Browse Forums Owner Builder Forum 1 Feb 22, 2009 10:37 am Can you DIY site prep to reduce site costs or is this something that you have to have done by a contractor or builder?? Re: Can you DIY site prep to reduce site costs? 2Feb 22, 2009 4:00 pm by site prep what do you mean. Is that leveling you are talking about??
If that is what you are tlaking about i would leave it to the expert. If you end upo going to deep etc you will be payig extra for conctrete etc. Re: Can you DIY site prep to reduce site costs? 3Feb 22, 2009 5:27 pm Well whatever covers the 'site costs' that people are talking about...
Also our home would be stumped. Re: Can you DIY site prep to reduce site costs? 4Feb 22, 2009 6:04 pm I thought about this.... but for our 20k approx site costs, only about 6k was the cut and fill... the rest is aggie drains, piering and all this other crap.
Plus there's the risk of your chosen builder not accepting the compaction report you'll need to supply and then you're screwed. I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: Can you DIY site prep to reduce site costs? 5Feb 23, 2009 7:58 am The short answer is Yes, and you will save quite a bit of money.
I did my site set out including; -installed silt and erosion control. I got recycled silt fence and pegs etc from the tip which also saved a few extra $ - survey and peging of house location. This actually only costs about $500 for a surveyer to do, so the saving is marginal. I would just pay the money in hindsight as it took me ages to do it 'my way'. If you are not dead accurate it leads to many problems. - site clearing - pretty straight forward, I hired an excavator and did mine for about $1100 (cash.......) Depending on your site you may only need a Dingo for a day ($220) or you may need a bigger machine like an excavator. - built site facilities (ie Site toilet - that you have to have) - a fully recycled dunny/bathroom shed with a Nature Loo composting toilet cost me about $600 to build but we are still using it a year and a half later as building continues. Our house is a minimum foot print , pad footing house so the 'earth works' were minimal (no cut and fill - which should really be avoided at all costs) . It sounds like your on posts (stumps) so the site prep should be fairly straight forward, I would think about doing it yourself (time or money? time is easier to get for me) Hope this helps Steve Re: Can you DIY site prep to reduce site costs? 6Feb 23, 2009 8:28 am In simple turns you need to out way the dollars potential to save also the risk if it goes wrong.
For example it cost me only $300 to get my house set out by an experiences survoyer. The risk if I get this wrong could be thousands. So I chose not to do it. Also A day off work will cost me close to that anyway. If you get it wrong this is where you plumbing could be effected and also the size of your slab. Yes they ca be patched up but when the next person comes to work on your site it will give him an impression that you may except lower quality work and he may just continue on that thought. Things like excavating etc can be dangerous if you get it wrong. I knew someone for example who dug out his own pool before his house started. Anway he went a tad big and it was close to the proposed house. In the end he was paying thousands of $$$ extra when pouring the slab for all the extra concrete he needed to back fill, back to solid ground, not to mention all the extra form work required. Re: Can you DIY site prep to reduce site costs? 7Feb 23, 2009 9:03 am Owner buidling is not be about saving money because although it is possible but not probable. I build my own houses because I want the best house. not a cheap house. Building a house house is not rocket science but you need an understanding of what you are doing. If individuals lack the know how or the ability to learn, then they have no business building a house. I think you should remove the last word of 'Owner Builder' if you know nothing about building. Perhaps OPM's (owner project managers)? Re: Can you DIY site prep to reduce site costs? 8Feb 23, 2009 9:26 am My husbands father built the house we all share at the mo, so we have the ability, & heaps of time. The house is going on same land as exsisting house so may not need the toilet. Thanks for all the help. Re: Can you DIY site prep to reduce site costs? 9Feb 23, 2009 10:35 am we have done everything except the peg out we got a builder to peg our site for $40.00 we had no experience in building anything let alone a house.however if i had the money i would get someone in to do the stumping i never ever want to do that again. we did get it almost perfect we were out 2mm but it took ages and a lot of sweat and swearing lol.
we will save 13 grand on our floor in the end by doing it ourselves but i have a new appreciation for house stumpers and they deserve every cent they charge.our next house we will only do the interior ourselves but i will definately project manage the build. 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 13091 Is anyone building with Mojo and have a recent site cost tender 0 15951 Henley should give you some indication of site costs. Too many variable to give you any reasonable accuracy 1 1880 |