Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Adenbrook? Garth Chapman? Flood zone build! 4Jun 29, 2010 5:19 am Hi, Thanks for your replies - really appreciate it. Yep, our block is very near the Brisbane river, but it's unlikely it will ever flood since the building of Wivenhoe etc. Still, clearly it's going to pose problems when it comes to building. Farmmum, can you please tell me a bit more about your experiences? Would be really interested to find out how much extra time/cost/hassle it added to your plans. Did you build a display home type of house, or was it architecturally designed? So did you build a mound? How does that work? We'd assumed our builders would need to pour a super-massive slab of concrete...but clearly we haven't done a huge amount of research yet. Thanks and regards, Bek Re: Adenbrook? Garth Chapman? Flood zone build! 5Jun 29, 2010 1:26 pm I'd suggest thoroughly looking into it, as councils are quite strict about flooding levels. You need to know the level of your land via a surveyor and the level that the coucil will let you build. We built a mound which needed to be engineered & its own building approval but what needs to be done for you depends on how much higher than natural land you need to go, you may go with piering instead. We are building with a 'display home type' builder and haven't had the smoothest experience with the flooding issues so I'd suggest you get everything in writing and have anything unusual explained in full to you. Both the mound & our unusual requirements have added a considerable cost to our build and of course time as we had to get the mound built first. I think our views make up for it though Hope that helps and let us know how you get on! Re: Adenbrook? Garth Chapman? Flood zone build! 6Jun 29, 2010 3:54 pm Sorry bekg...the one thing I forgot to mention was that my Uncle built below the flood plain on the water at Jacobs Well. The builder used a combination of screw piers and regular piers as opposed to building a mound (as the estate wouldn't allow a mound anyway). It was costly but not as time consuming as making a seperate application to council. Hope that helps. Re: Adenbrook? Garth Chapman? Flood zone build! 7Jun 30, 2010 5:22 am Thanks both. I'm still waiting to hear back from Adenbrook Homes - have sent a few emails to their Calamvale office over the past couple of days but they don't seem to be on the ball when it comes to replying...particularly annoying as we're based overseas in a completely different timezone. Would be really interested in ball-park figures for the additional costs involved in sorting out the flood issues. Are we talking thousands or tens of thousands? I think we are likely to go for a modern style new build - is that what they built on top of the mound, farmmum? And tsurf, was your uncle's build a colonial style house? I don't know what a pier is, but it doesn't sound like it would support a massive two storey concrete house...but maybe it would? This is all very confusing but I'm glad you seem to think it's at least possible to do. Judging by the amount of new houses that have gone up in my area anyway, I guess there MUST be ways to overcome flood zone restrictions. Just so annoying though! Bek Re: Adenbrook? Garth Chapman? Flood zone build! 8Jun 30, 2010 9:09 am No...I built a colonial...my Uncle "borrowed" concepts from both Adenbrook (bottom floor) and Cosmo (top floor) and had the plan drawn up by his builder to suit. It wasn't a colonial home by any means. Modern and on the water with a skillion style roof. About "piers". What piers do is act as small anchors for your slab. They are long, tubular colums which are filled with concrete and fibre glass and are poured with the footing before the slab goes down. Like I said before, my uncle built not only below the flood plain but also on top of a water table 2m below the soil. To avoid the risk of the slab being undermined the builder used about 40 piers, some of which were screw piers and others standard concrete/fg piers. This is a perfectly accepted method and usually very sound. One of the key reasons my uncle didn't go with one of the bigger bulk builders as well was the fact that they used waffle pod (polystyrene honeycomb waffles filled and topped with concrete) slabs as opposed to a traditional solid concrete slab which his builder uses. Some would argue that both have their benefits and downfalls but in the end it was a determining factor in his decision.
Re: Adenbrook? Garth Chapman? Flood zone build! 9Jun 30, 2010 10:16 am bekg The other major complication is that we're in a flood zone area. We have no idea how much extra it'll cost to build because of our site restraints, and again we'd love to hear of anyone's experiences with this... We are in the process of building on a block with a flood overlay in place. The overlay meant we needed to get a planning permit in addition to the building permit. Really this was just 'red tape' and the result of the planning permit was a list of additional requirements we needed to comply with. Our floor level needed to be 30cm above the 1 in 100 year flood level of 2.4m (Ie. the floor level needs to be 2.7m). We had our block surveyed for the AHD levels and it ranged from 2.1m to 2.4m. As a result of the additional height requirement the builder utilised a waffle slab to get the extra height. Havent received final notifications of the extra costs however the builder has indicated total site costs of $6.5K to $8K. Now the slab is down it does look high and we will have to put in some minor retaining walls after hand-over but the whole process was relatively straight forward. Re: Adenbrook? Garth Chapman? Flood zone build! 10Jul 01, 2010 5:28 am Thanks! Good to know there are options! Adenbrook have promised to reply tomorrow so I'll let you know what they suggest. A quick search on this forum has found vast differences in terms of site costs so it'll be interesting to see what's advised for us...though of course we won't know anything for sure until soil tests/surveys are done. Bek Yes it had a house on it. But Melbourne water only wanted something the original size of the existing house. We managed to fit a 45sq house on. 10 33724 Give Jonathan a call. Tell him you know me. He is in my opinion the best surveyor I have ever worked with. His number is 0425 285 622 All the best Simeon 3 12563 5 6890 |