size and length of root barrier About 16 trees have to go and one is very close to the building site. We are not worried about extra costs for this one, though, as it is a Scribbly Gum which has a very shallow root system. Other quoted Site costs: Site Management: 1,100 Additional Survey (Pegs missing due to fencing by the farmer) 1,200 I have no answer to your questions but I know exactly what you are going through and we have given up on arguing about costs with the builder after 4 months of trying. We've already given up on nice things in the house to keep the costs within our budget. Instead we go with them through all stages and do the same with another builder. It is already amazing to see the difference in costs but at the end of the day we will probably end up with almost the same Total Cost, because what you win with one you loose with the other and the other way around. At the end we'll compare the total costs they have come up with and then decide which contract we are going to sign. Still a couple of months to go before 30/06/09 as we really want the Grant too. Good luck Re: Advice please - Slab and foundation costs came back v. high 8Mar 30, 2009 8:34 pm Sigh. So I queried the pricing and it has now come back to $15k for the piers instead of $25k. I find it rather curious that this dropped so fast. Mind you, it still says "provisional sum" which essentially means it can go higher. Looks good on the surface, but then they added $1800 for temporary power during the build because we have overhead power. We also have another $800 for a temporary fence during the build and a few hundred $$'s for two yard drains required for "future" drainage. So the net decrease has been $8k. Still means we have to drop tiles and carpets to come in anywhere near budget. I think I need to get an architect/builder from archicentre to go through this contract as it is just a bit too ******* for my liking. There are just simply too many clauses and "provisional sums" that can burn me later with little legal recourse. Will keep you guys posted, much to learn here for others. Re: Advice please - Slab and foundation costs came back v. high 9Mar 31, 2009 7:22 am Minus 10K is much better but still high, I agree. As mentioned in my first mail we went to builder 2, showed him the floorplan from builder 1 and asked a couple of quotes. He told us to allow 6 - 8K for the Site Costs which seemed very high to me as this builder includes a M-slab in the Basic Price. When we showed him the soil test results he downgraded that amount to 4K. This afternoon we'll go down to his office to get the real figures, I'll keep you posted. You might want to check out another builder too? You stil got three months before 30/6. We got power onsite from our own Property Pole which has a live connection to our shed, but the Tender of Builder 1 states that we have to provide clean water (drinking quality) for building activities. cheers Versaloc is a mortarless besser block system that still needs a properly engineered footing. If you just do a 400x200 footing it will fail in time. At 17m long you need it… 1 18115 It will be neat but you won't have much freeboard. At least they are not weep holes. Are you in a high intensity rainfall region? The regulatory slope is only required… 3 8281 Thanks mate. Yeah good points! Leaning towards Option 3 to get a bit extra space in the cabinets but not going too crazy high (and expensive). Would require a mini… 13 39748 |