Just realized how much a custom foundation can add to the total cost

I was looking at a quote from a builder for a house in a hilly part of Asheville. The site work and foundation line item was almost $85,000, which is way more than I thought. The builder said because of the slope, they need a full walkout basement with a lot of extra concrete and retaining walls. I found a breakdown online that said site work can be 10-15% of the total budget, but this feels even higher. Has anyone else been shocked by the foundation cost on a tricky lot? How did you handle it?

3 comments

3 Comments

campbell.evan17d ago

Yikes, that number would make me need a drink. My own "tricky lot" moment was finding out the charming slope in my backyard was basically expensive fill dirt in a fancy dress. We spent more on the geo-tech report than we did on our first couch.

noahjenkins5d ago

But is a pier foundation really that much better? Like stellap49 said, it's a whole other cost and can bring up new problems with plumbing and access. Sometimes moving the dirt for a normal basement is just the cheaper headache in the long run.

stellap4918d ago

Remember helping my cousin with a survey on his sloped lot near Boone. The engineer basically said they'd have to cut so much into the hill for a standard foundation that they needed a crazy big retaining wall just to hold the driveway. They ended up changing the house plan completely to a pier foundation to avoid moving all that dirt, which was a whole other cost itself.