Building Tips & Helpful Information

Building Tips & Helpful Information

At Warren Taylor Homes we're passionate about helping our customers turn their ideas into a reality through our commitment to building quality homes and turning our customers dreams into a reality.

This page is dedicated to helping you better understand the building process so that you can be prepared for the journey of building a new home.

Finance

First points of call when looking at building a new home is your finance.
Some people will use the bank that they always use and some people are open to going to a Mortgage broker.
The main thing that you need to know is how much money that you can borrow.
If you already own a block with or without a mortgage, then you can use that block as equity when building a house.
If you don’t own a block, the best to approach the process is to do a house and land package deal. This means that you will only buy the land if you can obtain finance for both house and land, so you won’t get stuck with a block if your finance falls through. It’s very important to write this on the contract when you make an offer on the block
First Home Buyers have more of an incentive to build a new home because the government will pay their stamp duty for the block and also gives the client back $10,000 when the slab goes down.
If you’re not a FHB and you buy a block and you build on it within in 5 years you are also eligible to receive a portion of your stamp duty refunded.
Using a broker is that the broker will endeavour to find the best deal from all financial institutions that will suit your needs.
If you are apprehensive in approaching a bank or mortgage broker, we will help you out in sourcing your finance.
Do not take on a loan amount that exceeds your means (for example you may be told you can borrow $700k but you may only be comfortable paying off a $500k loan). It may be nice to have a new home but you also need piece of mind that repayments can be meet.
Each financial institution may require you complete your new home to different levels, you may need a turn key package or further inclusions like landscaping, window treatments, fencing etc this may impact how much money you need to borrow which in turn have an impact on your repayments.
If your time poor and find it hard to get into some of the institutions, we can help you find out how much you can borrow and what your repayments are and arrange for all of the paperwork to be complete through one simple meeting at Warren Traylor Homes.

Siteworks

One of the most important parts of the building process is your Siteworks and for the inexperienced it can cost a lot of money if they are give the wrong information.

Here's some helpful information to help you better understand the process. Siteworks are a very important part of the building process so be sure that you ask the right questions of your builder to avoid any hidden costs.

Classification

First up there are several different soil types in the Geraldton region that can effect the cost of your siteworks. Just because the soil might look a nice, rice brown colour it is good for growing in, but it may not be the case. Your builder will carry out a Soil Test to determine what Class of soil your block is and a Engineer will supply the Builder with the appropriate classification for the construction of the footing & slab details. An A Class Site means that the land is of a sandy soil type and normally minimal cost in preparing the footings & slab. Then there is an S Class Site which mean there is traces of clay in the soil that can affect the house. Next is a M Class Site where there is predominately clay and poor drainage. Finally a H Class Site means a highly reactive clay site causing a lot of movement through the seasons where the soil expands & contracts If you already have already purchased your block, it is a good idea that your Builder carry out an site inspection to determine what can be excepted to be carried out to prepare your block to build on. If you haven’t found your ideal block but know what area you would like to live, then we can guide you through the pros and cons of the area your looking to build and possible save you a lot of time and money.

Earthworks & Retaining

The next step is for your builder to order a Survey of your land which give you the topography of your block, which means how level the land is and what is needed to prepare it to build on. Some normal town blocks may already be retained and basically ready to build on, where others may need retaining and filling to bring it up to a level site which can prove expensive. On the other hand if you’re looking at building on a larger block of half an acre or more you may be able to use the soil on the block to cut and fill for the house pad depending on the Soil Type. In most cases buying a lager block has its advantages & disadvantages, where you have more land to set out what you want to fit on the block, you also have the extra cost of fencing, landscaping etc.

Septic Tanks

On most larger blocks, half acre or larger, you may not be connected to deep sewerage and will have to install a septic system. This system is normally made up of two soak wells and two leach drains which will vary in length depending on the soil type you are building on. A Septic System is approximately $9,500.00 installed and commissioned for an A Class Site, but will be more expensive in a S, M & H Class Site because it will need to be backfilled with ballast to let the Leach drains be more efficient. You also need to take into account you service run-ins for larger blocks ( power& water), as the further you have the house from the services the more it will cost you to have them connect to the house.

Stormwater & Soakwells

Another factor which must be taken into account is the run-off water from your roof area. This must be contained on your land and depending on the soil type you may have to divert the downpipes on your house to rather soak wells, install rainwater tanks or divert the water to depressed garden beds. This also depends on the size of your block and the soil type but it is still calculated on the size of your roof and what is need to contain your stormwater.

House Sketch Drawings

Now that you know how much you can borrow and have chosen your block the next stage is to design your new home.

Depending on your block, whether it is a normal town block or your on acreage can depend on your house style.

Some people know exactly what they want and others know what they like but aren’t quite sure how to design it.

The best way is to come into the office and go through all the plans that are available and you may find one that is very close to what you’re thinking or if you see two or three features in different plans that you like then we can redraw them into one sketch.

This may take a few re-draws of the sketch, but it is necessary to make sure that you that you are achieving exactly what you want.

On the other hand if you know what you want but can find a plan which is close, your can draw a rough sketch with some room areas and we can then draw a proper sketch from that.

Some people may also outsource a drafting company to prepare a sketch which they pay for and they also own the copyright on and only require a quote.

Once your sketch and elevations are complete that is enough for us to supply you with a full written quote for your new home.

The more time and effort you put in at this stage is important, so don’t be rushed into something you don’t require.