Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 17, 2013 9:14 am Hi guys, I need some advice in regards to house siting. Just a little bit of background... We put a deposit on a block of land in December, titles and settlement are due in September and I understand this could change. We approached a builder back in December to get the ball rolling and we had our tender last week. We are due to start building in November if everything goes to plan. We decided to approach a builder before the land titles as we want to have everything in place so we don't have many months sinking a mortgage into land whilst we run around trying to find a builder, house etc. We have engineering plans which show how the block will be developed and we will be able to provide a compaction report which states the fill has been compacted to a Level 1 standard. Our builder did a soil and survey back in March. Our site costs are based on the way the land is now and I can understand that because they need to find out if there is rock etc. The issue is, the siting is based on the way the land is now and our builder won't provide a siting based on the engineering plans, just so we can see what the house will look like on the engineered land which is a bit frustrating. I don't want to hold them to the siting based on engineering plans as I know things can change. All I am trying to figure out is how the house will look if the developer does what they say they will do. This will also help us with our landscaping plans which we need to submit with our house plans in a few weeks. I guess I just want a little bit of advice - is is usual/unusual for builders to provide a siting based on engineering plans? Has anyone managed to obtain a siting based on engineering plans? Many thanks Re: House siting question... 2Apr 17, 2013 9:33 am Hi ftdt, Henley was able to give us siting even though our land has not titled yet and they haven't gone on site to do soil survey... They used the land engineering drawing in our land contract to do the house siting.. I'm sure the land developer would release the land as per the Contract engineering drawing (with very little discrepancies, if any) - otherwise they would have breached the Contract... Our land is flat. Is your land sloping and/or its size much bigger than the house you chose? If it is, then it might be that the builder wants to do soil survey once the land is ready to determine the best siting for the house (e.g. to minimise site cost)... But as far as I know, they should be able to do siting solely on the engineering plans. Re: House siting question... 3Apr 17, 2013 9:49 am mtz08 Hi ftdt, Henley was able to give us siting even though our land has not titled yet and they haven't gone on site to do soil survey... They used the land engineering drawing in our land contract to do the house siting.. I'm sure the land developer would release the land as per the Contract engineering drawing (with very little discrepancies, if any) - otherwise they would have breached the Contract... Our land is flat. Is your land sloping and/or its size much bigger than the house you chose? If it is, then it might be that the builder wants to do soil survey once the land is ready to determine the best siting for the house (e.g. to minimise site cost)... But as far as I know, they should be able to do siting solely on the engineering plans. Hey Mtz I emailed the developer yesterday and was told the engineering plans will reflect what we are getting and I agree, if we don't get that then they are in breach of our contract. Our land will slope, there is a 400mm slope from the back of the building envelope to the front and a 100mm side slope. We have a 600mm rise from the front of the block up to the front of the building envelope. All of this is outlined in the engineering plans though. The builder has confirmed they will do a second soil and survey when the land is titled and that's cool, I get they can't give us accurate site costs right now. But I'd love to see a siting of the house based on the engineering plans before we sign a contract! Re: House siting question... 4Apr 17, 2013 2:49 pm Hi ftdt, I noticed that you also have a block of land in Cloverlea Estate. How did your Soil Test come back - our block has less than a 300mm fall over it according to the Engineering Drawings, and we haven't put down a deposit on a build yet as we are waiting a bit, but would be interested in seeing if other properties around there are going to have relatively low site costs or if I should be prepared for a big cost! Cheers Re: House siting question... 5Apr 17, 2013 2:52 pm bt91 Hi ftdt, I noticed that you also have a block of land in Cloverlea Estate. How did your Soil Test come back - our block has less than a 300mm fall over it according to the Engineering Drawings, and we haven't put down a deposit on a build yet as we are waiting a bit, but would be interested in seeing if other properties around there are going to have relatively low site costs or if I should be prepared for a big cost! Cheers I'll DM you You can really use anything you want the main consideration would be how it looks once painted/finished - or the look you want. 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