Building a new house in the bush - advice needed

[Troy711]

Just my 2 cents and this is from experience, make sure you get your own individual soil testing done BEFORE you pay for the block.

very good advice. ive spoken to many owners who have had massive bills from builders for excavation because they claim to have hit rock while digging foundations despite the fact that there was none.

 

[Troy711]

ohhh... and do you need a plasterer? lol. me and f1tzy will do it for ya (if he is willing to come down from QLD)

 

[Holdfast]

Have a look at the office of fair trading to see what are your obligations and that of the contractor.

When you select a contractor, ask to see his licence and licence number.
If he won't show you then there's something wrong.
Make sure he is licenced for the work you need to be done when building your new home.

Don't ask the council for good builders use the office of fair trading or speak to local people around the area who have built a home within the last 10 years.

Most faults occurr within 10 years.

If you are building in brick use a brick that has a high fire rating as some bricks are quite permeable to moisture or heat.

Once upon a time clinker bricks or bricks that were over cooked were tossed away; now they fetch a premium.

When building the most important thing is to have stable footings so that the foundation is fully supported.

Always put additional funds and supervision into ensuring that the footings are well constructed and go for over-kill.

Be on site when the footings are constructed regardless of what regulations say and always be there for the pooring of concrete as many so called contractors take short cuts.

If the site has been well surveyed, the soil analysis and profiling is good and there is no history of landslip then that's a good start.

If you need some other advise let me know as I've had a lot to do with contractors.

Here's a link to the office of fair trading:
Home building licence check - NSW Office of Fair Trading

 

[Low_VX_Taxi]

Sounds like a nightmare! We are looking for as close to the city as possible so maybe down near Springwood, Faulconbridge area.

What building company did she use?

First off she went with Beachwood....USELESS and flat out morons, have no clue and wasted mums money. I beleive they are bankrupt now.

Second was Hotondo (sp?) even worse! Expensive and not very good at what they do! Plus they can take up to 3-4 years just to build it with huge blowouts in cost (neither of which they will inform you of at the start!).

Mum ended up using Masterton. They were not the cheapest (but cheaper than hotondo) but they were definately the best. Were in fairly constant contact and proactive with preventitive strategies to prevent cost blowouts. So far the whole house is pretty sound and no movement cracks and everythings still 100% (mum's been there for bout a year and a half now), there was of course problems as its a big thing putting together a house.

Just gotta watch out for B.M Council.... They were that pedantique they wouldn't give her the occupation cert. until she constructed a handrail on her entry platform to the back door (when the original proposed plans didn't feature one!!!).

Just remember to factor in delays with weather (even if its summer!) and council being pedantique wankers and you will be fine :yeah:

EDIT: some good points above holdfast! also if you go a small time builder watch how many pallets of bricks the bricklayer buys! they have a tendancy of buying a few extra pallets at your expense if they are being paid per brick!

 

[xlr8_87]

adding to the above, bad builders companies don't usually last too long, so try and find a builder with a fair few years of the same business behind them

 

[Lumps of cheese]

I've built on a block with a slope, but i'm an earthmoving contractor so i was able to save $$$ by doing all the excavation myself. Having said that, i wouldn't do it again. The retaining walls cost plenty and cut down the use of the back yard as i went for the two tier effect, a real bummer with the young kids as it really cut down on the room.
As mentioned get your own soil test, well worth the money. On the excavation side of things the blue mountains area is known for grantie isn't it? If so expect to pay big bucks cause that stuff is a nightmare to remove.

 

[Troy711]

First off she went with Beachwood....USELESS and flat out morons, have no clue and wasted mums money. I beleive they are bankrupt now.

Second was Hotondo (sp?) even worse! Expensive and not very good at what they do! Plus they can take up to 3-4 years just to build it with huge blowouts in cost (neither of which they will inform you of at the start!).

Mum ended up using Masterton. They were not the cheapest (but cheaper than hotondo) but they were definately the best. Were in fairly constant contact and proactive with preventitive strategies to prevent cost blowouts. So far the whole house is pretty sound and no movement cracks and everythings still 100% (mum's been there for bout a year and a half now), there was of course problems as its a big thing putting together a house.

Just gotta watch out for B.M Council.... They were that pedantique they wouldn't give her the occupation cert. until she constructed a handrail on her entry platform to the back door (when the original proposed plans didn't feature one!!!).

Just remember to factor in delays with weather (even if its summer!) and council being pedantique wankers and you will be fine :yeah:

EDIT: some good points above holdfast! also if you go a small time builder watch how many pallets of bricks the bricklayer buys! they have a tendancy of buying a few extra pallets at your expense if they are being paid per brick!

ive done work for beechwood before and honestly, you couldnt pay me to live in one. ive also done work for masterton and hotondo. masterton is on the same level as beechwood but as for hotonodo, the quality varies between whoever is supervising (due to the way they set up their business).

im not surprised beechwood went under, you could see it happening 6 to 9 months ago when they were getting slack with paying their contractors. ill admit, beechwoods were cheap... but there is a reason.. mainly being that you have minimal inclusions and no landscaping.

 

[paddyj]

Thanks for all the advice, looks like I'm going to be pretty busy exploring all the options. Probably the biggest concern for me at this stage would be that the whole project would run over the budget, can't really afford that to happen.

 

[Bravotwozero]

My one peice of advice when building on a slope, don't put your foundations down on top of a cut & fill job... Cut a wedge out of the slope, but always build supports into the existing ground rather than use fill to bring it up level..

This would be ideal but not always possible. There is only 4 metres of fall across the building site on my land (which isn't really that steep.) If I was to do a full cut without fill the retaining wall at the back would be higher than the house. So if you were to build on a steepish block you'd build on stumps with either a suspended slab or timber floors.

When I first bought my land and was just starting to investigate building, I found out to lay a slab would cost $40,000 with site costs. So a 15 square house on a slab on my land was going to cost $200,000 plus to build. To the original poster, I think it can be done. But being in The Blue Mountains you will have a lot of grief removing trees if needed. It has been a nightmare for me and there weren't even any natives on my land.

If you go ahead with building on a block with a slope I'd recommend weatherboard/western red cedar on stumps. But check out council regs and what not before you commit. Good luck! :thumbsup: