Questions?
How do you find a suitable site for building a house on?
Finding a site to build a site on can be daunting. Building companies can help – some have sites or land house packages, and many know of sites. You can also try the Google “Trade Me” for sites.
Oh, and how do you know if a site is a good building site?
Why not get a building company you trust ot come and look at the site. Don’t forget to get a soil report from the person who is selling the land as a building plot. Don’t forget that the local Council has soil reports on Subdivisions. And get a Designer or Architect to check out the potential building site if you’re unsure.
What does “Power to the Gate” mean when you are looking at a building site?
For people looking to buy a site to build a new house, it means that power is to the section site but the client still needs to pay for the power to have mains trenched up to house site. Water can be the same problem. Cambridge Homes includes this in the price when they give clients a detailed costing for a building project, but many other builders provide a quote inwhich this crucial and unavoidable cost is not included.
What do you look for in a design for a new house?
There are so many things to take into account when you are designing a new house to go onto a particular site. Cambridge Homes offer the Service of the Sales person and Designer to come to the site for FREE to check where the sun comes up, where the sun sets, and where the prevailing wind is, for example. These have practical as well as aesthetic effects on a house, so ignoring them can make a huge difference to a building project, and to the living experience once the house is built.
There are other very particular circumstances to take into account. For example, for a High Wind Zone & Coastal Areas extra costs are required for building with stronger materials and salt resistant materials. Council requirements are of a higher standard to get a “Code of Compliance” which is the code to say your house is built to the NZ Building Regulation Code. As teh client, you really need to know that your designers and builders are taking every factor into consideration from the beginning of your new-build house-building project.
What costs are included or not included in price?
Cambridge Homes provides the whole cost as per the Fixed Price Contract (except for Soil Engineering,) ready to shift into your house and put the coffee pot on. It’s worth noting that there are many,many variances on this theme with Housing Companies and Private Contractors.
“PC Sums” What does this Mean?
It’s for an allowance of money for a certain product but this does not always give you the finished product you want. Just check the PC sum is backed up by a quote.