Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Site cost rip-offs from Major Builders 61Jul 09, 2009 10:09 am We haven't got our site costs yet, hopefully this weekend. But we have only had to pay the builder $1500 so far (this was done in May 2008 over a year ago). We paid before we even found land to fit our house but we wanted to lock in a cost, we don't know if this was a good move yet. The $1500 has so far included: - Development of plans with our preliminary modifications. - Site Survey - Soil Test - Re Drawing of our plans on the block we have just purchased. - Provision of Preliminary Tender incl. all site costs and vairations. If we walk away from this design we actually get refunded this $1500 minus any expenses that they have occured (at this stage I think they have spent $1500). But if things are too expensive on sites etc. we are still in a good position (I think). View our blog at: http://room4acubby.blogspot.com/ Re: Site cost rip-offs from Major Builders 62Jul 09, 2009 10:49 am Our site costs have come in at NOTHING ($0). We're building with Inspired Homes who contract out to Hermitage Homes and they said because our block is clear (in a new land release) and the soil test revealed no rock, that our site costs will be $0. We did however have to pay $2,000 to go to a HD slab. Our house thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=18335 Re: Site cost rip-offs from Major Builders 63Jul 09, 2009 11:42 am GSK Our site costs have come in at NOTHING ($0). We're building with Inspired Homes who contract out to Hermitage Homes and they said because our block is clear (in a new land release) and the soil test revealed no rock, that our site costs will be $0. We did however have to pay $2,000 to go to a HD slab. OMG!!! Thats awesome. That will go down in history I have never heard of anyone getting $0. Whoo hoo you must be really pleased with that! Re: Site cost rip-offs from Major Builders 64Jul 09, 2009 11:48 am Hi All, New to all this and need some desperate help... can someone please explain what the diference is between a H class and a HD class. We are building in Tarneit Gardens with Carlisle homes and they have just advised me that the soil test came back stating we require a HD class slab they still have not provided us the total cost... Are we going to face a huge amount for site costs getting really worried please advise thank you! Re: Site cost rip-offs from Major Builders 65Jul 09, 2009 12:48 pm Focus06 GSK Our site costs have come in at NOTHING ($0). We're building with Inspired Homes who contract out to Hermitage Homes and they said because our block is clear (in a new land release) and the soil test revealed no rock, that our site costs will be $0. We did however have to pay $2,000 to go to a HD slab. OMG!!! Thats awesome. That will go down in history I have never heard of anyone getting $0. Whoo hoo you must be really pleased with that! We are very pleased with that, although we'll see if anything changes once the house starts. *fingers crossed* Our house thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=18335 Re: Site cost rip-offs from Major Builders 66Jul 18, 2009 11:38 am you've done well to get a site cost for 6K Re: Site cost rip-offs from Major Builders 67Jul 18, 2009 4:48 pm I don't think all big builders are * as far as site costs go. I am not denying some builders will take advantage of the situation but not all. Our site costs are $2900 Re: Site cost rip-offs from Major Builders 68Jul 18, 2009 5:14 pm I have to wonder that if they drop the price of site costs, if they don't sneak it in somewhere else along the line to recoup that amount...? www.themaxbuild.blogspot.com forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=20717&start=300 www.leahspaperpassion.blogspot.com Re: Site cost rip-offs from Major Builders 69Aug 14, 2009 10:46 pm a bit too early for me.. but i post anyway my soil test came back as H class slab. total sitecost from the builder is about 11.5 k. due to slope 600mm and close to eastment. (well, my design is 2m from eastment), but my builder charge me with bore hole required to support slab on eastment honestly i dont' understand why you need to support slab on eastment, when your slab is 2 meter away from eastment? more over, they said, if you too close to eastment (next to eastment), you need angle of repost. (which is why i made the design smaller, so i leave 2 meter from the eastment ) Still, i don't understand why i need to pay bore holes? i am not that savvy on building house.... even if the builder try to rip off, i wouldn't have any idea. does anyone know ? Final stage Re: Site cost rip-offs from Major Builders 70Aug 15, 2009 1:19 am d3p a bit too early for me.. but i post anyway my soil test came back as H class slab. total sitecost from the builder is about 11.5 k. due to slope 600mm and close to eastment. (well, my design is 2m from eastment), but my builder charge me with bore hole required to support slab on eastment honestly i dont' understand why you need to support slab on eastment, when your slab is 2 meter away from eastment? more over, they said, if you too close to eastment (next to eastment), you need angle of repost. (which is why i made the design smaller, so i leave 2 meter from the eastment ) Still, i don't understand why i need to pay bore holes? i am not that savvy on building house.... even if the builder try to rip off, i wouldn't have any idea. does anyone know ? Hi d3p, Sounds like you and the builder are on different pages....maybe they think that your design is still the bigger one and not the smaller one? Whilst 2m from the easement may sound far to the normal person, from the engineering perspective, they would still need to do the 45 degree angle of repose from the pipe in the easment to make sure that the soil where your slab will eventually sit will not destablise the soil around and near to the pipe in the easement. Do you know if it's just the one pipe or more in your easement and where it is located? Building thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=22917 27.07.09 Contract signed. 08.09.09 Site scraped. 18.09.09 Slab completed! 23.11.09 Bricking done 09.03.10 - Tiling 15.04.10 PCI 01.05.10 Handover Re: Site cost rip-offs from Major Builders 71Aug 15, 2009 3:40 am I am building with National Builders just north of Melbourne. We are waiting for our official quote to come back (so far running on time) with the total cost to build and site costs & soil report. I have read the posts and am very nervous now. We have allowed $20K for site costs, am pretty sure we will have a H class slab and have approx 2m fall where the house will be situated (4.5m from front to back on the entire block). Fingers crossed we have allowed enough. Kristi Re: Site cost rip-offs from Major Builders 72Aug 15, 2009 8:04 am I posted a little earlier in this topic and said that our sites weren't too bad. I did query them about needing blinding concrete around a tree that was not really anywhere near the block and then nothing near a tree that I thought was of concern. They looked into it for me. Now there saying the original tree is a problem and they have discovered a 30m high tree that will cause a problem for the rest of the house. Apparently this will cost an extra $10,000. I am furious at the builder at this stage because firstly there is no way that this tree is 30m tall and secondly the cost that they quote for blinding concrete (low grade concrete) is more expensive than the usual concrete. On first impressions this looks like a "Site Cost Rip-Off" to me. For more details on the trees check our my rant on my blog. View our blog at: http://room4acubby.blogspot.com/ Re: Site cost rip-offs from Major Builders 73Aug 15, 2009 11:30 am room4acubby I posted a little earlier in this topic and said that our sites weren't too bad. I did query them about needing blinding concrete around a tree that was not really anywhere near the block and then nothing near a tree that I thought was of concern. They looked into it for me. Now there saying the original tree is a problem and they have discovered a 30m high tree that will cause a problem for the rest of the house. Apparently this will cost an extra $10,000. I am furious at the builder at this stage because firstly there is no way that this tree is 30m tall and secondly the cost that they quote for blinding concrete (low grade concrete) is more expensive than the usual concrete. On first impressions this looks like a "Site Cost Rip-Off" to me. For more details on the trees check our my rant on my blog. I would be doing some research on tree root spread, and how far the roots spread past the canopy - looks to me at least trees blue & green shouldn't affect your house assuming you are rebuilding where the A is? I always thought roots don't go much past the canopy spread - worth checkin on & yep that doesn't look like a 30m tree to me either. From my experience research, research & research is ammunition. Re: Site cost rip-offs from Major Builders 75Aug 15, 2009 4:04 pm Went and measured the tree today. About 11m. Also AS2870-1996 the Australian Standard for Residential Slabs and Footings - Construction states in Appendix B, clause B2.3 (c) Restrictions on tress and shrubs: "Planting of tress should be avoided near the foundation of a house or neighbouring house on reactive sites as they can cause damage due to drying of the clay at substantial distances. To reduce, but not elimate, the possibility of damage, tree planting should be restricted toa distance from the house of: (i) 1.5 x mature height for Class E sites. (ii) 1 x mature height for Class H sites. (iii) 0.75 x mature height for Class M sites. Where rows or groups of trees are involved, the distance from the building should be increased. Removal of trees from the site can also cause similar problems." Our geo report classifies the soil as Class M. We are not removing the tree or planting new trees. I will be arguing quite forcefully with the builder that a more appropriate approach would be to use 0.75 x mature height (apparently this tree may be about 40 years old therefore I don't think it is going too much higher). This will bring our site costs down to less than our original quote. Now to write a nice and polite letter. View our blog at: http://room4acubby.blogspot.com/ Re: Site cost rip-offs from Major Builders 76Aug 15, 2009 9:06 pm room4acubby Went and measured the tree today. About 11m. Also AS2870-1996 the Australian Standard for Residential Slabs and Footings - Construction states in Appendix B, clause B2.3 (c) Restrictions on tress and shrubs: "Planting of tress should be avoided near the foundation of a house or neighbouring house on reactive sites as they can cause damage due to drying of the clay at substantial distances. To reduce, but not elimate, the possibility of damage, tree planting should be restricted toa distance from the house of: (i) 1.5 x mature height for Class E sites. (ii) 1 x mature height for Class H sites. (iii) 0.75 x mature height for Class M sites. Where rows or groups of trees are involved, the distance from the building should be increased. Removal of trees from the site can also cause similar problems." Our geo report classifies the soil as Class M. We are not removing the tree or planting new trees. I will be arguing quite forcefully with the builder that a more appropriate approach would be to use 0.75 x mature height (apparently this tree may be about 40 years old therefore I don't think it is going too much higher). This will bring our site costs down to less than our original quote. Now to right a nice and polite letter. Didn't think to look up that AS when fighting with council about taking trees down! They were trying to make us keep a row of "junk" trees 500mm from the footings Sounds like you're on the right track & have the AS to back you up - go for it Re: Site cost rip-offs from Major Builders 77Aug 15, 2009 11:35 pm hi tc2000 it is possible what you say is correct. maybe they thought my design is bigger ? from my understanding, it seems they keep saying, if they need adjustment, they will do after the contract. but how do i know if they use bore holes anyway? what i have been told by the developer, it's one pipe and possible it's on 2m from fence.(recommended setback is 2m) (so between 4m, it's in the middle) => literally 2m to the house and to the fence. tc2000 Hi d3p, Sounds like you and the builder are on different pages....maybe they think that your design is still the bigger one and not the smaller one? Whilst 2m from the easement may sound far to the normal person, from the engineering perspective, they would still need to do the 45 degree angle of repose from the pipe in the easment to make sure that the soil where your slab will eventually sit will not destablise the soil around and near to the pipe in the easement. Do you know if it's just the one pipe or more in your easement and where it is located? Final stage Re: Site cost rip-offs from Major Builders 78Aug 16, 2009 11:19 am kristimac75 I am building with National Builders just north of Melbourne. We are waiting for our official quote to come back (so far running on time) with the total cost to build and site costs & soil report. I have read the posts and am very nervous now. We have allowed $20K for site costs, am pretty sure we will have a H class slab and have approx 2m fall where the house will be situated (4.5m from front to back on the entire block). Fingers crossed we have allowed enough. Kristi We are in a similar position. We are attending a costing meeting this week and am very nervous about the site costs. I just really want to know as it will affect what extras we put into the contract. Re: Site cost rip-offs from Major Builders 79Aug 16, 2009 1:18 pm d3p hm..... ok, say major builder goes with independent soil test / survey, but the big line is : if you decided to go with another builder, say: Builder B, why can't Builder B use the soil test/report from Builder A ? (if the soil test/surveyor is an independent). wouldn't it be better if we have centralised Independent soil test / survey, who all the builder agree to, their result can be trusted, customer won't complaint, everybody happy. this will eliminate the chance of builder play trick or sucking too much first home owner grant. Hi, I completely agree with this. We have had 2 different builders quote us on a H-Class slab on our "perfectly flat block with very little fill" and there has been a difference of over 5k between them. There should be an independant body who does the site costings, that way the builders can't overcharge for things, and eat away at the government grant. Site Start - 20th July 2010 Slab Pour - 30th July 2010 Frame Start - 6th August 2010 Roof Tiles - 18th August 2010 Plaster Completed - 6th September 2010 Bricks - 3rd - 20th September 2010 Painting - 4th October 2010 Fitoff Begins - 21st October 2010 Re: Site cost rip-offs from Major Builders 80Aug 16, 2009 1:38 pm Our Builder was very close to spot on when quoting us the on site costs. Our sales guy explained each cost to us as we knew a little about site costs but not details and looked at what others in our estate have had to pay. The quote was for 10k and it came in at a total of 12.5k after the soil test. We upgraded to a H Class Waffle Slab and our Portico and Alfresco areas are included in the slab. $1700 of this cost is for us to connect up to recycled water which at the time of quotation we were not aware this was a requirement of the estate so they were pretty on the money with the estimate. There is an easement at the back of the property which the developer has had to cut back and there is a note in our contract that once the depth of the easement is determined the site costs will be reviewed however the builder advised me that as the developer has made the cut back so that it is within the S E Water guidelines, it is unlikely to change. I do have a friend that got a quotation from my builder for 25k in site costs as there is a major slope on their land. The pulled their business and went to a lesser known builder (I had never heard of before) and the site costs came in at $8k. Personally we would have paid whatever site costs we were given as we love the design of the house and won't settle for anything else but that is us! I think at the end of the day it is what you are prepared to pay! Building Sandhurst 36 Porter Davis Currently Fixing 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 37085 Thanks for the insight! My plot is a new development so hopefully I won't have too much problem during build as everyone should be roughly building together. I also… 2 3353 Approvals are covered in the cost we are paying to the pool company. The only thing stated in our home build contract for the additional cost is engineering support. … 3 7105 |