ALLWORTH’S EASY GUIDE TO BUILDING ON ACREAGES
Whether you’ve already purchased your acreage block or are still considering making a purchase, there are so many benefits to building on a larger block.
Location.
With a rural or large block often comes serene ocean, mountain or country views. So why not capitalise on this with large outdoor living areas and carefully designed indoor living areas situated to take advantage of these views.
Privacy.
If you are sick and tired of the hustle and bustle of the city and suburban areas, then an acreage home is just perfect for you. In an acreage home, you have more space, and you don’t have to deal with a busy thoroughfare street.
Space.
Acreage or country style homes are spacious, giving you more room for, well, everything! So how does it all work? From the home design, right through to purchase, we have put together an easy guide to building an Allworth Home on your acreage.
The home design
Do your shopping. Allworth has a range of acreage style designs for you to choose from called ‘Countryside’. Think about exactly what you need for your lifestyle. The beauty of building on acreage is that you don’t really have a limit to the width of the home. You’re not restricted in design, like you would be on a Greenfield site.
Power connection
We will itemise fully in your quote.
The quote process
First, you will need to speak with a New Home Consultant at your nearest display village. They will chat to you about your block of land and the potential for Allworth to build on it. Its best you book a meeting in advance so the consultants have enough time to run through everything with you. We know you will have lots of questions!
Bring all your land details with you. We will also need you to mark roughly where you would like the home to be built. We will provide the overall dimensions of the home, using stakes you ‘peg out’ the position. This doesn’t have to be surveyor accurate, just accurate enough so we get our levels and distance right to notify our surveyors.
A good mud-map is really handy too, showing how to get to your place and some distances off landmarks like large trees for the house position. Don’t know what a mud-map is? Ask us for an example. It’s great for you to have for your records anyway which is why we strongly suggest having one.
Once we have all your land details and your preferences, we organise an experienced Construction Supervisor to visit the site to shoot some levels and work out costs.
Estimators in our office will then price up the home according to your specifications. Once complete, our New Home Consultant will arrange a time to present the quotation to you.
Telephone / cable internet connections
Where underground power service is available, we will quote for the phone line and a conduit to pull cable (for internet) through. Until you engage an internet provider, we cannot supply the actual cable. The connections (to your modem / hub) must be ready to be made at the time the cable is pulled through.
Water service
We will quote to connection points (town water mains) about 50m from the home. If the distance is over 50m, we recommend you arrange for water connection yourself. If you are doing the water service yourselves – you’ll need to arrange for water to be available for trades during the construction period. This is often via a water tank with a pump as we need pressurised water.
Water tanks
Large capacity water tanks we normally quote ‘By Owner’. When supplying your own water tank, ensure the tank will not sit higher than the gutters of the house. You should have a tank that allows the inlet to be a minimum of 500mm below the gutter of the house. We highly recommend that customers installing their own tank, assess what is required after the slab has been completed (at the earliest) so that levels can be determined as floor levels to the house may change due to cut / fill levels. Your New Home Consultant can explain this in more detail.
Septic System / Wastewater disposal / Wastewater report
We will quote all of the above. ‘Bio-Septic’ is our system of choice after many years’ experience. If your site has special requirements for a system, we’ll discuss it with you. If there is an existing septic system on site already which you wish to use, then it will be your responsibility to have the system approved by the governing body that it is acceptable for use with the new house being connected to it.
In all instances, a ‘Wastewater report’ is required for Council approval. Whilst this service is on offer from any number of firms – not all reports are equal. We highly recommend you allow Allworth to obtain the report on your behalf.
Site access
It is important we can get heavy vehicles to the build site. It will be your responsibility to provide and maintain an all-weather drive suitable for heavy vehicles. If this drive crosses a creek or rock outcrop, you need to provide measures to be sure the drive is accessible at all times.
Site Fencing / security
We will quote to provide a secure, fenced compound around the house position, with a locked gate, 5m off the external walls approximately.
Living on site (sheds / garages)
If you are living on site whilst we build, all services will be quoted ‘By Owner’. This is because you’ll be re-routing or modifying existing services to the new home. When this is the case, we take all care but no responsibility for the services already on site. If you are sure where they lie underground, clearly mark the ground with stakes and ribbon or line marking paint to help us working around them.
Are there any other important points we should make people aware of?
Any existing farm gates to proposed house site must be left open. If you have livestock, they need to be in a fenced off separate area. You are allowed to conduct works on the site outside the build (fenced) area whilst your home is under construction. Work Health Safety laws mean you cannot conduct work inside the fenced building area at any time, nor are you allowed to enter unsupervised. Your Construction Supervisor will arrange a time to make inspection appointments.
What if there is a house already on the block where you want to build?
If your application to Council will be classified as a Dual-Occupancy, our New Home Consultant will discuss with you how we can work together to get an approval. If it’s demolition we’re talking about – grab a copy of our ‘Easy Guide to a Knock-Down Rebuild’ from one of our display villages.
Looking to build on Acreage?
Contact Allworth Homes Today for a consultation