Browse Forums Owner Builder Forum 1 May 19, 2009 5:28 pm Hi All, I've been reading several posts about soil tests prior to purchase to determine site costs but they all seem to be related to building on a slab and determining whether or not piers are required to support the slab. Can anyone tell me what I should be looking for (or looking out for) when intending to build a house on stumps rather than a slab? The block I am looking at is slightly sloping and I'm not interested in filling it, just drill holes as deep as necessary and put in concrete footings. From looking at the blocks next door and what is around the general area, there 'should' be solid sandstone not far below the surface - but of course that is a guess. Is finding that out for sure the best I should expect from a soil test? Thanks in advance for any advice. Cheers, Benn Re: Soil test for stumps? 2May 20, 2009 3:52 pm Hey mate We had our soild report come back A category. With stumps the engineer will just determine what is to be used according to where you can find solid ground. For example ours are " 100 x 100mm concrete stumps in 300 x 300 x 200mm deep concrete pad. However our house is two storeys and the engineer was adament on having strip footings underneath the lower level due to the weight on the foundations. He explained it is tying the house together better. We did this and used stumps for the rear section which is the majority. There was a notation of "Bottom of footing to founded into 100mm deep of natural silty clay" for the strip footings. I imagine depending on your soil, you may have to go deeper or have a bigger concrete pad for your stumps to reach stable ground, your soil report should tell you the recommended footing details Re: Soil test for stumps? 3May 21, 2009 9:15 am Really good question.... please help I would like to know too. We were originally going to build on a slab through a large volume builder. We didn't really want them to cut in to our land as we have about 1m fall so we thought stumps are the way to go. We have been quoted $173,500 for a 21sq Brick home on stumps. Which includes: 3 bedroom Ensuite WIR to master BIR to remaining bedrooms Double garage small study 2 Living areas Meals area Floor tiles to wet areas Wall tiles Colorbond Roof Ducted heating Solor hot water service Is this a good price? Re: Soil test for stumps? 4May 21, 2009 10:51 am hunts01 I imagine depending on your soil, you may have to go deeper or have a bigger concrete pad for your stumps to reach stable ground, your soil report should tell you the recommended footing details Thanks Hunts, I think you stated exactly what I was trying to ask in the first place - so when I make an offer on my block, I should state "offer conditional to soil test" and the soil test will tell me what type/size of footings I will need. That's exactly what I wanted to know, thanks heaps. Cheers, Benn Re: Soil test for stumps? 5May 21, 2009 11:02 am Focus06 We have been quoted $173,500 for a 21sq Brick home on stumps. Which includes: ................ Is this a good price? Hi Focus06, You might be better off creating a new topic for your question with a subject more specific to your query - the original question for this topic was particularly related to stumps/soil tests so people may not look into this thread if they don't have any comment or knowledge about stumps. Good luck with your project. Cheers, Benn 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 37143 Three options 1 Ask the liquidator 2 Find another PD customer and ask the source of their report 3 Pay for new report 3 12337 Hi Building Expert, Thank you for the feedback, much appreciated, there is also a code of conduct for building surveyors which they need to follow as well. I am looking… 4 3672 |