Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Feb 28, 2017 2:08 pm Hi there, I am at the stage where we are supposed to sign our HIA contract with Boutique Homes. I've just been looking through the documents and I noticed that their soil report has listed our land as H2, whereas the soil report I had done independently a couple of years ago lists it as M. Just wondering if this is a common thing (and possibly a way to make us pay more money) or if the conditions are likely to have changed... and whether it is worth following up. The amount they have allowed for site works is just over $21,000. Does anyone have any experience or expertise in this area? Is it worth querying and if so, how? Thanks very much. Re: Soil Report Discrepancy 4Feb 28, 2017 9:57 pm I cant comment on the discrepancy between your slab type. However, we are also building with Boutique. Our soil is also H2, with a 300mm fall over a 900m2 block. We are also paying $20400 for site costs. I'd say the quoted costs are correct. We also had another soil test completed by another builder 2 months previous. The results were the same as Boutique. Re: Soil Report Discrepancy 6Mar 01, 2017 8:31 am We should be starting our build in about 10 weeks. Still a little while to go. We just had our contract signing and colour appointment this week. Everything went smoothly (especially the colour part). Do you have long to wait after your contract signing before you start? Re: Soil Report Discrepancy 7Mar 01, 2017 9:46 am I'm not sure how long we are supposed to wait after contract signing, but I think pre-start is supposed to be 8 weeks? We were supposed to hand in our colour and electrical selections today but we tried to go through them last night on the computer (we can't have a proper appointment as we live overseas) and we found it was going to take too long so will do it on the weekend hopefully. Any tips there? This is the one part I really wish we were in Australia to do it, as I'm sure having someone there to talk to would make it quicker and easier. Re: Soil Report Discrepancy 8Mar 01, 2017 1:26 pm I spent alot of time using instagram to look through other Boutique builds. Try #ourboutiquehome and #boutiquehomesvictoria. We never did a walk through of the showroom either. Our colour appointment was the first time we were in the showroom. We had a very good idea of what we wanted from all of the posts id seen on Instagram. Most of the Cat 1 items were perfectly fine. We did upgrade our Carpet and also the bricks though. Also if you see anything you love (that Boutique has built) you can ask them to replicate it. For example we had found a Boutique home with the exact exterior colours we wanted. We showed our consultant the photo and let her know we wanted exactly that. I am not sure whether Perth has its own way of doing things in regards to this. Most of Perth has class A (sandy soil), except for some areas near rivers or hills. 2 13106 We were lucky in that our old house was so small (86 square metres) compared to the new house, they were able to take enough readings around the old backyard house before… 8 37160 DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair I'm in WA and our sandy soils make drainage a bit easier but this is what I'd be doing. Dig down to your footings and let the wall dry out. Clean it all well by brushing… 1 5197 |