Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Sep 18, 2009 1:57 pm We have been concerned about the steepness (is that even a word?) of our driveway, but assumed our builder knew best. Anyway, the driveway is finished, so I decided to test it out, and I scraped the bottom of my car- . I have called the supervisor, and he is getting back to me, but I am totally stressed out. I cannot see how they can fix it.... Re: Disaster...my driveway is too steep! 2Sep 18, 2009 2:31 pm Hi, What you are talking about is the 'gradient' of the driveway We had some issues with this but at the pre-build stage (sheesh...we are still at the pre-build stage!!) after Ryde Council in Sydney approved our DA and a Construction certificate was issued. Basically another department within Council questioned whether our proposed driveway was too steep.. leading to the scraping of vehicles. There is an Australian Standard on this which details all the tolerances. Two points: 1. Your builder should have been aware of this and 2. Your consent authority also should have been. If there were any issues these should have been picked up and addressed before building commenced. Not sure how you would rectify this now...perhaps talk to an engineer (?) for a solution and talk to a lawyer as well if you want to find out if anyone has been negligent so you can recover some money to pay for this. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Pix Built a (highly) modified Allcastle Maxworth 38.7 in Sydney. Re: Disaster...my driveway is too steep! 3Sep 18, 2009 2:53 pm Thanks for your reply, Pix, and for giving me the correct term . I am meeting the supervisor on site on Monday. Hopefully they will have a solution in mind, that doesn't involve me getting a new car... Re: Disaster...my driveway is too steep! 4Sep 18, 2009 3:10 pm CarolineJ Thanks for your reply, Pix, and for giving me the correct term . I am meeting the supervisor on site on Monday. Hopefully they will have a solution in mind, that doesn't involve me getting a new car... Even if they did offer to buy you a brand spanking new 4x4 I would be concerned about the future sale potential of the house. Eventually there may come a time where you will want to sell the place, and I can imagine some people would be turned off by the steep driveway. I remember we looked at a house like that once, the driveway was incredibly steep, we had a big 4x4 but that gradient had really put me off even though the house was nice. Consider safety if you have little kids too. Re: Disaster...my driveway is too steep! 5Sep 18, 2009 3:15 pm Out where my parents live is in the foothills of mount dandenong, so pretty much every driveway there is steep. The only way they can get in and out without scraping is driving at an angle over the high part (next to the road). The low part is fine though as they have enough space to make it smooth. Is it the bump where the driveway meets the road that causes scraping? Or is it a dip, and the front/back of the car is too low? Metricon Riva 33 - http://herlihy-riva.blogspot.com Site start 15/03/2010 - Handover 23/12/2010 9 months and 8 days (284 calendar days) from site start to handover Re: Disaster...my driveway is too steep! 6Sep 18, 2009 10:53 pm Hi, Check your Local Council's DCP. It will outline the max gradients allowable for driveways. Most Suburban Councils have a max of 20%. Then check your plans as they will indicate the gradient and length intervals of your driveway. I have an elevated block and my driveway for example is 8% gradient for 2m from the curb then increases to 17% gradient for 4.5m then back to 8% gradient for the final 2m leading into my garage. When you drive forwards onto your driveway does the front or back of your car scrape? At a guess, your problem sounds like the transition from the part of the driveway straight off the curb to the steeper part of the driveway is too agressive. If your driveway gradients are within council max limits then the builder probably won't entertain any sort of fix for free. If however, the driveway has been built outside of the council's stated gradient specs then that's a totally different story. Best of luck. Rgds Leonard. Re: Disaster...my driveway is too steep! 7Sep 19, 2009 12:43 am Our driveway has similar issues. We organized our own paving and were told as we were getting quotes that nobody would guarantee that a car would get down it. That said it always looked like it was going to be possible....!! I drive a Mazda Tribute - no problem in the world. Hubby has an SS of course so has to drive in on an angle - there are already a few marks on the concrete. He had the air in his tyres increased as well. If he got rid of those ugly low profile tyres that would help as well. Any visitors with little cars have no issues. The longer the wheel base the more likely the issue. Along our street I noticed there are a lot of houses with little cars. Fi has moved in!! Re: Disaster...my driveway is too steep! 8Sep 19, 2009 1:20 am Thanks for the replies, guys. We decided to let the builder to the driveway, as we were concerned from the start it was going to be steep. Glad we did! I have looked on the plans to try and see if I can see any figures that makes sense, but there are so many, and none stand out to be the right ones. It's the front that scraped, right after I drove over the council footpath, so the first part of the decent into the driveway. I don't have a really low car I don't think. It's a BMW 3 series station wagon. Thanks for the information given, at least I know a few key things to say to the supervisor on Monday now, without sounding like a dunce. DH is away, so I have to deal with it . Re: Disaster...my driveway is too steep! 9Sep 19, 2009 12:38 pm Another thing that may help (and wish we did but hubby talked me out of it) is that the council were going to let us grind down the edge of the footpath 200mm from our driveway. This means that it starts sloping a tad earlier lessening the gradient. The guys at our council were very helpful with ideas. Fi has moved in!! Hi All It has been a few weeks since my last update. The build has been progressing well. No major issues to report. The scaffolding was dropped today, gyprock will be… 96 356659 It will be neat but you won't have much freeboard. At least they are not weep holes. Are you in a high intensity rainfall region? The regulatory slope is only required… 3 8195 Firstly, if your house is still under builder's warranty (10 years in Victoria) you should have no need to crawl into roof space but let the builder handle it, unless you… 3 5611 |