Browse Forums Building A New House 1 May 11, 2009 5:31 pm Hi All. I am just about to sign a build contract with M, however am having some difficulties with site costs. Fall of our land is approx 1.5m, and a cut is required for the design of the house. In addition, soil report has come back with P grade soil, 3.1m of fill at the max, but generally about 1.5 - 2m of fill across the house plan. Compaction report has been obtained and the fill has been compacted to government regulations. When we did our own assessment, we figured that with the cut of the land would remove part of this fill, and to build we would need a slab upgrade with piering. M has come back to us with a total site cost of $40k +, quoting 43 screw piles at a length of 3.75m each. To me this seems extraordinarily excessive, however they are unwilling to write in a credit to our contract if we do not need to use screw piles. Can anyone please advise a) if they think that this site cost estimate is excessive, b) has anyone had a similar experience, and c) are we being had? Would apprecaite any feedback. Thanks, Brendan Re: Site Costs - How Accurate? 2May 11, 2009 6:21 pm To give you some idea, 51 piers at an average of 2.2m would be around the $25k mark from a pier supplier direct... What class slab have they allowed for? Electrical Engineer... Don't hold that against me... And keen owner builder... Mainly the building part!! Re: Site Costs - How Accurate? 3May 11, 2009 7:42 pm We recently got back our first pricing for our home. We have on estimate 1.5m fall where the house goes. They Class our site at P and the slab at H and we need screw piles as well. Then all up it came to roughly $20,000 just for site costs. But then we had a read through our soil report and saw that they got it wrong. we are actually a class M for slab. So i'll will let you know the new costings when we get them. Hope i was some help. Re: Site Costs - How Accurate? 4May 12, 2009 7:45 am We had up to 2m of fill on our block, and originally were quoted on an H-class slab with full piering at $14500. The block is flat and the house a single storey, 35 squares. After we got a controlled fill report from the developer, our builder decided that we didn't need the piering, except along the back of the house where it's very close to the sewer, so we got a PCV credit of $2200. $40,000 sounds a lot, but different sized houses, different designs, different blocks....and different builders make a big difference. I have heard of quite a few people on this forum being quoted extremely high prices for site costs by M3tricon. Re: Site Costs - How Accurate? 5May 12, 2009 11:42 am Thanks for the feedback. From what I have read and researched, I seem to think the price they have quoted is reasonable for the materials they are quoting (H slab and screw piles) but my biggest concern is that they are overestimating the level of slab upgrade we need. You mentioned 2m of fill and didnt end up with piering, it seems excessive that we are being quoted screw piles across the whole house, especially when the fill on most of the house is closer to 2m. I think we might sign with a provisional sum so that we can get credits when they fall back to piering. Does anyone know if builders are likely to overestimate the level of slab upgrade in the quote, and then reduce the upgrade in actual construction? Re: Site Costs - How Accurate? 8May 12, 2009 12:23 pm Is there a controlled fill report available for the subdivision? Re: Site Costs - How Accurate? 10May 12, 2009 1:18 pm Benji We have two metres of fall and our site costs are 15k, ours is M class slab and screw piles. Not 43 though! Ben Who are you building through? How many screw piles did you need? You site costs sound pretty good. Re: Site Costs - How Accurate? 11May 12, 2009 5:28 pm Hi Brendan7, we are also building with M and we thought their site costs were ridiculous too, although we couldn't find another house we liked so ended up building with them. Our house is being bricked at the moment. We also had a P class slab, 29 screw piles that were 2.5m each, about 1.5m fall over where the house is being built, extra site clean charges for being in a residential area etc etc etc....came to $30K. I went to a meeting with someone high up in the company and could not get them to lower the site costs-said they were all justified and said they would not give us their "25 structural guarantee if we did any other kind of slab". Re: Site Costs - How Accurate? 12May 14, 2009 12:16 pm Focus06 We recently got back our first pricing for our home. We have on estimate 1.5m fall where the house goes. They Class our site at P and the slab at H and we need screw piles as well. Then all up it came to roughly $20,000 just for site costs. But then we had a read through our soil report and saw that they got it wrong. we are actually a class M for slab. So i'll will let you know the new costings when we get them. Hope i was some help. Well I got the pricing back and it hasn't saved us anything Which I think is a load of bull!!. They are rewriting our contract atm so when we make the appointment to sit down and speak with them I will not be friendly. 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 13103 Is anyone building with Mojo and have a recent site cost tender 0 15954 Henley should give you some indication of site costs. Too many variable to give you any reasonable accuracy 1 1890 |