Building in Brooks Reach - Community Thread

Hi Venkat,

Wow, thanks for the info! So what was the cross-fall on your property? Ours is about 1.7m.

Your house looks like its gonna be amazing!! So beautiful. My cousin and his wife built with the same company as you up in QLD and they had the best things to say about them, they had a great a great building experience with them so you're in good hands

Did all of you Brooks Reach peeps see the following from Stockland?

http://www.stockland.com.au/residential ... each-.aspx

Home expert panel with Phil and Amity from The Block at Dapto Leagies on 7/4? Sounds cool and you could win a $500 voucher, so I'm going!

Cheers
Wiz

Thanks Wiz, Hubs and I are going to go too just RSVP'd. Hope to see you there

-Rubyam

Cool Ruby!! We'll be going with the three kids....so probably can't miss us! lol Will pm you the day before maybe and we could arrange a catch up?

Wiz

Hi Nat,

Our land slopes overall by a little over 2 m - it is over 50 metres long. However, the fall over the building envelope, which is key in deciding on cut and fill pricing, is around 1 m. The builder chose to cut 1000 mm at one end and fill 600 mm on another end, which is the maximum permissible.

Our experience too with the Builder has been positive so far, even at a time when we were so close to approval, but for valuation. It is all sorted now, but they have been pretty accommodative.

Where has the past week gone! So busy with lots happening!

Here are a few photos to show you the speedy process thus far :
Sun 24th March went out to visit the lot as we were in the area and to our nice surprise Clarendon had cut/filled the site ready for piering.

^Yep; Lots of big ugly stinkin' rocks. Hope our provisional allowance doesn't go up :S

As you can tell we're also going to have to do some serious retaining walls afterwards too

On Monday we got the call out to the site and looky what we found:

Over the long weekend hubs and i will probably take a trip to see how far they've gotten with the concrete pouring. 90% chance of rain tomorrow and forecast rain all through to next week; i don't like the sound of that!!!

And thanks again to the neighbours on this forum; love how welcoming it feels and we aren't even in our houses yet!

-Rubyam

Oh, I really hope it doesn't cost you

Lookin' good though Ruby! That slab will be down before you know it!

I have been a frequent flyer on the council website lately and found out on Tuesday that our plans were approved! Yay! I am soooo impatient though. I am so itching to get something happening! Even fired off an email to our builder...sigh...surprisingly they were not as excited as me!

Cheers
Wiz

You and me both Wiz; but we've heard Clarendon are pretty good once you head to site with no real unexpected costs (just all the expenses beforehand haha. Guess at least you know what you're in for).

AND GOOD ON YOU for staying on top of things with council and following up your builder. They really do need a good prodding; You'll be surprised to see how fast things happen now so they can start getting their money :p

Congrats again on the plans being approved!! What a win!
-Rubyam

Hi Ruby,

Nice cut and fill. Clarendon is zooming for you!

Our Builder has included in the Contract a provisional sum of 3K for rock excavation and removal including any services as required during building works, even though Test Pit excavation by Stockland showed no signs of rock on our Lot. I suppose with rocks being discovered on many lots at Brooks Reach Stage 2, I think these charges would become a reality. How much did Clarendon include for rock excavation and removal in your Contract?

Hi Venkat,
We had an original provisional allowance for $7500 for rock allowance and spoil removal; we were recently sent a PCV from Clarendon stating the spoil removal would be $1300 and the rock excavation $4500. Now these were sent through before building commenced so we're hoping they don't use all the provisional allowance and we get some back, but after seeing all that rock I am a little hesitant.

Ahh, the joys of building!

-Rubyam

Again, thanks for that info Venkat! Makes sense about the building envelope being key, I didn't think too much about that, but it's definitely comforting

Great news with the piering Ruby, fingers crossed for a slab soon!! Fingers crossed the rain stays away

Hi all,
Hope you're enjoying the Easter weekend We took the time to head out yesterday afternoon while the sun was out and saw the waffle pod all laid out and ready for the concrete to be poured on Tuesday. Our SS (Shrimpy as we call him) said he thinks our slab will be done by Friday 5th.
We spent a bit of time and drove around most of the estate; there are about 4 houses that we saw that are building with Clarendon - All at further stages than our lot. All of them have slabs in, one with frame up and one with frame ready to go up.

Here are some shots of our waffle pod

We also spent some time with a few of our friends last night, one of which is an engineer. He explained to us about the retaining walls we'll need to have installed after handover; We should be able to get away with a 'batter wall' on the right side, but on the left side of the house we'll need a 20m long wall with the highest point about 800mm. OUCH!! Trying not to think about the cost of that.. I still want to get my plantation shutters, but all these extra costs mean we may have to hold off on those.

-Rubyam

congrats on the slab prep ruby
love views and a nice block of land

Thanks 1Rocky
Not as big as your lot at only 469m2 but a nice corner lot with most views not being able to be built out which is nice First home and first build; yep, hubby and I are crazy haha
-Rubyam

Looks great Ruby! Hubby and I went for a drive out there today and saw your piering, looks great

Shame about the retaining walls are they really that expensive? I wouldn't have a clue (clearly LOL). Our lot already has retaining walls on one side but we'll have to put them at the back and maybe the other side but not sure as the land fall is into our neighbours yard I think but who knows. I'm no expert! I also want plantation shutters, how beautiful are they

You must be so exciting its all happening! So many places are going up now its great

Oh and don't feel bad about your lot size, ours is even smaller at 450m2 LOL

Hi Nat!
Oh that's great that Stockland has done one of your retaining walls; Do you think you'll try and get the same retaining wall style/pattern for any other walls you may have to get?
Don't worry; there is still Hubby and I still don't know haha. Seems like we learn something new each day with building. Retaining walls vary on price depending on a lot of things; work involved, how long/tall and if you can batter any of the walls. Of course i love the expensive stone masonry look haha - we're thinking at least $3-$5 grand for the long retaining wall; you can try and do 'make-shift' type things but you don't want to risk erosion or collapsing of the soil/yard. You want something that will last. Timber logs are the cheapest way of doing in. We really don't have much of a yard so most of our landscaping costs will be that stupid wall!!

I totally agree; Plantation shutters are dreamy
Are you going to go to the home expert panel next Sunday Nat?
-Rubyam

Bloody retaining walls LOL!! Ah the joys. We just gotta keep thinking of the end result

Not sure if we'll be going on Sunday, we've got a bit on this weekend but would be good to go. We'll have to see though spots are prob taken already anyway!

Just RSVP'd! Looks like we can go )

Yay!!! That's great Nat!!!
Did you get an email back? I just RSVP'd via email last week and never got an email to confirm or anything.

-Rubyam