Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Grand Lakes Estate, Lara, VIC 222Nov 07, 2013 5:00 pm Brian just called, he advised that site costs are gonna be 4k more than what they originally thought... He's gonna call me later and go through it all with me (I bet he doesn't ring). I find it strange when I have no more than 400mm fill on my block, oh well what do I know, I will be getting a second opinion still... Re: Grand Lakes Estate, Lara, VIC 223Nov 07, 2013 8:48 pm I have been speaking with a client who is a builder and also lives in Lara and when i told him the costs i had been quoted he said they were around the ball park. But getting a second opinion cant hurt. Its a lot of money and if your budget is already pretty full then every bit counts. Have they taken the BAL out of your contract. When we first signed up we had to have BAL included but the government changed the bushfire zoning and grand lakes is no longer included. That saved us $4k-$5k Re: Grand Lakes Estate, Lara, VIC 224Nov 08, 2013 8:29 am If you are having your BAL removed, i would at minimum recommend you get: - Rotary roof ventilator - Foil sarking to underneath the entire roof space - Flyscreen doors and for windows (if not already included) Just another tip; Get your rangehood flued to the outside, most builders at a minimum have them exhausted into the roof space. Just my 2 cents Re: Grand Lakes Estate, Lara, VIC 225Nov 12, 2013 12:49 pm Pippa1987 Finally got our site costs the other day. Yuk... near enough on $18k Fully piered slab and some other stuff which I cant remember. House better not move a mil for that cost! That does not sound right, seems really overpriced. We are in Cygnet Court, and were quoted original price of $14,000 which included piers, I questioned this as 98% of the homes in Grand Lakes did not require piers, after final soil testing it was determined piers where not required. Our costs were reduced to $10,000. I am pretty sure $10,000 is the average for the slab and site costs in Grand Lakes. Re: Grand Lakes Estate, Lara, VIC 226Nov 12, 2013 1:18 pm I'm also concerned about our site costs being at 16k... Was first quoted 12k when we signed. I understand that there may be a difference in soils/compaction etc, but from memory, Pippa is building a 31sq home whereas mine is 26sq and she has alot more fill on her block than mine, but her site costs are only 2k more. Doesn't seem consistent... Received this statement from Boutique after I expressed concerns about the costs. I didn't expect to hear my block would be classed as a "problem" block, looks flat to me and wasn't much fill haha! They stated that My block has a maximum of 400mm2 according to the fill report from the developers. From my understanding that wasn't that much. I have a family friend that works for Bisinella and a friend in surveying for Wyndham council and they're giving me their opinion on it all soon. "Hi Luke, With regards to your site costs please find attached your soil report for your perusal, also please be advised of the below. Your site is classified as a P site which indicates that it is a ‘problem’ site. This is largely due to the fill on the block, the compaction report from your developer has been sighted and nominated on the engineers report however unfortunatley it has not overlly impacted your slab result. Due to the P class site we have allowed for piers and an upgraded slab for your home which is where the main chunk of your fixed pricing total have come from. The wording on the variation for Fixed Site Costs is a standard paragraph which is used to cover you for all associated site costs that we may encounter on site. As a result of surveying your engineers report we do not expect any rock and have not included any allowance for ourselves if we were to hit rock (as with retaining walls) however the benefit of the fixed price site costs for you as the client is that if for some unforeseen reason we do hit rock or encounter a situation on site that requires extra costs you will be covered for this no further questions asked. As builders are very aware of the reaction that high site costings has on our clients, it is a cost that no one likes to pay for and for that reason we do all we can to keep them as minimal as possible and I can assure you that we do not inflate the price beyond what is neccessary." Re: Grand Lakes Estate, Lara, VIC 227Nov 12, 2013 1:42 pm Hey Luke, yeah if either of the two of us are getting a rough deal I think your's is rougher than mine. My fill report states Front (Min/max) 0-280mm Middle (Min-Max) 260-1190mm Rear (Min-Max) 330-1610mm And you are correct I am building the 31sq which surely requires a lot more concrete. I am not overly happy with mine but I don't know that they will budge??? I would assume that they would not risk their reputation by over inflating costs. Perhaps I am too trusting. They do also give us a longer guarantee and I put the additional cost down to them covering themselves into the future??? Re: Grand Lakes Estate, Lara, VIC 228Nov 12, 2013 1:44 pm nickvee If you are having your BAL removed, i would at minimum recommend you get: - Rotary roof ventilator - Foil sarking to underneath the entire roof space - Flyscreen doors and for windows (if not already included) Just another tip; Get your rangehood flued to the outside, most builders at a minimum have them exhausted into the roof space. Just my 2 cents Hey Nickvee, what does the sarking & roof ventilator do? We already have the flyscreens included as standard so will be getting them. Re: Grand Lakes Estate, Lara, VIC 229Nov 12, 2013 2:17 pm Pippa, the sarking is that silver foil sheeting they put under the roof. Always on colorbond I believe, but not always on tiled roofs. I don't know everything about it but It is meant to reflect heat and stop water coming in. The ventilators I think he means are those whirlybirds you see spinning on roofs. They suck the hot air out in summer. If you get sarking, it kinda seals your roof space, not allowing the heat to get out so they go hand in hand. I spoke to boutique about whether they will be putting it in our house. They said they only will if they need to to achieve a 6 star energy rating. I'm going to have it regardless. They said they don't know if they need to install it for the 6 star rating until near contract time so they said they will allow me to add/change things regarding sarking, insulation upgrades etc later, which is good of them Re: Grand Lakes Estate, Lara, VIC 230Nov 12, 2013 2:41 pm Corz11 Pippa1987 Finally got our site costs the other day. Yuk... near enough on $18k Fully piered slab and some other stuff which I cant remember. House better not move a mil for that cost! That does not sound right, seems really overpriced. We are in Cygnet Court, and were quoted original price of $14,000 which included piers, I questioned this as 98% of the homes in Grand Lakes did not require piers, after final soil testing it was determined piers where not required. Our costs were reduced to $10,000. I am pretty sure $10,000 is the average for the slab and site costs in Grand Lakes. Ours was just over 10K with piers (although piers for some reason had not been listed on the final tender), they were certainly there as pointed out by you Re: Grand Lakes Estate, Lara, VIC 231Nov 12, 2013 2:51 pm Hey guys, Here is my Geo site assesment. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/633 ... 6993e6.PDF Compare it to your one and see if you are being ripped off. Luke we built a 28sqm house, so a little bit bigger than your house and our site costs were $10, 620. Here is the outline: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Cheers, Nick Re: Grand Lakes Estate, Lara, VIC 233Nov 12, 2013 4:24 pm Lukebee Thanks heaps for that I'm a noob on these forums, I think I know how you inserted the image, how did you insert the pdf file? It's just a direct link to my public folder on Dropbox http://dropbox.com/ < Just in case you don't know what dropbox is Re: Grand Lakes Estate, Lara, VIC 234Jan 07, 2014 1:25 pm Hi everyone! My partner and I have recently purchased land in Stage 19, just waiting for it to title at the moment (lovely Christmas breaks)! We're going to build the Addison 26 with Carlisle, just working out colour choices now, the fun part! Re: Grand Lakes Estate, Lara, VIC 235Jan 09, 2014 10:03 am Hey Leeamja, Happy New Year. Welcome. My fiance and I are in stage 18 over the other side. Our land settled in Sept however we don't expect now to start building till the middle of this year so that we can move in, in more favourable weather. We did our colours in Dec which was good fun. Just not looking forward to the shelling out money bit Re: Grand Lakes Estate, Lara, VIC 236Jan 09, 2014 10:40 am Hello Ive been following this forum for some time now. My husband and I are looking at purchasing land in Grand Lakes. Can anyone here advise if Bisinella are negotiable with the price? Would really appreciate a response. Thanks in advance Re: Grand Lakes Estate, Lara, VIC 237Jan 10, 2014 10:21 am Welcome newbies! Not sure about negotiating but you could always try. It would be nice to shave a few dollars off but I'm thinking it's unlikely... ? Finally at least some stones on Canterbury road makes the driving slightly more tolerable... still, it's ridiculous there's no sealed road yet. Hope all of your plans are coming along well! Re: Grand Lakes Estate, Lara, VIC 238Jan 10, 2014 11:47 am lara5 Hello Ive been following this forum for some time now. My husband and I are looking at purchasing land in Grand Lakes. Can anyone here advise if Bisinella are negotiable with the price? Would really appreciate a response. Thanks in advance Hiya, I think they might be I can't believe Canterbury Road isn't sealed yet either! Slack! In other news, got the call from Boutique the other day saying the permits have all gone through, and I will be getting a call from the construction team soon Re: Grand Lakes Estate, Lara, VIC 239Jan 10, 2014 1:35 pm I'm sure I've heard somewhere before that they won't be sealing the whole of Canterbury Road because of the house there - looks like they'll seal up to the edge of stage 20 and thats it? Bit dangerous if you ask me, that part of the road gets extremely slippery sometimes! Re: Grand Lakes Estate, Lara, VIC 240Jan 17, 2014 12:56 pm Oops - looks like I haven't been down there for awhile...looks like they've sort of sealed Canterbury road, theres still some stones over he top but at least its better than it was. Just a question regarding titles - my land is due to title in Feb (website says ETA Feb) - what happens once it does? First time buying land Also has anyone had any issues with the AHD levels of their land from their builder? We can't do anything more with ours once the land titles but I'm worried something may happen, my builder has had an issue with a couple of blocks on Lapwing and Eastlakes...just a bit worried! I have posted this before: We hired Darbecca to do every stage inspection, and I strongly recommend them to anyone that asks me. They were amazing. Thorough reports… 2 1907 |