Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Aug 11, 2010 11:56 pm Hello. new to this but any advice or info would be greatly appreciated. The footings report is on its way to me however, I have been informed by them that they may well have to change the design to a split level as the retaining walls are 1.4 and 1.2 on either side - no idea what this means and not happy either!! All getting a bit too stressful I have to say. Any advice would be greatly appreciated - I dont think the land slopes that much at all!! I have been advised by Hickies and by Marion Council that they will not approve any house development where the retaining walls are higher than 600 mil
Re: Retaining walls - field river estate 2Aug 12, 2010 10:31 am Hi, What your builder is saying is that if they escavate your block to current plans you will be left with a 1.2m high bank of earth on one side of you house and 1.4m high on the other side. Sloping land can be very deceptive and you would be surprised how much a block does slope once it is surveyed. Do you have the site survey report? on it the surveyer would have indicated via numbers the fall of the block from a fixed reference point usually located somewhere at the street frontage Do you have a picture of your block? One solution (Which your builder is proposing) is to put a step (split level) through the middle of you slab. The escavation is then done in 2 levels which reduces the height of the exposed earth on either side of your house. The Split Level can be done front to back or side to side depending on the orientation of your block and which way it slopes. The down side is that you end up with 2 distinct levels (Steps) inside your house. A simple picture of split levels Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The 600 mm rule from your local council will be listed in the Council DCP (Development Control Plan) Hope this helps. Re: Retaining walls - field river estate 3Aug 12, 2010 12:21 pm Hi thank for your message and your help. I dont have any pics on me at the moment but can get some. My concern is the cost of the split level. Couldnt the other possible option be a garage set down? Re: Retaining walls - field river estate 4Aug 13, 2010 7:00 am When looking at doing a split level, a number of house design and layout questions need to be answered. The placement of the Garage on the lower level could be part of the solution. Got any plans you can post up? Re: Retaining walls - field river estate 5Aug 13, 2010 9:54 am I would be asking the question too, if you do include a split in the house, do you still need to pay for retaining walls.. We have a really big split and retaining walls were never mentioned except as an afterthought after we had signed and had the engineering reports - 3 small retaining walls = $11k! Ouch!! Re: Retaining walls - field river estate 6Aug 13, 2010 12:34 pm Unless specified in your contract I would suggest that retaining walls would not be included in the build cost. You definitley need to speak to your builder regarding this. Getting them done during the build by the builder is convenient but can also cost a lot. For me, I knew that my walls were not inlcuded in the build cost and I also had the advantage that I could DIY after I moved in. My main wall is 30m long x 900mm high and it cost me just over $5K in materials. Check out from Pg 30 onwards on my Thread. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=12911&hilit=eb+memphis&start=580 Most of the cost in constructing a retaining wall is Labour if you dont go the DIY road. I got 3 x quotes for my wall and the cheapest was $11,500. All the best. Render your bathroom walls, two opinions versus the one, makes you wonder. 3 6046 The spacing of the studs looks pretty large especially for a load bearing wall. 3 11106 Nope, only on the inside, I've literally has my ears to the brick outside and can't hear anything. I can sort of 'reset' the noise by pressing firmly on the studs. This… 10 11736 |