Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jan 20, 2015 10:34 pm We are looking at building a house in Perth. The land is within 8kms of the city and is definitely in a great location. We have been dealing with 2 builders and one of the builders have quoted us $50K for site works, retaining wall and soakwells. The land slopes at about 1.5m and is near a major road. What are our options? Should we obtain a contour and survey report? Should we engage an earthmoving company to level the land prior to building to save costs? Or should we just bite the bullet and hand over $50K to the builder? Further, do builders have any issues with land that is already "prepped up" by external companies? Please hit me with any suggestions that you may have that I have not thought of / covered above. Thank you in advance! Re: HELP! Advice Required Regarding Quotation For Siteworks 2Jan 21, 2015 12:09 am Welcome Helter. First, I think you'll find the 50k is predominately in Provisonal Sums which would all be subject to refinement after the completion of your site survey and soil survey. So these costs could be 30k or 70k and it just depends on the diligence of a sales rep and the estimating team. My advice would be to get a soil and site survey completed and request accurate quotes from a couple of different builders. In our case, we paid our builder 3k for these reports and shopped them to other builders and even got our own site works estimates. A bit of messing around but got us comfortable with what was required and what a fair cost estimate for the work was. 50k estimate on a 1.5m drop sounds possible. Are you building on a rear block as well? Re: HELP! Advice Required Regarding Quotation For Siteworks 3Jan 21, 2015 8:46 am Two considerations, firstly the 50k could have up to 30/35% builders margin in it. Secondly doing it yourself may require you to become an owner builder if the value of work is > $20k. I tend to agree with drail, get a more accurate idea of costs and then make an informed decision. Re: HELP! Advice Required Regarding Quotation For Siteworks 4Jan 21, 2015 11:11 am Thank you D Rail and Jays for your advice. I will get in touch with a surveyor to obtain a report and shop around for siteworks quotation. **D Rail, no I am not building on a rear block** Also, I had no idea we can request for accurate quotes for siteworks from builders. Further, is there anything else I should be looking at doing that I have missed out on? Re: HELP! Advice Required Regarding Quotation For Siteworks 5Jan 21, 2015 11:51 am No problems. Just to follow up, some builders will provide accurate site works and some won't. It takes a little bit of coercion at times but at the end of the day, if the builders want you to sign a contract then you have to trust them. We had quotes ranging from 40-130k for our site works. The 40k estimate was written in an email, whereas the 130k had listed every possible item (with many items identified as not likely being required). When we compared some of our quotes we could see some hadn't provided for any drainage etc. The other thing we found was that it wasn't cheap going to the surveyor/soil testing companies ourselves. They wouldn't even price match the rate that some of the larger builders were offering to complete the work for us. This can obviously make things difficult to get the original reports released for formal use by other builders, but again, if the builder wants you to trust them, they'll typically make them available. It's all a sales tactic. Keep in mind is that if you're going to do the organise the site works yourself, any retaining wall over 500mm is likely to require council approval. Not a major drama but this can extend timelines as you'll require two approvals (one for the site works and then one for the build). Thank you @. Tried to play with the facade models but the exact colour is not matching up. 2 3258 Minimum overhang into gutter must be 50mm, turn down tool should not split the sheet. it seems wrong tool for the profile was used, the flashing cannot slope back. Rib… 2 2106 i would not be signing anything on the day read your contract about when builder submits final invoice generally, have to meet builder within 7 days of receiving final… 1 4729 |