Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Aug 11, 2010 6:02 pm My sister and I bought a block earlier in the year which we are finally going to be building on. We've had one quote back so far from a builder and was wondering if anyone else thought these were a bit odd. Our block is a rear survey strata without a paved driveway. It looks pretty level, but we haven't had any survey's or soil testing done yet. We've been quoted a total of $43,421 for provisional site costs. The breakdown we've been given is: Earthworks for a rear lot $12,200 Hard Digging $1,050 Engineers footing & slab detail $9,725 Concrete Pump $1,800 Soil Retreival Probe $950 Survey's site setout & site setout rear block $2,140 Connection fee for services $1,150 Additional Electricity run (40m) $2,064 Upgrade mains power $638 Council required site bins $1,200 Council Verge fee $1,000 Council stormwater fee $550 Engineers stormwater layout design $254 Rear loading (rear access & cartage) $2,500 Soakwells $6,200 Our rep has said that the footing may go down to $3k if the soil is the best grade they've "experienced in the area". He's also said that the Gosnells shire council just changed their soakwell policy and we have to get the builder to do them for us which is really expensive. We've rung the council and they've said that we don't need the builder to do them, but they do require the plans, etc for them at the same time as the house and lot plans to get the building license. We don't want to ask him any questions yet as we're still waiting on quotes from a couple of other builders. Neither my sister or I have built before so we don't understand half of this info. Some of the items such as the connection fee for services and bins, we've always assumed were included in the base price for the house (the specs mention them most of the time). Going through posts from others, our site works costs seem a bit excessive but I don't know if everything we've been charged for has been included in others posts which is why I gave the breakdown. He's basically said that even if the soil was sandy (highly unlikely in our area) our site works would still be slightly over $30k. If anyone can please shed some light, that would greatly appreciated. I wrote some posts some months back when we were beginning to look at builders (being a battleaxe, our range of builders were limited) and if anyone that replied to me back then reads this post, I'd just like to thank you all as all of the advice given was very handy Riss Re: Site costs for a battleaxe in Kenwick 3Aug 11, 2010 6:24 pm Hi there...it's really hard to say about the site cost as it varies a lot by the block. For instance, I am building at the rear block as well in Queens park, so not that far away from your place. My friend just built a house around the corner with the same builder and they had clay in their land ...and that itself cost them over 20k. For us, we were lucked out really to have all sand and being a rear block it's just over 10k all up...so it was a lot better than what we expected. Just by having a glance of yours, soak wells seems too much to me already 6k.... we got quote for just over 1k. if council doesn't need builder to do the soakwells, just get them to draw up in the plan and supply your own. that's what we're doing. Might wanna shop around bit more? or if that's the quote with builder, just say you'd organise your own soakwells as they normally let you do that. with anything else, really can't negotiate if that's with builder, although you might wanna get your own site survey done just to make sure they're not ripping you off who are you building with? Re: Site costs for a battleaxe in Kenwick 4Aug 11, 2010 6:47 pm Dont now about survey strata ( I went the extra for the Green title in Rivervale ) but the costs are allways gonna be a bit more for the battle axe . Builder is charging me approx 15-17 K for all the run ins but this includes everything you have on your list except the soakwells ( builder is doing them for $3k but we have seen the est from the contractor at $2930 so builder must have forgot to add their usual margin on that one ) . A big long driveway with additional soakwells may be required ( and im talkin 1500 x 1200 concrete with trafficable lid stuff here not the bunnings DIY ) wont put a smile on your face . Cost me $10k for bricks and labour and soakwll and crossover and Kerb ) Good Luck, and remember if it was easy , everyone would be doin it Timeline Aug 08-Land Mar 09-Demo/Titles Sept 10-Handover No1 Sept 11-Handover No2 April 12-Sold No2 Aug 14-Land/Demo Jan 15-Slabs viewtopic.php?f=31&t=25736 Re: Site costs for a battleaxe in Kenwick 5Aug 12, 2010 1:32 am Thanks for your input Saemiseon and Echo. We've decided to go with Redink (our sales rep, Jon from the strata section is brilliant) who we've just had another meeting with tonight. They've quoted us $30k as a worse case senario (c5) and $18k as a best case senario (c1) with us organising the soakwells. The biggest difference (other than the $6k soakwells ) was the earthworks. Redink have quoted $3.5k and like everything else, are more than happy for us to do it ourselves if it ends up having to go over that. The other builder (Blueprint) didn't really want us to do anything that wasn't through them unless it was after construction which I understand. Some of the costs (bins, etc) were covered under Redinks house price but weren't with Blueprint and that accounted for some of the minor differences. I'm also thinking that the sales rep may have put in the highest possible price on everything rather than just the slab issue but that's just a guess. In the end we decided to go with Redink due to the house price. Redink have come up at about $167k and Blueprint was $178k. Both houses were very similar in size as they'd based them off our own sketches. Plus with Redink, we got the solar power included plus stacker doors for next to nothing. We have had meetings with other builders and these two stood out the most. We can't wait to get started We've also been super impressed with Jon from Redink. He goes through every detail with us and doesn't mind us asking questions about every detail. He printed our rough plans off and started coming up with ideas before we'd even had our first meeting. The sales rep from Blueprint was prepared but not that prepared. Anyway, thanks again for your help. Riss Re: Site costs for a battleaxe in Kenwick 6Aug 12, 2010 11:29 am Glad to hear you're going with Redink. I'm building with Redink too for the similar reasons:) Firstly, being a rear lot, standard size, shape house might not maximise the block and with Redink you can basically change around the whole thing to your taste. Our sales rep was Shannon at Queens Park display centre, and couldn't complain a single thing. Great, Redink will let you do lots of stuff yourself. I'm supplying soakwells, we're clearing our block ourselves(being done this morning) and we're supplying all the taps, basins, kitchen appliances, door handles, cabinet handles etc and they're installing them for me. It's great. It won't be easy but as Echo said, then everyone would be doing it, but I reckon it's well worth it at the end:) Good luck! Re: Site costs for a battleaxe in Kenwick 7Aug 13, 2010 11:46 pm Thanks Saemiseon. We're very excited. Lol, we still have to get pre-approval so that they can go to drafting and site survey's but we've already picked out a lot of our colours. We just have to go and see the colours in person to confirm. Re: Site costs for a battleaxe in Kenwick 8Sep 19, 2011 9:27 pm Hey guys..stubled across your post..I know it was from over a year ago but hopefully you can help. I hope I am not intruding by asking you a few questions. I am looking to build on a survery strata block and was wondering how you are finding Redink? What size is your build? What did your site costs end up costing? Do you find them good value for money? Looking forward to hearing from you!PM If you like. Regards Jason Thanks for the insight! My plot is a new development so hopefully I won't have too much problem during build as everyone should be roughly building together. I also… 2 3373 Thanks Draftroom that definitely helps a heap. We are still at the very early stage of planning to see what kind of house would fit on our plot. While we are on a… 3 15767 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 |