Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Aug 06, 2013 10:20 pm Hi, First time on this site and we need HELP!!! We have brought a block that is 1214m2 and we thought it was relatively flat except a bit at the back. Turns out there is a 1.8m drop from the back right corner to the front left corner of where our house is going to go. We are still struggling to see nothing more than a gentle slope. We had an excavator come out and look today and he's told us he can only fill 300mm to the front corner because other wise it will mean a steep driveway and therefore we will need retaining walls up to the 1.8m under our 6ft fences! Eeekkk! Darkness all day long. So here I am, after reading this site many times over our decision making process, asking for help. What could our other options be? We are thinking the possibilities could be - drop garage floor height so we have to step up into house/have a steep drive way - not the end of the world and keep our retaining walls under the 1m mark and still have a flatish back yard with just the one additional retaining wall running along the back fence for where we could see it was higher? Sorry for gibbering, this has kinda got to a make or break point and we don't even have an official quote! thanks for reading. Kaz Re: Site levelling & options 2Aug 06, 2013 10:38 pm A few ideas: Have a split level House, higher at the front than the back. Have the house set a bit further back. Driveway 1:10 isn't too bad, which should get you at least 500mm + say 200mm step up. Have a couple of terraces at the back. The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. Re: Site levelling & options 3Aug 07, 2013 9:37 am Do you have a site survey that has been done if you know the drop is 1.8m? I'd be asking for the survey showing where the house is etc to ensure you're happy/understand whats being said. Would be a massive help for you to post this up for discussion. Re: Site levelling & options 4Aug 07, 2013 9:42 am as suggested go the split level with us we have a steep driveway but the hr holden can still make it up the driveway we have a couple steps up to house from garage.then a couple of more steps from bottom of house to top of house. you could drop the garage level a bit more to make the driveway not so steep and then add a couple of rooms above the garage . then the rest of the house split level. would look awesome you can go on my site to see how a split level looks . and see our driveway Re: Site levelling & options 5Aug 08, 2013 6:55 am Thank you all. After much brainstorming and searching we started to question why they were recommending this ridiculously high retaining wall when no one else in our estate has one and we are far from the the steepest block. My husband spoke with excavator who agreed he hated digging houses in so much? Not sure why he recommended it then? Builder has agreed we could drop floor level of garage which in itself will reduce cut and we don't care if the drive is steeper because we'll also have a side lane way if needed for parking. It seems when we started talking about putting the project on hold, everyone got a lot more helpful. Kaz Hi guys, I want to do some floor levelling before laying the planks and am considering doing it with self-levelling or yellow tongue PB board. I am wondering which one… 0 6542 Standard uninsulated double brick has an R value of around 0.7. An insulated standard 90mm stud timber frame can have an R value of around 2.7. Even if you insulate a… 17 12058 Hi there, I'm a conplete newbie to this, but I'm looking to put a floor down in my 6x9m shed. It's currently sitting on a 100mm thick concrete perimeter (dirt floor… 0 6468 |