Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jul 27, 2010 12:59 pm Hi everyone, my first post, I am in a bit of a pickle and hope some of you guys can help me.
I have just received a quotation from my builder, and one particular item under site costs has really shocked me, and I am hoping someone here can shed some light on it for me. The base cost of the home I am building (in the Point Cook area, VIC) is $285,000, with a total quote of $370,000, which is far in excess of what I had anticipated. Most of the $85,000 difference between the base and quote has come in one single item under Site Costs: Provide additional bulk concrete to 450mm approx diameter bored piers to penetrate through fill material and achieve correct founding depths. Note: includes additional concrete pump This item alone was $56,100. I am hoping someone (other than the builder) can decipher that for me and let me know if it sounds reasonable. Just that a single $56k out of a total of $85k over base cost on one single item sounds really out of this world. The other items sound okay. Thank you, and apologies if this is the wrong forum, or if this information can be found elsewhere. I haven't really looked because I'm kinda worried that the builder's rep is telling me I have 5 days to accept this quotation. edited: for spelling Re: Site costs query 2Jul 27, 2010 1:16 pm The fact that you have fill on your block always means that your site costs will be high. From memory most of the Point Cookies on this forum have had a H clas slab so that adds to the cost. So your site costs will be high... but $85 000. I would be thinking more $20 000 - $30 000 for a lot of fill in Point Cook. Here's a link here to a thread where lots of poeple have put a breakdown of their site costs. There might be a few breakdowns that can help. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=9017 Edit: I'm sure you're post said $85 000.... but $56 100 is stil high. I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: Site costs query 3Jul 27, 2010 1:31 pm joles Edit: I'm sure you're post said $85 000.... but $56 100 is stil high. Ty for your reply Joles, I will check out your website. My site costs according to the quotation came up to a total of almost $62,000. Tha's what worries me. I just want to find out of this is in fact the 'true' site cost of my land, or I'm being taken for a ride. Will go look at the other thread now. Re: Site costs query 4Jul 27, 2010 1:33 pm Woah that's extreme. Just how much fill is there on your site? We have some fill on ours, 150mm at the front and nearly 1000mm at the back, but site costs still came in at around $15,000. 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: Site costs query 5Jul 27, 2010 1:59 pm teck Hi everyone, my first post, I am in a bit of a pickle and hope some of you guys can help me. I have just received a quotation from my builder, and one particular item under site costs has really shocked me, and I am hoping someone here can shed some light on it for me. The base cost of the home I am building (in the Point Cook area, VIC) is $285,000, with a total quote of $370,000, which is far in excess of what I had anticipated. Most of the $85,000 difference between the base and quote has come in one single item under Site Costs: Provide additional bulk concrete to 450mm approx diameter bored piers to penetrate through fill material and achieve correct founding depths. Note: includes additional concrete pump This item alone was $56,100. I am hoping someone (other than the builder) can decipher that for me and let me know if it sounds reasonable. Just that a single $56k out of a total of $85k over base cost on one single item sounds really out of this world. The other items sound okay. Thank you, and apologies if this is the wrong forum, or if this information can be found elsewhere. I haven't really looked because I'm kinda worried that the builder's rep is telling me I have 5 days to accept this quotation. edited: for spelling You really need them to give you a breakdown of the costs so they can explain. Ask them how many piers? How deep? Width of piers? Other additional strengthening required in the slab? I would not expect to pay any more than $1500 (Extreme top end) per m3 of structural concrete including all labour, concrete, steel, plant time. For $56K you would expect to receive a minimum of approx 40m3 of concrete and around 3-4t of rebar. I highly doubt that they will require that much for bored piers You’re getting taken for a ride. Some builders won’t give a breakdown because of excuses like: - "we don’t want to disclose our rates" - "our suppliers won’t be happy for disclosing rates" Don’t take it. Refuse to sign anything unless you're happy with the price... Edit: Fill doesn’t necessarily mean it’s worse than the natural ground below. Fill can be better too Re: Site costs query 6Jul 27, 2010 7:58 pm Our builder came back with increased site costs although not as bad as yours, when I queried the slab design with the engineering co I was told because the builder could not get a compaction report off the developer they had to design a slab to the worst case scenario, hence the extra site costs - I rang the developer and got a copy of compaction report in 5 mins, emailed to builder and hence my site costs came down. Ask your builder for a copy of the slab design and if they had a copy of the compaction report and gave this to the engineers when doing the slab design. I personally would not go ahead with the builder if cannot furnish you with detailed breakdowns or answers. Let us know how you go. Site Start: 10th September, 2010 PCI : Friday 27th January, 2011. Handover: 3rd February, 2011 Build Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=37677 Re: Site costs query 7Jul 27, 2010 8:23 pm Complete BS on price waaaayyy to high! I'm in civil construction and you'll get a lot of simple concrete work done for that much, and house foundations is relatively simple. mmm....donuts Homer Simpson 1956- Links: Site Costs Ready Reckoner | H1 Addiction Medical Advice | Château TDL: The Backyard Re: Site costs query 8Jul 27, 2010 8:35 pm teck Provide additional bulk concrete to 450mm approx diameter bored piers to penetrate through fill material and achieve correct founding depths. Note: includes additional concrete pump This item alone was $56,100. I am hoping someone (other than the builder) can decipher that for me and let me know if it sounds reasonable. Just that a single $56k out of a total of $85k over base cost on one single item sounds really out of this world Seems way too much to me, i honestly think there is an extra 0 added to that item or you have one massive house. I found a reference on Google that stated it is about $70 per linear metre for a 450mm pier. This was awhile ago, however so lets assume its closer to $100 per metre. When we had our original site cost estimate we had piering under the entire house (due to fill on the block like yours), 45 in total (250 sq metre house). We ended up with 21 450mm concrete piers, 3 metres deep @ a cost of about $5700 (incl. pump) So ask the question: How many bored piers are they doing? What is the estimated depth of each one? (This will come from the soil report, they need to go a certain depth into stiffer soil) Are there any other additional costs due to the site? Then work it out and get a very rough estimate. (ie. 40 piers, each 3 metres deep = 120 linear metres. 120 x $100 per metre = $12,000) Your in Point Cook, I believe it is very rocky there? Have you seen your soil report, does it state any rejection holes when doing the soil tests? Let us know how you get on, but I wouldn't be happy paying $56k for piering under a slab. That alone doesn't cost that much. Re: Site costs query 9Aug 18, 2010 10:01 pm Can anyone enlighten whether additional site costs, specifically for rock excavation for water tanks, would attract builder's margin? I thought builder's margin is charged when we want variations from our preselection list after contract signing. (Sorry about my ignorance). What about any additional costs to provisional sums? such as benchtops, kitchen joinery. If the actual costs after our kitchen design comes up higher than the provisional sum, do I have to pay builder's margin on the difference? Thanks. I am not sure whether Perth has its own way of doing things in regards to this. Most of Perth has class A (sandy soil), except for some areas near rivers or hills. 2 13098 Is anyone building with Mojo and have a recent site cost tender 0 15952 Henley should give you some indication of site costs. Too many variable to give you any reasonable accuracy 1 1883 |