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Monday, March 5, 2012

In the woods with....Footpath and crossover restoration

Just a quick word of advice for those doing a KDR.

Check with your council to see if footpath, gutter, kerb and crossover restoration is your responsibility.

It is something we didnt really budget for. When the tradies are on site, they do not care about about avoiding damage to these areas. Telstra, gas, electricity providers needed access, so the front path was dug up. A large waste bin was dropped on the footpath creating large cracks, and finally our old driveway was moved and a new crossover had to be created.

the building company quoted this job at $11.5k, the landscaper came in at around $7.9k, finally we got a quote from the council and it is just over $7k. Pays to shop around : ).

Once resorted, council should refund two bonds we paid directly > a demolition bond and a build bond.

All I can say if you are building, make sure you have a contingency budget that pays for incidentals like this. We have well and truly spent our 10% contingency plus more with incidentals like this that have popped up during the build!!!

5 comments:

  1. Hi Superwoman,

    Have you contacted a concreter directly to fix the kerb? Concrete should not cost anywhere near 7k for that. I would have thought maybe 2-3 at very most.

    Cheers
    Hills111

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    Replies
    1. Not yet Hills111, we have decided to wait until after the landscaping is done in a few weeks. I am going to seek other quotes directly from concreters thanks to your tip.

      Delete
  2. Oh no, we have to pay for these cracks? I noticed that our Telstra slab in front was cracked. I'm sure it's because of their crane when they dropped the rainwater tank etc.
    Thanks for the warning, I'll check this out further and take some photo.
    Lucky I have taken the photo before.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Willcress, check with your local council or if you are in an estate. We had to pay a damage bond prior to building which was about $2.5k, we are also responsible should the footpath/ crossover/ curb get damaged. Maybe it is in our council only.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you, I will check it out tomorrow.
    Fortunately, we don't have footpath....
    Am not aware of the bond too...

    ReplyDelete