building on a sloping block

[dexx]

I'm thinking of building a single story 280 sq m house on a large block sloping 20 degrees. The house is double brick with a concrete pad. I expect the overall house dimensions will be around 15m wide by 20m deep. Ideally i'd love to elevate the entire house to maximum height. But that would be prohibitively expensive. A more realistic scenario would be to build up the front of the house, say 1.5m using a big retaining wall. Simultaneously the rear of the house would be cut into the hill - which would be held up by another retaining wall.

Can anyone recommend someone in Perth who is good at planning this kind of earthworks?

 

[Jake D]

Structerre, maybe? The engineer I would have recommended has left but whoever is still there may be able to help.

 

[mattnz]

Does it slope towards the road or away from it? This can make a huge difference for stormwater runoff issues.

 

[Doovalacky]

One option is a "basement" area on the lower front basically using it as the retaining wall. I've seen it done as a games room to a complete 1 bed apartment.

Main house then gets built over top. So the lower section ends up looking like a 2 story building but the higher end is single.

Does it slope towards the road or away from it? This can make a huge difference for stormwater runoff issues.

Less of an issue in Perth. A some soakwells and you are done. No need to take it into stormwater in most areas. In fact in some your not allowed to.

 

[Jake D]

Does it slope towards the road or away from it? This can make a huge difference for stormwater runoff issues.

He also mentioned retaining the front of the house and cutting in the rear, therefore, soploping forward.

 

[mattnz]

He also mentioned retaining the front of the house and cutting in the rear, therefore, soploping forward.

Good pickup ... been a long day.

 

[GreenMedallion]

Can anyone recommend someone in Perth who is good at planning this kind of earthworks?

I can't recommend anyone in Perth specifically, although any consulting civil engineer should be able to assist you.

 

[Shahin_Afarin]

How much are you excavating and are you excavating rock or soil?

Regards

Shahin

 

[dexx]

I think the land is soil with little, if any, rock. I like the idea of building a semi two story. Building a double garage and utility room under the main house may work. As to how much i'm excavating, i dont yet know - as little as possible?

 

[westminster]

This type of scenario where the block slopes up from the road is popular with undercroft garages.

The slope on my PPOR is killer

We put a 1m retaining wall at the very front for a level building pad and put our garage to the side at 'ground' level with 8 steps inside the garage up to the main house. The garage in our situation had to be low as the council don't want a gradient of more than 1 in 7 for driveways.

At the rear of the house towards the back of the garden we have a set of terraced walls - 1m then another 1m then another.

We have more bricks in our retaining walls than our 2 storey house

 

[Nemo30]

My PPOR is built into a sloping block (sloping towards the road). Looking at it from the front it looks like a two storey house (garage and loungeroom on the bottom and bedrooms above), however it also has a middle level coming out the back (kitchen, family and another bedroom).

The middle floor is level with the back garden (which is now flat). You wouldnt know the block was sloping except for when you walk in the front door, go up stairs and walk out the back door.

Works really well.

 

[GreenMedallion]

The garage in our situation had to be low as the council don't want a gradient of more than 1 in 7 for driveways.

I think I've designed a 14% slope driveway (on a commercial site) just once Where I work we design to a maximum 8% slope driveway typically.