Browse Forums Building A New House 1 May 27, 2016 6:42 pm Hi guys I hope you are all well. I'm a long time "reader" of this forum but this is my first time posting. We have been in the "planning" stage of building our dream or forever home for the last 4 years!! We spent 2 years looking for a property in the hills for our children to have room to move before deciding to sacrifice the dream land and build the dream home in the the Adelaide Hills on a regular suburban block We signed a contract with our builder last year after initially being really impressed with our consultant but two years after our relationship "began", we are yet to be at site and wondering if perhaps we should start looking at alternative options following on from a few disappointing turn of events. Our block comes with a few challenges that most project builders aren't equipped to deal with as well as our want and need to have a flat dedicated outdoor space for our kids to enjoy the outdoors. We have a 6m slope from front to back and the area we are building in, is notorious for a bit of rock At this point, all conversations lead to us building an undercroft design house (double story at the front and single at the back) so that we get the most out of the site in terms of house size and useable outdoor space for the kids. Would love to hear from anyone who has had some really positive experiences with custom builders in SA and built an undercroft type house Re: Custom Build SA, sloping block 2May 29, 2016 8:33 pm Hello and welcome no real advice really, but wanted to let you know we are pretty much similar situation and to say hello. We have a block in Adelaide Hills (Blackwood Park) and have a down slope of about 3m over the block. We have a custom split level design, still in planning stages. We have our first meet with the interior designer next week. Re: Custom Build SA, sloping block 3May 29, 2016 8:46 pm by threes We signed a contract with our builder last year after initially being really impressed with our consultant but two years after our relationship "began", we are yet to be at site and wondering if perhaps we should start looking at alternative options following on from a few disappointing turn of events. Welcome ...most definitely move on & find someone you can trust Designer,Engineer (Civil,Const & Envir),Builder,Concrete & Masonry Contract.Struct Repairs Re: Custom Build SA, sloping block 4May 29, 2016 10:35 pm Welcome. Wow you make ours look easy as it was only a 2.4m diagonal cross fall. You are welcome to have a look at my thread and ask any questions but at 6m you're in a different league. Using my LG-G4 to bring you this update. Re: Custom Build SA, sloping block 5May 30, 2016 9:20 am I built a house with about 6m fall front to back in the Adelaide Hills a long time ago. At the time none of the volume builders were interested so I went down the owner builder path. The house was built on 3 levels. Double storey at the rear and single storey at the front (the front level corresponding to the intermediate stair landing. The house I live in now (10m fall front to rear) is split level and built on steel posts with suspended floors. This type of construction minimises the need for retaining walls (but the house is cold as the floors are above the ground and exposed to cold air overnight) I don't know of any project builders in Adelaide that build pole homes. Rivergum used to (they had a pole home on display at Reynella) but I think they may have stopped building it. Re: Custom Build SA, sloping block 6Jul 24, 2016 9:07 pm Hi guys and thanks for the warm welcome! I didn't get any notifications about your replies so I'm so sorry for the delayed reply! After waiting for two years to firm up our footings with our builder, they sent through a variation which was 100% above what was originally quoted. We were incredibly disappointed with this, given before purchasing our block we embarked on preliminary engineering etc to get a good idea of footings costs. This combined with waining customer service made the decision rather easy in the end. We are just so disappointed we invested so much time and were so loyal to this particular company. We are trying to believe that in the end, it's probably been a blessing that this particular house didn't come to fruition. We believe that if they weren't able to get things organised in a timely manner on paper, chances are once we got to site things would be diabolical! We made the decision to terminate our contract and are now looking for a new builder with fresh ideas who can guide us into a fabulous floor plan designed purely for our block A fresh new start! LOL Meshelf, our block is at Blackwood Park too I hope you are making some great headway with your builder. We were through council and everything when we parted ways. Who have you decided to build with? Beetaloo we have found that most project builders aren't willing to consider slopes over the 2m mark because they have to vary their standard plans too much. I would love to be an owner builder but if builders aren't willing to take on a 6m slope, I'm not sure we should be! LOL I can only imagine how fulfilling it is though orchestrating everything yourself. Well done! We are currently looking at Scott Salisbury, Beechwood and Serenity Homes, all specialising in sloping sites Re: Custom Build SA, sloping block 7Jul 24, 2016 11:41 pm We have a sloping site with a high bal rating and originally went through a project builder who in the end we were not comfortable in building our home so we got our plans drawn up for our site from an architect and chose a custom home builder who specialises in pole home and difficult sites... It has been a long process for us but we have finally started building... Great southern 2.5 acre new family home https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url=ht ... are_type=t Wishing you all the best in finding your builder Re: Custom Build SA, sloping block 8Jul 25, 2016 12:55 pm thanks or your reply honey. We are in a medium bushfire area but not sure that we would be able to get a pole house through our encumbrance manager. How exciting though that you are finally at site!!! So far it's been nearly a 3 year project for us and we are no closer to starting than when we were when we signed with out first builder at the beginning of last year :/ Can't wait to watch the progress of your build. Pole houses aren't very common here so I'm really interested to see your house go up hrvat_ica We have a sloping site with a high bal rating and originally went through a project builder who in the end we were not comfortable in building our home so we got our plans drawn up for our site from an architect and chose a custom home builder who specialises in pole home and difficult sites... It has been a long process for us but we have finally started building... Great southern 2.5 acre new family home https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url=ht ... are_type=t Wishing you all the best in finding your builder Re: Custom Build SA, sloping block 9Dec 04, 2016 7:30 am Hi Threes, How is your build progress going? We have just this week signed for a block in Blackwood Park with a similar slope to yours. We previously had a contract on a block in a new estate at Meadows, but after 18 months of initial discussions with the developers then a further two years sitting on a signed contract with out the development of the estate even starting I finally spat the dummy and started looking elsewhere for land. I am really happy with the block we have picked in Blackwood Park although I know that the slope will be a challenge. It doesn't look like our builders will be able to do firm contours or soil reports until the new year. It will be interesting to compare our experiences. Re: Custom Build SA, sloping block 10Feb 14, 2022 12:11 pm by threes Hi guys I hope you are all well. I'm a long time "reader" of this forum but this is my first time posting. We have been in the "planning" stage of building our dream or forever home for the last 4 years!! We spent 2 years looking for a property in the hills for our children to have room to move before deciding to sacrifice the dream land and build the dream home in the the Adelaide Hills on a regular suburban block We signed a contract with our builder last year after initially being really impressed with our consultant but two years after our relationship "began", we are yet to be at site and wondering if perhaps we should start looking at alternative options following on from a few disappointing turn of events. Our block comes with a few challenges that most project builders aren't equipped to deal with as well as our want and need to have a flat dedicated outdoor space for our kids to enjoy the outdoors. We have a 6m slope from front to back and the area we are building in, is notorious for a bit of rock At this point, all conversations lead to us building an undercroft design house (double story at the front and single at the back) so that we get the most out of the site in terms of house size and useable outdoor space for the kids. Would love to hear from anyone who has had some really positive experiences with custom builders in SA and built an undercroft type house I know it has been years but just wondering how you went with your build with the second builder? Any information you are happy to share. We are also in Blackwood Park with an identical story...about ready to walk away from our current builder. We have about 7m drop accross the block. 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 12433 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 18581 Howdy all. I am looking for feedback on what people would do to maximise and make an area as flat as possible. First, out the front of the house is a sloping hill, pretty… 0 20176 |