Machines | Steep Grade Driveway Problems - Building Homes
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http://www.homebuildingandrepairs.com/driveways/index.html I worked with a guy who was desperate to live in a specific community and there was only two lots left in the area. He told me that he was planning on buying one of the lots and asked me if I would help him build the home. I agreed, but when he took me to see the property, I told him that he would have a problem with his driveway, because the building lot was located on the side of a hill. Because the driveway was going to be difficult to drive on and the price of the building lot was ridiculous, he chose to purchase a home that was already built, instead. If you're planning on purchasing a home, make sure that the driveway isn't going to be too steep, because this creates safety problems for inexperienced and inexperienced drivers. Watch this video for more information about steep grade driveway problems.
Comments
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Excellent point regarding steep driveways. Hard to visualize when you are looking at 2 dimensional house plans at the sales center. My driveway was supposed to be 7% grade according to the plans, but builder made a mistake and it ended up at 13%. Hard to get the car into the garage in the winter with snow and ice. Had to park backwards in the driveway so the doors wouldn't slam shut on my young kids when they climbed out of the car. Took two years of fighting, but the builder fixed it by lowering the garage and front yard grading by a foot. Involved excavating the cement garage floor, ripping out the paved driveway, regrading, resod the front yard and repave the driveway. They reduced the grade to 8% and I have an eight foot garage door instead of a seven foot. P.S. Grading is not covered by warranty, covered under municipal by-laws, but you need competent municipal employees who can do their job.
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I built on a steep upslope 25 years ago with zero driveway problems. The lot was a bargain price but building on it was big $$$ in grading concrete and walls. In our case the grading foundation and walls ended up costing nearly as much as building the house and landscape. There were 6 empty lots in our subdivision at that time now none. The neighbor across the street was last to build and he built about 6 years ago but he was on a steep downslope. He ended up building 2 houses because the cost of building one with the grading in todays dollars couldn't be justified. However 18 months after moving into the larger house they sold the under construction house they built next door and effectively paid for most of their construction for both houses. They moved out last year selling the 3300 sqft house for 2.7 million (cash!). My point is, empty lots are usually empty because of cost to develop or an unappealing neighborhood. I don't care how steep a lot is, there is almost always an excellent structural engineering solution. The steeper it is the more $$$$ it will be to have it function like a house on a flat lot. A lot of houses on smaller lots in our neighborhood have their garages at the street level and did little grading. It can be done less expensively but then you're not developing much if any landscaping.
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Thanks for sharing, 5 years later and a muddy mess is all it took for me to figure it out.
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That's a bummer, but I would imagine you learned your lesson and I'm sorry you didn't get to watch this video sooner.
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i purchase a house, the driveway is so much in slope, we did not think before about this mater. thanks for the video, any adwise please text to me at m-a-noor@hotmail.com
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You're welcome and thanks for watching.
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I think the best advice I can provide you with would be to check out other homes in your area and see what they did.