Preparing the site to build your home

Before you build your dream home, you will need to clear the site. How much you clear depends on what you are building, but for appearance's sake it makes sense to retain as much existing vegetation as possible. Follow these guidelines to get started.

The local council may have some say over which trees you can remove from around the site. You may need permission to remove trees which stand within only a few metres of the building; other councils may impose no restriction. Apart from the danger posed by forest fires, trees too close to the house may eventually disturb drains or driveways with their roots, resulting in expensive removal costs. Holes left by roots removed from the building site should be backfilled, preferably with a well-­compacted road-metal base.

In order to minimize forest fire danger, choose a site well away from dense timber and heavy undergrowth — particularly on hillsides below your house location. Fire climbs faster than it descends. Beware of unbroken forest, high grass and scrub. Fire will accelerate until fields or open ground slow it.

Few sites are perfectly flat and you may have to build on a levelled excavation. An excavator operator will use earth dug from the high side of the site to build up the lower side. Be sure to have the first scrapings of topsoil excavated into a heap to be spread back as garden soil when the job is finished. Also, make sure that the apron of excavated earth on the lower side is adequate as adding more earth later is not economical. Your levelled site should usually retain some fall (in the region of 1:50) to help with drainage unless it has been excavated truly level to take a concrete slab base.

If you plan to contract a builder, keep an eye out for a reference in the contract to "fall." Builders check the difference between the highest and lowest points of a building site and the charge for the difference could be considerable.

• Measure the fall of the land using a spirit level.
• Make a square outline on the house site and place a long piece of straight timber at the highest corner and pointed towards the lowest corner; use the spirit­ level to make sure it is even.
• Go to the lowest corner and take a sight line from the top of a stake to the top of the timber at the highest corner.
• The measurement from the piece of timber to the top of the pole (with timber width deducted) represents the fall on the site.