I see many examples of people not using or getting the most out of their sloping block and wasting tens of thousands of dollars on site costs with inefficient design, knowledge and planning.
I have taken some photos and made comments on examples of this in the hope that people don’t make the same mistake.
In this example you can see the excavation is in excess of 4.0m. We have estimated on this block the excavation would have been around $73,000. Retaining walls, rock breaking and tip fees need to be added to this price. You can see in the picture that there is a lot of rock. Minimising the excavation in this scenario would have been critical in containing these costs.
Not shown in the photo is that at the front of the block, the owners have used some of the excess soil as fill. This filling will attract higher footing costs.
To get the site to this stage the owner would have spent in excess of $150k+ more than they would have needed to.
They should have called LP Warren Homes!
The excavation on an LP Warren designed home on this block should not cost more than around $40,000. The estimates on excavating and retaining to level this block as per the picture came in at around $230k! This is an extraordinary site cost, even if we were to halve our estimate to $115k, it is a high price to pay.
These are real life examples where the owners of these blocks have spent too much money on excavation, site costs, and retaining walls. In addition to this their property has been devalued as they have lost out on the views that come with an elevated block, 80m2 of inaccessible backyard and the outlook from the rear and side windows will be retaining walls.
These are all key design and cost considerations when you build with LP Warren Homes and why we are the original sloping block specialist of 45 years.