Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Oct 27, 2015 7:54 pm Hi guys, I've been a long time reader of this site and recently commenced building (Early September) in Selby, VIC. For those who aren't familiar with the area, Selby is in the Dandenong Ranges. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The time from settlement of the land to actual site start was well over 15 months, thanks to the council, an erosion management overlay, bushfire management overlay, restructure overlay, geotechnical engineering, liaising with CFA, council arborists, removing trees, finding a builder (Simonds promised the world, then took my deposit and told me "sorry, can't help!", finally got the money back), and then having a building permit issued. The house is a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom single storey home, about 14sq - nothing big. The house was assessed as BAL-29, so I had to pay a bit to have the home 'bushfire proofed', but the largest expense was by far the site costs. Approx $60k just to cut and fill the house footprint. The site works happened over 2 days, and flattened an area that had about a 3 metre fall. That's where the issues began. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Days after the site was cut and levelled, pipes were put in. At the time, I was expecting 12 bored piers at about 4m deep. The next week, the site supervisor returned to the site, realised something was wrong. The ground had dried out over the weekend and huge 3cm cracks started showing in the ground, pretty much shifting the pipes. Piers hadn't even been put in yet. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Wind forward probably 4 weeks, and I'm nowhere. Nothing has been done on site. The schedule is now a month out, and not even the retaining walls are done. I have called the builder, and I'm bordering on harassment now. I've been told that an engineer has met the builder on site 3 times in the last few weeks to continue 'revising' the design. The slab has gone from a 150mm engineered raft slab to now a fully suspended raft slab, with 3m piers everywhere. I now also need a retaining wall across the entire south site of the property (probably 20-25m long), which will be about 2m high, just to hold the soil in. I was told the site would recommence last week, but then got told early this week nothing had been done, and they were investigating screw piles as an alternative. I finally got told today that they will send me a new schedule and expect to 'recommence this week', but right now, I'm not holding my breath. Seems nothing will ever be done, and I get the feeling the builder regrets taking on the job. Has anyone else come into severe footing issues like this? How can the conditions change so badly that the entire footing is completely redesigned? The geotechnical assessment done clearly stated the conditions and all tests were done with bores to 4m deep. I just don't get how this happens. Re: Extremely reactive sloping block issues in the Dandenong 3Oct 29, 2015 8:55 pm I guessing the original engineered designed slab was done for controlled compacted fill and that clearly was not done so then the engineer had to change the design to a suspended slab. The soil in that area is not extremely reactive but as soon as you disturb soil and use it as fill it can shrink and swell more than it normally would.With different depths of fill and considering the trees around the site they should have gone with piers from the start. At least you did have a high risk slope stability overlay on your block as well. Re: Extremely reactive sloping block issues in the Dandenong 4Nov 05, 2015 5:27 pm I did have a high risk slope stability - Erosion Management Overlay, hence the issues with the geotechnical engineer. What happened it seems is that the geotech told them to compact the fill every 200mm. They didn't do that, and now they're screwed. Still nothing happening. I'm told the giant retaining wall will start next week. With that sort of soil type if you ask for a design to include piers then I would also include void formers. That way you should reduce the chances of settlement and heave. 7 4638 Give Jonathan a call. Tell him you know me. He is in my opinion the best surveyor I have ever worked with. His number is 0425 285 622 All the best Simeon 3 12423 i did click it, still couldnt make it out rofl. in any case, doesnt look like too extreme a slope, you may be in luck. Just shoot out some emails to volume builders in… 3 18574 |