Anyone organised their own soil test/contour survey?

Hi Casa - thanks. I've heard horror stories about builders not wanting to release the reports if you decide to walk away - but if a report is around $1500 - then it may be worth while spending $600 at each builder - I think we have 2 main contenders - so we'd still be ahead by $300

I did contours good enough to quote off with my draftman and was quite a simple task and for someone to undertake. A sketch good enough to quote off might only cost $400.We took around 20 points on the whole block. I've also got my original construction plans from 50 years ago (cost $20) for the whole area and they also show contours but not as detailed - 1 meter increments.

Although I need a registered surveyor to do final height measurements for my house and I'm looking at over $1000 for that so you're probably spot on with your prices. My guess would be they're just using a dumpy to get heights and it's not a proper survey.

Soil test cost around $300-500.

This is Brisbane - syndey may be more.

A registered soil tester / surveyor results can't be argued with by some layman with a stick or shovel. If they don't want to use your results then take business elsewhere.

Risk risk risk

It's all about risk, and knowing how thorough the guy is who has done the test.

If they take your guys report and they have never used the guy, and find out he made a mistake, his report is not as detailed as their normal guy, or the report looks different layout format etc etc, it is all too hard for them.

Everything takes time, time is money,

They are project builders building to a tight budget / price conscious market.

Their staff are most likely not as experienced as say the best of the best custom builder, so that all means risk and reducing the variables is one way of ensuring their risk is reduced..

There is a risk the young guy reviewing this unknown soil report might make a mistake, miss something etc, and basicaly they don;t like to do it.

Lets face it, it is the determination of the foundations we are talking about here.

Get that wrong ..... Who's risk is that - Theirs with their warranty period at risk for many years.

And it's also part of the old sales / buy process, once people commit that first amount to them, (Be it small comparedto the whole project) the biggest hurdle has been overcome.

Steve

Not sure if you can get 2 project home builders in your case. I haven't seen many project builders willing to build according to your own plan. AllCastle is the most flexible one we have seen so far, they are not the best and they also charge a lot for any modification, but at least they are flexible.

Originally we even asked them to build a house with the Hollywood stair we seen from Clarendon design. They have no problem in the beginning, but after going back and forth a few times, we dropped the idea due to copyright issue.

Cheers
Allan
http://building-our-first-house.blogspot.com/

Don't have experience with custom design. For the project home builder side, my advice will be - list out the essential/must haves (e.g. bay window, min size of each bedroom, alfresco, ..etc), and try to find a design you like --avoid making too many changes.

We spent a lot of money making changes, after cooled down to do the math, we start questioning if all the changes are necessary and worth the $ spent.

Hope this helps.

Cheers
Allan
http://building-our-first-house.blogspot.com/

stonecutter,

Let me tell you a bit about my journey so far. We bought a property in December last year with the intention of knocking down and building our dream home. It's a heavily sloping block and has views so no project house would do.

I visited Clarendon and the saleslady convinced me that I should pay $600 for a soil test and contour survey. Her argument was that I would have to do it anyway so the money would not be wasted. She also told me it would be a lot cheaper than getting it done through a surveyor. I warned her that none of Clarendon’s houses would fit or suit. We proceeded on the proviso that I would get a copy of the soil test and contour survey.

A warning about the contour survey - it's done in stages. The report I got back did not have heights to AHD (Australian Height datum) so could not be used by the Council. It also did not have the window and roof heights for adjoining building or roof height for my building. Clarendon mentioned that they get enough information to see if one of their houses fits and then get more detail later – for more money ?

So, $600 only buys you a soil test and the first bite of a survey plan. After some negotiations we arranged for me to get the extra information directly from the company they used. That is, I could continue paying to get it ready for Council and dsign purposes. I decided instead to get someone independent to do a contour survey. For $1,782 I got the survey to AHD, all required information, a boundary survey and the survey was much more detailed. I also got the electronic copy, which comes in handy when designing. I've used this to do my own design, which is close to completion. Soon I will be talking to custom builders to get some indicative pricing and check them out.

I like the idea of getting two builders to get their soil test and survey plans. The extra $600 spent will be recovered in increased competition.

Cheers,
Casa

Thanks Casa and lrhodes1

I had no idea about what actually went into the survey or how it was done - so good to find out!

We looked inside most houses at Homeworld - only found 2 that were possibly suitable - I was exhausted after only a few hours of looking at houses!