Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 25, 2014 7:51 pm Hi All, My Partner and I have just signed the contract on our first block of land at the Observatory on the Gold Coast, and we hope to start building next year. We had decided to build a year ago, and were set on building with Simonds before we even had land, as the rep is my Partners good friend. Our rep was great, in that he actually advised us of our block of land becoming available, after we missed out on a block in the same street. We fell in love with this street and the area as soon as we came across it, and we snagged our block at a great price with a potential great view of the whole Gold Coast shore line from Coolangatta to Broadbeach ( only from the front top story of the house, but hay, a view is a view!). We have signed our contract and our finance has been approved, the contract reached our solicitors over a week ago, so we are just waiting - not sure on what though! I know people talk about 'settlement' etc, but we are a bit unsure of how the order works. I have below pictures of our block and plans, before we can even think about building the house, we need to have a retaining wall in at the back of the block. So at the moment, we are just trying to work out the best and cheapest way to tackle the tricky block. It is flat everywhere except for up the back, worsening to the right hand corner. Any suggestions, tips or advice would be great!!! We have played on ideas of having the back yard raised a bit with a pool, so the retaining wall wouldn't need to be so high, and we could use some of the land instead of paying for it all to be removed! But we haven't gotten any professional advice as yet, were not sure where to ask? The Red marks on the photos are where the boundary stakes are Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Simonds Harcrest Gold Coast - Help Retaining Wall! 3Apr 26, 2014 9:04 am Good luck - its an exciting time. Our block was pretty flat so can't offer too much advice. Perhaps - think of aspect and try to get ideas on paper first.. Re: Simonds Harcrest Gold Coast - Help Retaining Wall! 5Apr 26, 2014 12:58 pm We are still waiting on our block to be registered/title issued. Sounds like your at the same stage, land settlement usually happens 14days after the title issued. Don't you just love trying to get info on retaining walls. :/ First of all you have to abide by all the Council rules and regs http://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/plannin ... -3831.html Second, you need to look in your design essentials package from Stocklands also ring your rep for further info if needed as they have their own rules that relate more to the cosmetic side of your retaining walls. IMO the easiest way out will probably be to use google or look in the local paper for someone that does retaining walls on the Coast. Get them on-site and go through the options, once you have a plan of what your going to do you have to submit the details of it (height, width, materials etc) to stocklands with your landscape design to get approval from them before you go any further. Hope this helps Building a Sierra on the Gold Coast https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=68899 Full timeline on Pg 1 Settlement: 13/05/14 Retaining Walls: 20/06/14 Site Start: 02/07/14 Re: Simonds Harcrest Gold Coast - Help Retaining Wall! 6Apr 26, 2014 6:07 pm Hey StephyD We looked at the houses on the left hand side of the street that are just going up, one of the blocks has retaining walls up done by Coastal Rock Walls, they looked alright so might give them a call for a free quote. Saw you guys today (I think), I was showing a friend the block. What did you think now that you've seen it? It could end up being a lot of work....it sucks because it doesn't affect our house build, so I wasn't really prepared to worry about my landscaping lol!! Brissyguy - oh the Irony! Well the only things I do know, is that if a retaining wall is over 1mtr it needs an engineering cert. And I also know you want to have proper drainage with most. So I think it's always best to use a professional. But the more we learn...we will let you know! Re: Simonds Harcrest Gold Coast - Help Retaining Wall! 7Apr 26, 2014 6:13 pm Calling people that have already done work in the are is a good idea. Hehe yeah we went up to see how our weed control was going so I thought I'd take a peak to try and picture it better. You're correct it looks like a lot of work, not impossible though. I was wondering if it was you but then you parked on the other side of the road so I thought maybe you were from one of them blocks lol. I'll be sure to say hi next time! Building a Sierra on the Gold Coast https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=68899 Full timeline on Pg 1 Settlement: 13/05/14 Retaining Walls: 20/06/14 Site Start: 02/07/14 Re: Simonds Harcrest Gold Coast - Help Retaining Wall! 8Apr 26, 2014 6:25 pm Hello, another Simonds builder here! But all the way over in SA. Looking forward to following another Simonds build & seeing yet another one progress I can't offer much in the way of retaining advice, but having known a few people who have had to retain - best to get a few retaining wall builders in and see what they say. The results can vary and it helps to get a few opinions. Love the outlook you have, very nice indeed! Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=66299 Slab: 16/6/14 Frame: 4/7/14 Roof: 22/7/14 Lock Up: 20/8/14 Fixing: 26/8/14 PCI: 9/10/14 Handover: 20/10/14 Re: Simonds Harcrest Gold Coast - Soil tests are in! 9May 12, 2014 12:53 pm Hi All, Just an update on everything. So things have moved pretty quickly, I think we signed our contract only like 6-8 weeks ago and we settle tomorrow! Our finance was all approved, and we didn't have any dramas along the way. We had a soil test clause in our contract, and so we got ours done early. They came back today with; P: Due to fill S: reactivity classification Fill was app 300mm deep. I freaked out as soon as I saw "P" but then my builder advised that this is just the soil about 30cm on the surface, and that it won't affect the piers once they are in. So really happy about that - as all building costs are estimated using M1 class I think, so we should get a discount due to the soil being "S"!!! Over the next few weeks we will be getting retaining wall quotes - pretty interested to see the difference in price between rock and cement walls. Been reading up a lot about retaining walls, and sounds like they are the two best to go with because of the durability - a lot of reviews on the internet about timber retaining walls discuss the fact that they don't last for as long due to moisture etc. Re: Simonds Harcrest Gold Coast - Help Retaining Wall! 10May 12, 2014 1:12 pm Congrats on your settement tomorrow! Very exciting time indeed I just replied on another thread about the soil report. We had 300mm of fill on our site and that made it a P, the report stated that's why it was a P. We had $23k allowed and came in at $18k. We had to sign the contract prior to the soil test as our land wasnt available to be tested till January 2014 and we needed to sign a contract before Dec 31 to get a Housing Construction Grant that was available here in SA. So we put a provisional sum in and "over estimated", luckily we have a nice credit coming our way! Cant help too much with Retaining walls, our block is super flat, less than 10cm of fall over the entire thing... I kid you not! But the estate where we are building has VERY hilly bits and they tend to use rock walls or cement. I'd imagine they'd be much more durable, as you've said. Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=66299 Slab: 16/6/14 Frame: 4/7/14 Roof: 22/7/14 Lock Up: 20/8/14 Fixing: 26/8/14 PCI: 9/10/14 Handover: 20/10/14 Re: Simonds Harcrest Gold Coast - Help Retaining Wall! 11May 12, 2014 1:15 pm It looks like a long block. Is there much of a view to take advantage of up top? If not, I'd build your house on the flat part and deal with the landscaping later - especially because you have no neighbors. Either way I reckon there's 20-30 grand of walls if you want blocks. Your cheapest option would be an embankment, but obviously you sacrifice usable space. Re: Simonds Harcrest Gold Coast - Help Retaining Wall! 12May 12, 2014 5:57 pm deluxes Congrats on your settement tomorrow! Very exciting time indeed I just replied on another thread about the soil report. We had 300mm of fill on our site and that made it a P, the report stated that's why it was a P. We had $23k allowed and came in at $18k. We had to sign the contract prior to the soil test as our land wasnt available to be tested till January 2014 and we needed to sign a contract before Dec 31 to get a Housing Construction Grant that was available here in SA. So we put a provisional sum in and "over estimated", luckily we have a nice credit coming our way! Cant help too much with Retaining walls, our block is super flat, less than 10cm of fall over the entire thing... I kid you not! But the estate where we are building has VERY hilly bits and they tend to use rock walls or cement. I'd imagine they'd be much more durable, as you've said. Hi Deluxes, Thanks heaps for that, I feel so much better knowing someone else was in the same boat! I was freaking out at the start, I hadn't read much on soil tests so I was clueless as to what it all meant. Re: Simonds Harcrest Gold Coast - Help Retaining Wall! 13May 12, 2014 6:01 pm MadamImAdam It looks like a long block. Is there much of a view to take advantage of up top? If not, I'd build your house on the flat part and deal with the landscaping later - especially because you have no neighbors. Either way I reckon there's 20-30 grand of walls if you want blocks. Your cheapest option would be an embankment, but obviously you sacrifice usable space. Hi MadamImAdam, Unfortunately, we have to put a retaining wall on the back end before we can put a slab down, it's a clause in our contract. We will be putting the house on the flat part, though there are amazing views from the top of the whole Gold Coast shoreline from Cooly up until Broadbeach. We have been thinking of keeping a bit raised in the top corner and putting a Bali hut up there, so you can sit out and see the views. But still working on ideas of how the retaining wall will sit. We are budgeting about $50-$60k all up just in case. Though if we can get away with only $20-$30k I would be extremely thrilled! Re: Simonds Harcrest Gold Coast - Help Retaining Wall! 14May 17, 2014 8:40 pm Hi Brooke_n_Ron, How are you guys going with your retaining and everything? Building a Sierra on the Gold Coast https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=68899 Full timeline on Pg 1 Settlement: 13/05/14 Retaining Walls: 20/06/14 Site Start: 02/07/14 Re: Simonds Harcrest Gold Coast - Help Retaining Wall! 15May 20, 2014 7:01 pm StephyD Hi Brooke_n_Ron, How are you guys going with your retaining and everything? Hey, I just posted on your blog! We haven't started getting quotes just yet. We have decided we will next week. We already have two companies we want to contact; *Custom Rock Walls - Because we have seen people in our street who have used them *Peter Grant House Pads and rock walls - we have seen this guy do some work at the Varsity Heights estate * My admin manager at work's husband is a concreter, so we might ask him for a quote too!!! I'm really nervous though, I hope it doesn't blow our 40-50k budget :/ Re: Simonds Harcrest Gold Coast - Help Retaining Wall! 16May 20, 2014 9:39 pm We're building in Gilston (Banksia Ridge estate) and just had our retaining wall put in last week by S&J Henson, a friend recommended and previously used them. Very happy with the work done, 40m length rock wall, max point 1m on the left rear. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Steve's mobile: 0417 702 643 Email- jodeehen@bigpond.com.au Coral Homes Daydream 30 *modified Gilston QLD Completion approx October 2014 Thank you again Simeon.. I will call my certifier for that. Have a good day 4 5197 Thanks for your reply! All valid points and I agree with you on many of them. I am in QLD, any recommendations on a construction lawyer would be helpful 3 2654 Thanks for the insights, that makes perfect sense, and yeah, I will be leaning on the experience of the excavator operator entirely. 6 16159 |