Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jul 19, 2017 10:27 pm On my pre purchase inspections, I regularly see BV homes with strip footings and stumps built 40 or more years ago still perfectly functional. I know, I built many. So why are we building slabs? and particularly why on sloping land? Well, there is a myth around that slabs are better and cheaper as well as faster. The truth is that it's all about profit. If you are a builder, it's difficult to mark up stumps and strip footings, not so with slabs. The money and the profit for the builder is in the ground. Firstly they sell you expensive site works, excavation, filling, retaining walls bored piers, stiffened slabs, all of course over engineered to the max (profit). Builders have built their business model on selling over engineered solutions that hey can mark up at a huge profit. Typically pricing on M class (to suck you in) even in areas they know are H or P then taking owners to the cleaners with structural upgrades.Why should they be offering BV on strip footings or stumps?-there is no profit in it. They will sell slabs to you with a straight face (but we have to warranty it and cannot do it if its not the way we are comfortable with.) It will add 1-2K /square to your build scam, scam, scam, scam Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: Concrete slabs are a scam of the century 2Jul 19, 2017 11:21 pm I can't comment on strip footings and stumps- You have commented on my post about the slab issues I currently have. I feel that slabs are likely 'over' engineered to allow for the poor quality work of both the site workers and concreters. Even with the 100mm slab and 350w by 480d footings/internal beams linking every deviation from a straight wall, I am too scared to lay bricks. Funnily enough I was looking at the NCC the other day and it said that you can't have gravel in your sand pad. I had the engineer test the crap that my siteworker used and it had 20-30% gravel! He said that it was still ok though (??) So are you talking about a suspended slab then? Re: Concrete slabs are a scam of the century 3Jul 20, 2017 9:39 am I am not a builder or anything like that and I can definitely see what you are saying! When we were looking at builders some builders were giving quotes of 20-30k for site costs when other builders were giving us quotes of 4-6 and they would tell us that we needed piers and all these other things to ensure the house would still be standing there. With the big boom in building homes all of the companies and trades people are over charging everyone! Re: Concrete slabs are a scam of the century 4Jul 20, 2017 11:17 am The rules are the same throughout Australia. Building Inspectors/Surveyors aren't Qualified/Certified to design structural concrete for that you require an engineer. It also makes sense to have the engineer inspect it....My experience is Contractors/Builders aren't bluffed by clients/OBs/Building Inspectors as they don't understand what it is they need to look out for... You'll be much wiser next time chalky don't waste your time doing important inspections yourself &/or with unqualified building inspectors The only person that can stop a concrete pour is an engineer Designer,Engineer (Civil,Const & Envir),Builder,Concrete & Masonry Contract.Struct Repairs my suspicion - some builders, they do usually make 'odd' settings in their site plan / pricing as their standards - being hopeful that first - the initial price is… 9 2439 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 9799 |