Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 20, 2009 11:07 pm Hello, The information I am providing is a lacking, but is it possible to reduce site costs when doing site works ourselves?????? Just got a quote back from a builder in regards to our block. We have a 850 sqm block, slopes from left to right- no more than 2.4 metres of fall over building area We are building a long narrow house, to try and not build over too much fall, the garage attached to the side. We were given these quotes: 1) Provide site cut and fill to approx 3200mm house and 101.60 to garage $24,113 2) Provide 30 lineal metres of engineered sleeper retaining walls to height of 2400mm to left hand side of house $19,800 3) and there is also other retaining walls etc and drainage required around the garage ( and house) and 3 metres retaining walls at front of house $10.000 approx Over $54,000 just to get the site ready to build... We were thinking stumps would be better and cheaper perhaps? Site cut seems ridiculous? But how much can you reduce these costs if you do them yourself not the builder? We have heard of people preparing the site themselves? Any advise would be very welcome! I just want a bl@@dy home! Re: Can you cut high site costs by doing work ourselves? 2Apr 20, 2009 11:13 pm Unless your set on using that builder, I'd shop around for prices. My (future) neighbour's site cost quotes varied between builders by as much as $100k Our blocks slope approx 9m over 50m, approx 3m over the building area. He was only charged 13k for site costs. As for doing it yourself, I'm not sure that would be a viable option. Perhaps you could contact an earthmoving company and make enquiries about organising that side of the building process yourself. Just by cutting out the builder for that portion should save you some $$. Custom downslope build Build thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=61873 Blog http://www.buildingroyalmanor.blogspot.com.au Re: Can you cut high site costs by doing work ourselves? 3Apr 20, 2009 11:25 pm hi there funkypopcorn, i would make sure that removal of spoil is included in that price cause that will also add thousands to the costs. you can save on the retaining walls depending on the saverity of them and how much room you have. ask if rather that supplying retaining walls if they will just "batter" the earth and handover like that. what this means is compacting the spoil on an angle so you will not require the retaining walls, you will still require the "aggi" drains. however this will only be accepted if you have the room to do it. Re: Can you cut high site costs by doing work ourselves? 4Apr 20, 2009 11:33 pm thanks for that! Yes we were wanting to only "baten" back earth, but not sure if we could do it with slab build, I think we can if on stumps!......We are asking the builder to "requote for stumps" and battening soil back as our block is 850 sqm and have room.. We have been shopping around for ages and just get ridicualous site costs variations, some say $10,000 others $60, 000 I think I might get a building surveyor out to look at our options and get perhaps a non-biased appraisal??? I just want a bl@@dy home! Re: Can you cut high site costs by doing work ourselves? 5Apr 21, 2009 10:20 am How wide is your block?? This seems outrageous to me. I also have approx 2.5m fall across my block, our block is 25.5m wide so we have the room to batten back. But intially they sited the house in the wrong spot and we need retaining walls and it was still only 11k for them. Once they resited, we no longer need retaining walls and the breakdown of our costs are as follows (for a 39.5sq single storey): Cut and fill and soil compaction....... $2,801 Aggi drains, silt pits, additional storm water run over standard block allowance, additional sewer run over standard block allowance, trench shoring, riser pipes to front and rear of garage for future connection of grated drain.............. $3,152 Concrete piering to "M" class slab, additional concrete pump due to piering, and additional waffle pod slab consruction to alfresco and porch....... $12,045 Our site costs were only around 16k (with added 2k for extra concreting to the alfresco and porch). And if we had needed retaining walls it still would have only been around 27k. As you can see, the big cost for us is the extra piering. (2k of that cost was the added concrete) My concern is that your costs make no mention of the slab construction itself. Will you need piereing? How much will it be? Also, as you are on an 850m block, you will most likely have to pay extra for connection of services over a standard block size (this is built into second price for us). So this seems completely out of control. And they could hit you with even more charges. Sometimes builders over charge when they just don't want to do the job. Also, one thing to be aware of is this. If you do your own cut and fill, some builders will not build on it. They won't guarantee their work unless they had the area compacted themselves. So make sure you are building with a company that will accept your compaction report before you do any site works yourself. I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: Can you cut high site costs by doing work ourselves? 6Apr 21, 2009 11:52 pm thanks for the post!!! We had another meeting with builder today.. I intially thought they were quoting high because they dont want our work too?? But after meeting with them today , they are now talking about repositioning the house (like yours) and battening back, to avoid retaining walls as our block is quite wide and this can be done(26m), we are also looking at detaching the garage.. HurraH!!! So we await their requote! Your post has given me renewed confidence too..thanks I just want a bl@@dy home! PM me your email. I have a build excavation calculator you can use based on your plans to double check what your builder is telling you. Cheers Simeon 1 10207 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 39464 I posted the floorplan on Houzz.com forum and got some really good ideas and advice from people there. Then we reached out to a couple of renovation companies and one… 5 10083 |