Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Land - controlled or uncontrolled fill 3Apr 21, 2018 8:26 am Designer,Engineer (Civil,Const & Envir),Builder,Concrete & Masonry Contract.Struct Repairs Re: Land - controlled or uncontrolled fill 6Apr 21, 2018 9:47 am chiggles im pretty sure the cost of a custom builder (whether it be split level or on stumps) will still be a lot more expensive than the cost of earthworks to level the building envelope and using a project builder... But I could be wrong. You won't know that until you do the calc$-> Numbers...my2c 1. Own copyright of your optimised design 2. Know what's involved in regards to l/m, m2,m3, Costs and time taken 3. Armed with this make an informed decision 4. It's also useful in persuasive discussions with Builders & Trades, eg what is a fair price, easy build, etc Optimising the engineering will be the key component to your Design & Build BTW...Math ( ie Data, Proofs & Equations ) is a universal language Designer,Engineer (Civil,Const & Envir),Builder,Concrete & Masonry Contract.Struct Repairs Re: Land - controlled or uncontrolled fill 7Apr 21, 2018 10:15 am My two cents from building on a slope. My lot is 900m2 and have a 5m slope (2m over the building envelope). My builder cut and filled before laying a concrete slab. My lessons learnt: - Engineer (not builder) will design your slab. They will always play it safe because the builder is passing on the risk of fixing any slab heave to the Engineering firm. - The Engineer will play it safe and put a pier over any fill so you can’t escape the cost. For controlled fill (if you can give the certification to them), they will put a concrete pier. For uncontrolled fill, they will put a screw pier. Concrete pier is about 30% cheaper than screw pier. However you are not saving 30% because that saving is spent on getting controlled fill and the certification. - Did you actually speak with a volume builder who does split level? I didn’t find any price difference (say between Metricon who doesn’t do split vs Steve Parcell who does split - the Steve Parcel house were 2-3 square smaller though). - Your biggest cost will not come from leveling the building pad and putting piers. It will come later from driveway and landscaping. Slopes usually have large rocks underneath the soil which will be dug up during leveling, building pad, plumbing, driveway, pool. Slope isn’t usable for gardening or letting your kids play in backyard. So you have to build stepped retaining walls to further level the yard. Those costs will add up very quickly. NabeelC | Metricon Merricks 38 | https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=86276 Re: Land - controlled or uncontrolled fill 8Apr 21, 2018 11:21 am StructuralBIMGuy chiggles im pretty sure the cost of a custom builder (whether it be split level or on stumps) will still be a lot more expensive than the cost of earthworks to level the building envelope and using a project builder... But I could be wrong. You won't know that until you do the calc$-> Numbers...my2c 1. Own copyright of your optimised design 2. Know what's involved in regards to l/m, m2,m3, Costs and time taken 3. Armed with this make an informed decision 4. It's also useful in persuasive discussions with Builders & Trades, eg what is a fair price, easy build, etc Optimising the engineering will be the key component to your Design & Build BTW...Math ( ie Data, Proofs & Equations ) is a universal language Yes you are absolutely right, we won't know until we do the numbers. The only problem is that we have to incur the time and cost of getting proper plans done to give to builders to quote on. My fear is that it will be wasted time and money. ...but it's probably the smart thing to do. Re: Land - controlled or uncontrolled fill 9Apr 21, 2018 11:25 am Most Engineers will design to what builders are comfortable building. $30-$50K is the going rate and try as you may you won't see value in material & Labour Costs .. unless you analyze the alternate breakdowns. Here are some breakdowns for you-> low to high Engineering 2% Building Surveyors & Consultants 3% Salespersons Commission 3% Architects/Designers Fees >!0% + Commission 3% Builders Margins >25% (Varies) Engineers control Bugger all mate..the builders margins & profits dicate Designer,Engineer (Civil,Const & Envir),Builder,Concrete & Masonry Contract.Struct Repairs Re: Land - controlled or uncontrolled fill 10Apr 21, 2018 11:29 am Nabeelc My two cents from building on a slope. My lot is 900m2 and have a 5m slope (2m over the building envelope). My builder cut and filled before laying a concrete slab. My lessons learnt: - Engineer (not builder) will design your slab. They will always play it safe because the builder is passing on the risk of fixing any slab heave to the Engineering firm. - The Engineer will play it safe and put a pier over any fill so you can’t escape the cost. For controlled fill (if you can give the certification to them), they will put a concrete pier. For uncontrolled fill, they will put a screw pier. Concrete pier is about 30% cheaper than screw pier. However you are not saving 30% because that saving is spent on getting controlled fill and the certification. - Did you actually speak with a volume builder who does split level? I didn’t find any price difference (say between Metricon who doesn’t do split vs Steve Parcell who does split - the Steve Parcel house were 2-3 square smaller though). - Your biggest cost will not come from leveling the building pad and putting piers. It will come later from driveway and landscaping. Slopes usually have large rocks underneath the soil which will be dug up during leveling, building pad, plumbing, driveway, pool. Slope isn’t usable for gardening or letting your kids play in backyard. So you have to build stepped retaining walls to further level the yard. Those costs will add up very quickly. Thanks Nabeelc. Very helpful. The only volume who I could find who does split level is Metricon funnily enough and they said it was too steep for them. Fortunately our site is large enough so excavators can place fill around the block and track over it to level it, then batter it with slope, so won't need much in terms of retaining walls etc for flat areas for gardening etc. Although we will need some retaining between the house and one side boundary. Also the driveway is 100m long and it's already cut and level, just needs to be graded a little at the start and filled with some kind of surface, probably crushed rock at this stage until we can afford to seal it. Land - controlled or uncontrolled fill 11Apr 21, 2018 11:39 am Yea. I built with Metricon. Maximum slope they do is 2m which gives 2-3 steps inside the house with a high ceiling in one part of downstairs. Here is an option to consider. Hire a bobcat to push dirt around to level the area to less than 1m slope over the 600m2 building pad. Will take 3-4 hours so cost less than $500 and will be considered as uncontrolled fill. Then get a survey done on the new slope which will cost around $500. So for $1000 you are within the parameters of volume builders. Then take quotes from volume builders. If the site cost of volume builders is less than $9000, you will be saving from doing a $10-30k proper controlled fill. NabeelC | Metricon Merricks 38 | https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=86276 Re: Land - controlled or uncontrolled fill 12Apr 21, 2018 2:00 pm Nabeelc Yea. I built with Metricon. Maximum slope they do is 2m which gives 2-3 steps inside the house with a high ceiling in one part of downstairs. Here is an option to consider. Hire a bobcat to push dirt around to level the area to less than 1m slope over the 600m2 building pad. Will take 3-4 hours so cost less than $500 and will be considered as uncontrolled fill. Then get a survey done on the new slope which will cost around $500. So for $1000 you are within the parameters of volume builders. Then take quotes from volume builders. If the site cost of volume builders is less than $9000, you will be saving from doing a $10-30k proper controlled fill. Thanks Nabeelc, that's a great idea, and low risk as if it doesn't work out then no harm done. Do you have a thread for your build? 2 4384 yeah i couldnt picture it issue either, but i could clearly picture what they were doing wrong haha 2 5338 If you're in a flood zone, not only are you dealing with the importation of fill and laying it down in 150 lifts to achieve compaction, you're going to have to consider… 4 5569 |