Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Mar 22, 2022 12:36 pm Hi everyone, Bit of a long one but just wanted to get some advice on our situation. We're building on an acreage property and our build contract didn't include a driveway. We had to provide access to the house site as discussed with the builder (we had no issue with this). We spent a fair amount of money providing a 200mm deep, compacted gravel driveway access, approximately 40m from the road including the crossover. The builders draftsman took all levels of the site for the (fairly massive) cut/fill. We discussed with the builder at the time if they required a contour survey to be done (which we were happy to pay for) and they said it wasn't necessary as they were confident with the draftsmans levels. Fast forward to the site cut, they required so much fill that they ended up cutting the site an extra 1m lower than what was on the plans. Because of this they had to lower the driveway to match which meant they'd cut out around 20m of the driveway. The only explanation we got was the draftsman got his levels wrong... We haven't mentioned anything about the driveway yet as we've only been discussing amongst ourselves, but would we have a right to ask the builder to reinstate the half of the driveway to what it was before they cut it away? Or are we being unreasonable? We'd like it back to 200mm deep so we've got a solid access to our garage once the house is finished.. Re: Reinstate driveway - who pays in this situation? 2Mar 23, 2022 9:21 pm Cala90 Hi everyone, Bit of a long one but just wanted to get some advice on our situation. We're building on an acreage property and our build contract didn't include a driveway. We had to provide access to the house site as discussed with the builder (we had no issue with this). We spent a fair amount of money providing a 200mm deep, compacted gravel driveway access, approximately 40m from the road including the crossover. The builders draftsman took all levels of the site for the (fairly massive) cut/fill. We discussed with the builder at the time if they required a contour survey to be done (which we were happy to pay for) and they said it wasn't necessary as they were confident with the draftsmans levels. Fast forward to the site cut, they required so much fill that they ended up cutting the site an extra 1m lower than what was on the plans. Because of this they had to lower the driveway to match which meant they'd cut out around 20m of the driveway. The only explanation we got was the draftsman got his levels wrong... We haven't mentioned anything about the driveway yet as we've only been discussing amongst ourselves, but would we have a right to ask the builder to reinstate the half of the driveway to what it was before they cut it away? Or are we being unreasonable? We'd like it back to 200mm deep so we've got a solid access to our garage once the house is finished.. Hi, firstly your home on the approved plans will come with RL numbers referring to the height the house must be built to. So I am not sure about the 1m lower dig. You may be lower than flood levels now. secondly if they dug out the rock it should of been stock piled for later use and not disposed of. An extra 1m site cut could create many new elements to your build from drainage, retaining walls,extra drainage as in plumbing, flooding, driveway falling toward house instead of away, etc I would be interested to see the plans. And yes it is not unreasonable and in your right to ask for it to be replaced to how it was, or compensated. regards john Re: Reinstate driveway - who pays in this situation? 3Mar 23, 2022 9:41 pm johnny concrete Cala90 Hi everyone, Bit of a long one but just wanted to get some advice on our situation. We're building on an acreage property and our build contract didn't include a driveway. We had to provide access to the house site as discussed with the builder (we had no issue with this). We spent a fair amount of money providing a 200mm deep, compacted gravel driveway access, approximately 40m from the road including the crossover. The builders draftsman took all levels of the site for the (fairly massive) cut/fill. We discussed with the builder at the time if they required a contour survey to be done (which we were happy to pay for) and they said it wasn't necessary as they were confident with the draftsmans levels. Fast forward to the site cut, they required so much fill that they ended up cutting the site an extra 1m lower than what was on the plans. Because of this they had to lower the driveway to match which meant they'd cut out around 20m of the driveway. The only explanation we got was the draftsman got his levels wrong... We haven't mentioned anything about the driveway yet as we've only been discussing amongst ourselves, but would we have a right to ask the builder to reinstate the half of the driveway to what it was before they cut it away? Or are we being unreasonable? We'd like it back to 200mm deep so we've got a solid access to our garage once the house is finished.. Hi, firstly your home on the approved plans will come with RL numbers referring to the height the house must be built to. So I am not sure about the 1m lower dig. You may be lower than flood levels now. secondly if they dug out the rock it should of been stock piled for later use and not disposed of. An extra 1m site cut could create many new elements to your build from drainage, retaining walls,extra drainage as in plumbing, flooding, driveway falling toward house instead of away, etc I would be interested to see the plans. And yes it is not unreasonable and in your right to ask for it to be replaced to how it was, or compensated. regards john Thanks John! Yes there’s RL numbers on the plan so I’m not sure what happened or how it was worked out. We’ve already had to get a quote to add drainage to the bottom of the uphill batter (which adds a substantial cost). The batter starts around 8m from the front of the house and slopes up the hill but we will probably have to put in retaining walls. The rock was just dug out and dragged across the lower part of the driveway they dug out.. I’ll try and send through a shot of the plans tomorrow! And yeah we really just want it back to how it was. Otherwise we’ll be forking out more thousands $$ to get a driveway to the garage again.. You might be able to apply to divert the sewer at your expense. In NSW you would contact a Water services co-ordinator and they would give you advice as to whether or not… 1 16148 To my understanding early saw cuts are to control shrinkage cracks, so doing them now would be pointless. Control joints may reduce ugly cracking during periods of soil… 3 9863 |