Site Costs with Henley

Hello Everyone,

My wife and I are new to this forum and new to the building process. We have our tender appointment with Henley Properties on Monday and we are building the Riviera with them. We we will be demolishing our existing dwelling and given some of the posts in regards to site costs, just called and found that our soil test classification is a "P-Class" which is not the most encouraging news. We know that building on a P-Class site is more expensive (generally) than all the others as it's essentially the 'worst' classification on the scale, but were wondering if any other Henley customers have had the same soil result and what their cost/experience with the company was like. I have seen figures ranging from $10K to over $30K on this site, but the majority of those were for site costs with PD. Any help or information anyone can provide will be greatly appreciated. We'll certainly keep you posted as to what happens with our tender appointment!

Not sure on your site costs, but just wanted to pre-warn you that my girlfriend recently built with Henley and has several major issues with her home. I can't go into to detail to much. One thing I would be suggesting is to source current refrences from Henly so that you can contact other people and talk about their experience with them.

Good luck on the site costs.

Thanks Sallyho for the tip! I'll certainly look into your suggestion this weekend. I have done some research and heard both good & bad and what to "look out for" with Henley but I have found there are a lot of + and - stories no matter who you build with, so I suppose it's a leap of faith whenever you decide to do this. We met a couple when we went to check out the colour place who were there for their appointment. So far they have had a similar experience (mostly positive with some minor complaints), though they are only slightly ahead of us in the process. They recently had their tender appointment and it was very thorough and a good experience for them. They are getting an 'H' slab put in at $2,500 for site costs. Will be interesting to see what our costs/recommendations will be, but I'm hopeful it won't be much more than $10k-$12K. Oh and we are building in the Northern suburbs of Melbourne.

Hello,

I build a double story house on site P classification, which means that the soil is highly reactive. As I have lived on highly reactive soil before I know how much it is important to get the good quality job done.

If someone go through the stages that the front door and garage door would open or close - you know what I mean by that.

The builder made the test in the initial stage after signing commitment and paying $4k. The slab was design by different company - the construction engineers and the work was fully check and supervised by them. At no point I regret the money as the last thing I want is to have the house cracking or have the same problems as before.

These are my site and slab costs:
- thickening beans $13k
- Y12 starter bars $2,5k
- P site classification slip coupling and swivel joint on drains $660
- F92 in lieu of F72 mesh $826
- extra steel for internal and external corners of footings $1,100
- extra concrete pump $880
- to cart footing fill away $3k
all together ~ $22k

on top of that you need a good drainage and no big trees around the house FOREVER.

Funny thing is the are 3 blocks with P soil and each of the houses was build in different way. Honestly, I just sit and wait patiently when it will start cracking. I have heard already the one of the neighbour cannot open the back door as the builder concreted the pathway and the soil moved.

Just make sure your builder does the right thing and that external independent civil engineer will design your slab.

thank you
kate

Bry & Cbear, jsut to let you know I am building on a H block and my site costs have come in at just under 12K

You're right what you said about the builders though.

First off, thanks Kasiakm for sharing the breakdown of your site costs as well as your experiences with your neighbors houses, etc. Very inciteful and all information shared can only help us and others. Thank you Sallyho for sharing your site cost as well, always good to know.

Would I be correct in the assumption that neither of you are building with Henley? Doesn't matter, all information is good information, but just curious whom you might be building with. Would be interesting to chart peoples tender experiences (relating to site costs) and see how different companies suggest the engineering needed as well as the cost of it!

I'm building with Metricon

I build with Ownit Homes.
The other houses are ch##ce homes (had huge story with logan city council about illegal landfill) and by###gn (two years on the market).

The one thing I heard is to not to choose any builder that is registered on Gold Coast or Robina. Apparently some that got into troubles in NSW moved accross the border and now are working for the bad reputation here

It might be that double story house needs much more strengthening but let's say it. The highly reactive soil means movements and we have drought. Your soil reacts really badly on wet or drought.

Be careful. talk to the engineers that design your slab.

cheers
kate

Hi all,

We just completed our Tender with *****. We are also building on a P class slab (which fortunately for us is very level). Site costs came back to be approx $4618, which we are happy about - as we braced ourselves for the worst (approx $10k).

Hi Stewie,

Thanks for sharing your experience and your costing (despite the Compaction Test thing), which have allowed us to breathe a brief sigh of relief, though site costs from lot to lot can still vary greatly. I anticipate that our site (which also returned a P-Class soil test) will cost a bit more than yours. We are fairly level, but do have a slope of around 900mm to 1 meter, which will require a cut & fill. If we are between $6K and $10K at this point, I'll be pretty happy. If we are above $15K we'll have to rethink a few things to say the least.

Sorry I can't be of much help, but I'm rather perplexed re: your Compaction Test clause as well. From the sounds of it, there wasn't much of an explanation from your tender presenter beyond, you need to provide this, but if you can't find it, don't worry about it. Not sure what he/she means by that. Sounds fairly important to me and if it does alter the slab recommendation and costs, it would be pretty darn important! I would try to get more clarification if I were you, either by calling your Admin. person or even trying your original Sales Consultant, or both.

If I might ask, how much did you pay for your deposit and what is your lot like? I ask this because you stated that it's "more than 8 years old," but is it a cleared lot (ready to build) or a demolition site, where you demolished a previous existing building?

Our situation is this: We are demolishing the home I'm sitting in currently and because of that we had to pay a deposit of $1000 (as opposed to Henley's usual deposit of $500 for a cleared lot). This deposit covers 1 site survey and 2 soil tests (one prior to the demolition and one after) to see if the second soil test reveals any changes to soil, reactivity, etc. which could alter the slab recommendation and cost (but I have been 'told' usually it doesn't affect it too much). So, there are some similarities to your 'compaction test clause' but only because we're a demo site and we knew about the 2nd soil test etc. up front.

Please keep us posted as to anything you find out regarding your compaction test thingy as you have us quite intrigued. I take it you signed your tender and are now between the tender and contract stage?

We have our tender appointment tomorrow with Henley and will certainly post the outcome when we return. Best of luck with the rest and thanks for the info so far!

B&CB

B&CB,

You're right, we are in between Tender and Contract - apparently there is a 4 week wait for our contracts to come through the mail. WE were happy with our tender process - it went very smoothly on the day (helps if you know what you want).

Our block is a clear site, and has never been built upon previously. We paid $550 for our initial deposit (in November 06) - this covered our soil testing and survey.

All the best with your appointment tomorrow. Hope your site costs stay low.

Stewie

Hi Stewie,
We also have a P site and we had to supply the compaction report, but it was not enough they also wanted the supervised report as well. Our compaction report came with the land but it did not have a the supervised report with it saying if it was level one supervised, and without this the builder was going to charge 30,000 for our site costs even though they had built across the road from us and only charged 6,000 site cost, we had lots of arquements and many wasted months, then we changed builders. You can look at my other posts. I would ask them if they need the compaction report to also have the supervised level with it, then contact agent that sold you the land or the owner of the land and they should be able to tell you how did the compaction report. What area are you in? Good luck
Di

Hello Everyone,

I went through that all and this was the story.

While we were still taking to the builder without signing anything (were in process of bying the land), our slaes consultant went on site and asked us about compaction certificate.

What is that? Because our sales lady noticed that the land has been filled she said the compaction would harden the soil. So we went to our lawyers and they were arranging for us this compaction certificate. They have contacted the developer of the land. The best is to look for a civil engineer which is responsible for an approval of the house plans in compliance to the covenance. Our engineer was really helpful.

So we got it... and the builder had to do another test anyway but this one deeper. And they got back to us with bad news. Everything depends on what is underneath this compacted soil. If the soil underneath is clay your site cost will blow up your budget.

On the other hand, please monitor very carefully how they are building and what solutions they choosing.

thanks
kate

How did you go with the tender appointment? Did you get your site costs?
Ours are above $30,000!

Why so high Pootle? And are you also building with Henley?

No, we're building with m'con.
Various factors in the price:
P grade slab, setback of 9m, block is 1000m, sewer pipe is 4m deep, current building is awaiting demolition, etc!

They have to do more tests after demolition so we're praying they don't add any more costs on - it's way more than we'd budgeted for.

Our site costs were fairly steep too with Carlisle Homes.

The saleman told us to expect around $8000 however I did my own investigation prior to the tender and we budgeted $20,000.

Good thing too!

Slab (m type) $6840
Cut and Fill $5619
Retaining Wall $4539
Suspension of rear half of Slab $4140
Re-establishment survey $698
Guardrail for safety $224
Double handling of materials due to site access $935
Termite protection $Free

Total $22295.00

The site has a 2.2m front to rear fall and a 800mm right to left fall. Luckily for us the soil tests came back for an M class slab otherwise it would have been really scary!!

Matt

Hello again all,

Sorry for the dealy, busy week at work after the appointment this past Monday, Easter Weekend, blah, blah, blah.

So, our site costs were quite a bit more than what we had hoped for, but they were explained very well and there are some provisions that we hope we'll be refunded for so that could help keep the costs a bit more to our liking. Our Site costs came to $16,680. Here's the breakdown for you:

New connection to stormwater drains: $1,268 (Our connection is either old or in poor condition and the new house and works will need sufficient drainage to the stormwater. This cost is high because of additional considerations, such as; breaking open the footpath, disturbance of the nature strip & reinstatement, additional council road opening permit fee & supply of crushed rock to protect drains & ensure public safety).

Additional single phase underground power connection: $72 (Up to 12 meters is included and based on our lot, the sitting of the new house an the positon of the power, they have estimated a couple extra meters being needed to reach the meter box).

Temporary fencing for duration of works: $332

Additional drainer allowance for sewer point trenches between 1500mm & 3100mm in depth as required by OH&S: $645

Concrete slab type "M" to suit foundation material class "P" as per Soil Report: Included (Note, 'M' Class slab to be confirmed on Engineer's slab design. We are obviously hoping/praying it remains an 'M' slab after demolition. We have been told it's highly likely it will).

Total cost of Earthworks for building platform: $1,322

Agricultural drains to base of cut greater than 300mm deep: $390

Riser pipe to front of garage: $35 (This is for necessary drainage)

Silt pit to be connected from agricultural drains to stormwater: $103

Timber sleeper walls retaining walls as required by council and per site plan: $2,654 (They admittedly charge an extensive amount for retaining walls. Our tender presenter kindly hinted that the flatter the land is at the time they are ready to do 2nd soil test and start work, the more likely it would be that we could avoid retaining wall costs, so we are going to try to level it as best as possible before they begin).

Brick retaining wall (opposite side of house), waterproofing & agricultural drains as required by council: $1,557

Garage located 1.0 meters away from inspection shaft to sewer line, cost for surveyor to site inspection shaft etc: $130

Reticulated termite treatment system: $825

Rock removal provisional allowance - services & foundations (charged @ $192 per cubic meter): $3,840 (This is provisional, as stated and will be refunded if they do not dig up any rock. We should be OK here because the initial soil test did not hit any rock and given some recen works in the area, we know neighbors etc. have not hit rock. If they do hit rock, they have to show us the rock they have discovered as well as a report detailing the size, amount, etc).

25% builders margin on provisional allowance for rock removal: $960 (Henley charges 25% on top of the removal charge and they are up front about it, also provisional, so again if we don't hit rock and we are not charged, this cost naturally drops away as well).

Material handling charge due to limited site access: $688 (This is a charge we and our tender presenter find a bit rediculous. Despite paying a $7,500 zone charge for Henley to build in our area, there is an additional charge for having to hand carry materials from the front to the back. They are trying to get this removed for us).

Re-establishment Survey: $905

Asset protection fee: $115

Second soil test, post demolition: $350

Guardrail to single storey section of house due to OH&S: $286 (We may get some of this back as well if they don't need to use a guardrail on one part of our house. They need to have 6 meters of clear ground below in order to forfeit the need for the guardrail).

Stormwater pollution prevention required to comply with council: $1,028 (These are a number of little provisions built into this cost so that we have a 'clean' site as required by most council's. Apparently ours aren't too bad as some can be rediculously strict).

So there you have our costs for Connections, Foundations & Footings. All of that should come to $16,680 if I have added it up correctly, which is much higher than we had originally anticipated. HOWEVER, if you take into the account that we hopefully should be reimbursed for the rock provision, can get our land level enough prior to start so as not to warrant the need for retaining walls (one or both), as well as the silly material handling cost, the total will then be $6,981! That would be about what we were told originally, so we'll keep you posted as we move closer to 2nd soil test and the construction moves through. Once we are done, we'll know what we ended up being in for!

If you have any questions, etc. feel free to ask.

B&CB[/i]

Wow, great thread. Thanks for for providing lots of detail.

We are wanting to knock down and rebuild.

We are on stumps at the moment on a sloping elevated block (ie on top of a small hill).

The front goes up very quickly and then there is only a modest slope front to back (200mm) left to right is more like 600mm.

The soil is M class and no rock found in previous soil tests. The salesperson said that because it has been built on before, it would be treated as H class.

Also, as an established area, we have long set back - around 8m.

We haven't had a quote yet, but the salesperson said allow $30K (excluding demolition / removal, which we need to arrange ourselves).

It seems like an unbelieveable amount. Its also higher than most of the others on this thread.

Do you think they were being conservative?

Doesn't look like anyone has posted for a while so I am unsure if this will help.

I also had a P site with an M-D slab, but as I built with a local builder I wasn't aware of any additional costs over and above, but have since learnt, probably the hard way
My neighbour has given me the website address of a guy that gave him some infomation on these connection costs and slab costs and that, he has just finished building with m*******.
He (neighbour) said it came in handy becasue he didn't know what he was looking at when it came to that sort of thing.
Anyway, hope that it helps.

www.residentialinformationsolutions.com.au

I haven't checked the site et so I hope that it is o.k.