Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Mar 26, 2012 9:47 pm We are reluctant first home builders after our house burnt down in Dec 2011. The house was demolished last week (yay!) but the concrete slab still remains. The insurance company wants an engineer to determine if the slab is reusable therefore saving them/costing us $20,000. Has anyone been through the same situation? What were the results? Also, I've convinced the assessor to stop using "repair" to describe what is happening to our place, instead he uses "rebuild". The original house was single brick, 20yrs old and kinda ugly but in a great place with fantastic neighbours. We want to build a weatherboard house on piers. We have a local builder that has won the tender to "rebuild" the house. At what point can I get the insurance conversation from 'rebuild ugly old house' into 'build lovely new house according to our plans'? Many thanks Re: Concrete slabs and insurance companies 2Mar 27, 2012 7:58 am perhaps your slab was cracked by the fire or by the wreckers? or just cracked... it will definitely need to be replaced if it was cracked surely.... Re: Concrete slabs and insurance companies 3Mar 27, 2012 8:59 am Quote builder: "Sorry luv. The slab looks beautiful." There are no cracks but the edges look a little crumbly. There were two fireballs during the fire which we thought may have affected the concrete. We were hoping for tank treads on the truck to go over it a couple of times but no such luck. There are two schools of thought here: 1. Heat goes up and debris falls down protecting the slab along with the carpet covering. 2. No engineer will approve a slab because it's on thier heads later if something goes wrong. I'm hoping for no.2 scenario... Re: Concrete slabs and insurance companies 4Mar 27, 2012 9:13 am Do you have new for old replacement in your insurance?? Will the new slab last another 30 years which is the life of the new house on top. Will the new slab be sufficient for today building regulations??? Re: Concrete slabs and insurance companies 5Apr 08, 2012 1:18 pm Well, The engineer looked at the slab last week. He swept it, tapped it with the special hammer and dug a hole next to the slab. He'll get back to us after Easter. I'm not sure on the new for old on the insurance. If they believe the slab wasn't damaged then they won't pay for it. I guess we leave it all up to the engineer and the Easter gods. my suspicion - some builders, they do usually make 'odd' settings in their site plan / pricing as their standards - being hopeful that first - the initial price is… 9 2444 i would not be signing anything on the day read your contract about when builder submits final invoice generally, have to meet builder within 7 days of receiving final… 1 4716 |