Building on land that falls away from the street. These guides cover how to build on a sloping block, the cut-and-fill, split-level and raised floor approaches, what site classification and reactive clay mean for your footings and why a slope needs a builder set up for it.
Every decision on a sloping block starts from its levels. A feature and level survey measures them. It belongs at the start of design rather than the end.
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When excavation or new footings could damage the house next door, Victoria's Building Act sets out a notice process between neighbours. Here is how it runs.
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Of everything you can check before buying a sloping block, our director puts the soil report first. Here is why it matters and how to get one before you are committed.
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The old house hides the ground you are about to build on. On a slope that matters more, because the soil, the old fill and the fall all decide the new footings.
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The Building and Plumbing Commission sets two triggers for a retaining wall permit. On a sloping block with a new house going up, a third rule usually decides it.
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Council decides where your block's stormwater must leave the property. On a block that falls away from the street, that one point can reshape the drainage design.
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What the site class on your soil report means when the block slopes: the AS 2870 classes, the ground movement behind each letter, what Class P covers and the footings that answer them.
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Why project-home builders quote sloping blocks out or turn them away, how provisional sums pass the risk to you and what a custom builder does differently.
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Which way your block falls, how steep it is and the three ways to build on it, with the retaining, drainage and neighbour questions a slope brings in Melbourne.
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