Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 16, 2015 9:32 am Hi all, Just wondering if anyone has done their own earthworks and how much did you save? I am building with RedInk and told them from the start that I might want to do my own earthworks, depending on the price they came up with. I got a call from them yesterday and they told me that we pretty much got it spot on in the PCQ - maybe an extra $1000. I have clay on my site, so I need a 600mm sand pad. I am thinking that since it came in on budget from the PCQ, it is better to get RedInk to do it as then they cannot claim that I have caused any scheduling delays and also they cannot say anything about warranty. Let me know your thoughts. Re: Owner Earthworks - how much did you save 2Apr 16, 2015 10:07 am How big is your block? It was considerably cheaper for us to do our own and in fact RI recommended that we do it ourselves but we are on acreage. I would say that if you are in the suburbs that it's not worth the effort and get RI to do it. If you do go ahead, the only thing I would say is to make sure you are aware of all the elements that you will be required to provide as an owner earthworker. We got caught out because we missed that we were reponsible for the slab clean once the drains have been installed. So that has cost us a bit more that we anticipated. Re: Owner Earthworks - how much did you save 4Apr 16, 2015 1:31 pm Well we didn't get formal quotes from RI but the ballpark figures they and other builders were bandying around were around the $50-60k mark. Some even as high as $80k. We're on a 5 acre bush block and are paying about $35k and that is for the clearing and forming of a 120m driveway, water tank sandpad, house sandpad (600mm), electric trench and S&I of the septics incl backfill. We had to pay a bit more for the driveway/trench as they hit rock and also for the slab clean as I mentioned earlier. These are in the hundreds not thousands though! Re: Owner Earthworks - how much did you save 5Apr 16, 2015 2:32 pm We were planning to do our earthworks ourselves to save around 10k. However we found out we'd have to become owner builders as the value was over 20k and no earthworking companies were registered builders. and we have other owner build plans that doing this would preclude us for something like 6 years. Our builder came to party and we put earthworks back into contract for cost+10%. Which worked out to be about $4300 over our costs. Our block is 3300sqm, but smaller footprint for house as two storey . We had rock breaking for slab pad, soakwells and septics. Re: Owner Earthworks - how much did you save 6Apr 21, 2015 11:33 am I just called the Building Commission and they said you only need a building licence if your building work needs building approval and the work is over $20k. So owner siteworks for the house pad preparation is out of question I think. You also need to make sure when you do your own pad preparation that your builder will still give you the full structural warranty. I was warned by a sales guy to check this with whichever builder I go with as most will have a disclaimer. Things like driveway or sand pad for the water tank do not need building approval according to City of Swan WA therefore you can get your own earthworks done even if the cost is above $20k. I've just had a look at the website. The company are just building broker's. There are plenty of similar companies that basically draw your plans (they own them so you… 8 10917 No the fireplace doesn’t work. It’s been enclosed. I’m not sure what was removed, as it was done quite some time ago - well before what I can see with photos online… 2 11577 |