House raise but no build in under

Discussion in 'Renovation & Home Improvement' started by coreo, 30th Aug, 2020.

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  1. coreo

    coreo Member

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    Hi there,

    We have a post war house in Brisbane on numerous concrete stumps about 1.75m tall. It is half concrete and half dirt. We had plans drawn up to build in under and found out it is quite costly >$300K.
    So now we are contemplating just lifting to legal height ( or a bit above) and battening around the house, and potentially building in under a few years down the track.
    I was wondering if anyone has had done this or known anyone that has. I've been told by builders that building regulations may change over time and this may not be possible.
    We have had a draftsman draw up plans for what we would like to build in under, but want to be as flexible as possible in case we move and someone else buys the place and may want to change plans.
    Also do people think that doing part of the reno would add value to the house? I realise it may be $100k or more to do this...but under the house is pretty awful looking....
    thanks in advance
     
  2. wylie

    wylie Moderator Staff Member

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    I've put some links for house raisers in your other thread, and we've done exactly what you are talking about.

    We had two houses to reposition on their blocks to allow creation of a new lot on which we are building townhouses.

    We initially planned on raising the houses one at a time, building under, making them pretty nice and then selling. Then realised we would be spending roughly $300k each to lift and build under, so we chose to lift, renovate what was upstairs and batten in the lower level. That $600k+ put into the two houses was money we needed for the development. Once we did that, we would have been forced to sell the houses to get the money out again, and we wanted more flexibility.

    We kept the build-under plans and will pass them to whoever we sell the houses to, but had the draftsman draw another set, renovating the upstairs. We chose to have only one set of stairs because someone who buys these houses will build under with internal stairs and whatever we build likely will be removed, so it was a total waste of money to do two sets.

    The draftsman who did the plans advised against us even putting down a slab and plumbing to suit the plans we had drawn up (before deciding against building under), because he said he sees this often and it is fairly common that the new owners will make changes and the plumbing within the slab has to be redone.

    So we did a long enough slab to take a car underneath and gravelled the rest.
     
  3. coreo

    coreo Member

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  4. coreo

    coreo Member

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    Thanks for your reply. Thats a good point to take into consideration about the pIans underneath. Part of the reason we want to do this is for us, so we can live there and enjoy the space more than at present, as the kids could play down there without bringing dirt upstairs! Our yard is sloped and this is also part of the reason to lift, as we can create a flat yard and a bit of an outside area for us to sit and entertain (our top back deck is a little too narrow). I guess its hard to account for everything and if we want the things we do, then a future buyer will just have to spend the money to change things. We are hoping to stay another few years before deciding to build in (if still able to) or move.
     
  5. wylie

    wylie Moderator Staff Member

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    It is a compromise for sure. We are aware that we've put in a kitchen upstairs and the plan was that it go downstairs. But for every decision, there was a knock on effect, and the problem that money we were spending upstairs may well be wasted if (for example) the kitchen is moved downstairs.

    We tried to minimise the double handling, but a certain amount was inevitable.

    We even considered putting in the slab, weatherboards and windows and leaving it as an empty shell, and even putting the front door at ground level and just enclosing the internal stairs but battening the rest of the lower level.

    Ultimately we kept everything upstairs because nobody might ever build under.

    If it was our own house we would have done more, put in the slab to suit our plans, put weatherboards and windows, and slowly finished it at our own pace.
     
  6. coreo

    coreo Member

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  7. coreo

    coreo Member

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    Yes its hard knowing what to do, but it sounds like in your case it was a rental property, you made a wise choice with keeping costs down and flexibility for resale.
    To be honest, i'm on the fence about ours. It is a lot of money to spend on something thats not rooms as such, but to get the other benefits would be good for us and perhaps resale as my husband is sure we ended up with the place because the underneath is pretty unsightly!
    Decisions! :confused:
     
  8. BNE

    BNE Well-Known Member

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    Just stumbled upon this thread and keen to hear an update?
     
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  9. simnatped

    simnatped Member

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    Also keen on an update.

    We’re hoping to embark on something very similar, the original post could have been mine. Somewhat bad timing though, we’re in Brisbane and the floods will no doubt mean tradies and materials might be hard to come by and will be expensive.
     
    CollieG likes this.