Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 13, 2010 10:06 am Hi
Going through knock down/rebuild - all was going smoothly until now. The house is 2 levels with a small slab on ground and rest of the house on 2nd level partly on posts. We have a major retaining wall around the back of the house as our land is on on side to side slope with the back left corner being the highest point. Now that the retaining wall is up it is not what we expected at all, height wise - it is 2 metres high. We were expecting 1.5m max because if you can see from the floor plan attached we have windows and expect to see abit of the yard from the inside of the house, otherwise if we'd known that the wall was to be 2 metres our design would be different in that maybe better to build the house right up to the retaining wall - fully enclosed no windows but bigger space. Also another issue is the few steps up from the ground patio to the yard. The yard will be cut and filled to be levelled (the plans suggest it will be levelled to between the ground and 2nd floor),and retained by sleepers. How on earth are they going to fit the few steps up as per plans with a wall that high?!?! the yard may as well be on the 2nd level. The builder has not seen the wall yet (he's overseas on holidays) though I have spoken to him by phone and said it's at 2 metres which is much higher than we expected. He will be meeting with us on Saturday. Really I'm just after some pointers for how to approach with our dissapointment with the builder and perhaps even going in for a redesign hence a major variation cost. We have obviously missed something or assumed too much from the plans - we thought we were quite thorough as it took us a whole year to develop the plans and specs. Thanks - any advice will be very much appreciated - it's the boring bit of building (nothing like colour selections) but is majorly stressing us out. http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz35 ... 000899.jpg http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz35 ... d_0001.jpg http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz35 ... r_0001.jpg Re: Major retaining wall - not as per plans 4Apr 13, 2010 11:40 am taken from a "how to upload a picture thread" Open an account with Photobucket http://photobucket.com/ Upload your images Copy the IMG Code from Photobucket Paste the code into your post You may need to resize your pictures as Homeone has a limitation set on picture size. Re: Major retaining wall - not as per plans 6Apr 13, 2010 12:56 pm Hi su ann, I can't see on your plans whether there is a height specified for your retaining walls. If there is, and the current retaining walls are higher, then you should be able to have them rectified to the height specified in your plans. Unless you have it specified otherwise in any of your other contract documentation, the plans generally take precedence over all other contract documents and this what they should go by. Masterton Santorini Grande 23/01/09 First Tender 17/11/09 Contract signed 25/01/10 Slab 27/03/10 Frame 7/5/10 Bricks 1/07/10 Roof 9/7/10 Lock up 24/8/10 PCI 16/09/2010 KEYS! viewtopic.php?f=31&t=16418 Re: Major retaining wall - not as per plans 7Apr 13, 2010 1:07 pm We noticed the same when they did the excavation at our place. Our plan showed the floor being off the ground by 40 cm but really it is off the ground by 80-90cm and thus they excavated and extra 50cm. I questioned the supervisor and he said the house needed to be off the ground a certain distance to make space for all the brick foundations and floor joists. Maybe your slab will be up off the ground 30cm or more? If the back of the house is off the ground you can probably just fill it in a little to raise the ground level up? Re: Major retaining wall - not as per plans 9Apr 13, 2010 1:15 pm I was thinking the same Mick. that the slab may take up more height therefore raising the ground level in effect making the wall shorter...but really need to question the builder when he sees us this weekend. Re: Major retaining wall - not as per plans 10Apr 13, 2010 1:20 pm mick - i just went through the specs and the slab thickness specified is 100mm thick - but does this mean slab only is 100mm - what other foundations will add to the height from soil level? Re: Major retaining wall - not as per plans 11Apr 13, 2010 1:28 pm I guess the slab is only 100mm then. I don't think you'll have any other foundation to raise the soil level. Our house is high up as it is built on stumps. Re: Major retaining wall - not as per plans 12Apr 14, 2010 10:11 am I now have better attachments including elevations which is the only gauge we have to go by in terms of the height of that back wall. There are no written specs to specify any of this so this is the only thing i have to present back to the builder. I hope this is clearer. http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz35 ... ations.png http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz35 ... /upper.png http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz35 ... /lower.png http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz35 ... 000899.jpg Re: Major retaining wall - not as per plans 13Apr 14, 2010 10:33 am It looks to me like the retaining wall is the same level across the rear when on the plans(rear elevation) it should step down with the land. Maybe they can simply knock a few layers off the top. Re: Major retaining wall - not as per plans 14Apr 14, 2010 10:46 am yes it does indicate by the drawings that the retaining wall should step down with the land. Though we are going to have the yard levelled off and I assume that it would levelled off at mid level (between ground floor and 2nd floor), hence having 2 sets of stairs (from ground and from 2nd floor deck) to access it. I've drawn a red line across where i thought the land will be levelled off... http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz35 ... nsedit.png Re: Major retaining wall - not as per plans 15Apr 14, 2010 11:29 am From the picture of the retaining wall it looks about the right height to retain the soil around it at the highest point. If you want to have the rear yard level then I guess you’re going to have to live with the high wall. Will be interesting to see what you builder says but I don't think there will be much you can do. Re: Major retaining wall - not as per plans 17Apr 14, 2010 12:07 pm mick - yes from the picture i have still got a bit of height from the back - and the maximum height for an unengineered wall is 900mm so not much to work with. I will lay out my concerns with the builder and use the back elevation drawing as my point of reference (ie. the wall is drawn sloped but not in reality). But my options to go forward without incurring further damage is hopefully knock off the few bricks at the lower side, and maybe terrace the yard to 2 levels - can i get away with that - cut first level and retain at 900mm and second level down at about 800mm? have 2 levelled grounds rather than 1 flat yard (a compromise we'd have to live with). but really i should not be charged a variation or any other costs because i'm going by the spec? Re. the photo posted - yes i want to avoid this but I can accept seeing half the wall and the top half some yard - as per drawings. 1) I had requested R6 ceiling insualtion batts, however I noticed that on some areas there are huge gaps which will allow hot air to sweep in, and also noticed black/grey… 0 3597 Thanks for your reply! All valid points and I agree with you on many of them. I am in QLD, any recommendations on a construction lawyer would be helpful 3 2635 Thank you again Simeon.. I will call my certifier for that. Have a good day 4 5179 |