House Raise in Brisbane

Hi There,

We have a house that is currently on concrete stumps about 1.5m high. The house needs to be restumped and we were thinking of raising.

Our idea was to raise the house, pour slab and clad the outside. We were going to leave the internal for a few years time as we don't need the space at the moment.

Are we able to do this or do we have to provide plans for the full renovation including rooms, bathrooms etc.

Your help would be appreciated.

 

Sorry there's also an old concrete slab downstairs will this have to be demolished before the house can be raised?

 

You would have to provide plans for the raise as your roof height will change, probably good idea to do it all now if it will be living areas downstairs.

Check with the council, but I would assume they will ask for survey and plans.

 

If you don't change the footprint or the position it should be able to be signed off by a private certifier, rather than having to go through council.
Could do a staged application or, if you were going to do within a couple of years it could be one

 

Your 1.5m to 2.4m need to raise at least 900mm!
the following is from Brisbane City Council

• if possible ensure the building is raised no more than an additional 800mm
• if the building must be raised more than 800mm, excavating should be considered as an alternative, providing there is adequate waterproofing and drainage and that underground sewer lines are not disturbed

Have you consider of excavating? And how did you go? Any update?
My basement is 1.8m thinking about raise as well.

 

Odd. I thought it was something like 8m height from the natural slope of the land in normal zones.

 

It sort of does. Coz if you were only allowed to raise an extra 800mm, and they were really strict, you wouldn't really worry about the 8.5-9.5m total height.

 

I've just been investigating this myself. Had 2 subfloor/house raising specialists in to quote.
Cost just to re-stump (concrete stumps around the outside, galvanised steel stumps internal) is around $650/stump, assuming you're doing 6 or more stumps, so it can be very cost effective.

Cost to raise (not including slab, re-battening or putting up any framework) starts at around 35-40K, but once you add in slab, engineering / council approvals, any excavation, disconnecting and reconnecting the services (plumbing, gas, electrical), new front stairs etc., it is anywhere from about 70-100K all up depending on which steel beams you use, how much excavation is required, accessibility of block (if it's sloping that can make a big difference vs flat! And if parking/accessibility is a pain then expect to pay quite a premium too) etc.. That gets it to the point where it's ready for a builder to come in and start the framework.

Yes, it requires council approval, but they don't seem to have an issue with raising as long as it's less than 8.5M or 9.5M in flood zones. Make sure you don't just raise to legal height, for resale value you should be looking closer to 3m (from slab to beams).

 

Also meant to add, most buyers don't realise the cost of raising a house. They think it can be done for $30-50K. So if you do this and hope to get your $ back on resale, then you may struggle. A house raised to legal height may only get you 20K more (vs a comparable house not at legal height) when you sell, assuming you haven't built in underneath. There's a lot of sunk costs that go into raising a house which is fine if you're building under and planning to add value through extra living space.

 

Yes I think you're right. Anything above 9.5m needs further approvals / consideration, however if it's in a flood zone that might be possible. The only other thing to consider is that queenslanders can start to look very silly if they're raised too high, especially if the block slopes down from back to front.

I've heard $25-30K too, but when you actually discuss with them, the house raisers are only quoting on the raise and replacing the stumps. It doesn't include disconnection of electricals/plumbing/gas from the house and the mains, or the reconnection of these. Nor does it include engineering plans, council approval, new stairs, re-battening underneath, any slab you choose to put in, any excavation or retaining walls required (for sloping blocks) or any repairs you may have to do due to re-levelling (e.g. cracked tiles, movement of VJs etc.)

 

I said "if".
I've never heard of it either.

 

100 mile an hour tape for all that other stuff ?