Cost of blasting in soil class 6/7 + neighbors (fence)

Hello everyone.

For us, things are slowly getting started now and the first questions/problems are popping up (who would have thought ^^).

1. Soil survey - costs possibly necessary blasting:

Our first attempt to get a usable soil survey unfortunately completely failed. Three spots were supposed to be drilled up to 6 m deep. In fact, drilling was done 2 x 2 m and 1 x 1.6 m deep. Then at the mentioned depths "no drilling progress" (allegedly tried several times) and vague assumptions about what might be underneath. Apparently, sandy gravelly soil was encountered.

This week we sat down with our home builder to discuss what to do here. We will probably initiate a second survey at the builder's expense and hope that the desired drilling depth can then be reached. If that doesn't work again, there is a danger that larger rocks/stone slabs or similar are present from a depth of 2 m. These would allegedly no longer be removable by an excavator and might have to be blasted (yay :-().

Our builder's contact said that this would result in considerable additional costs for us. The alternative would be to omit the basement, have a slab foundation, change the floor plan (inside), and have the technical room on the ground floor, possibly enlarge the external dimensions of the house (which on the other hand would not go hand in hand with the building permit, right?).

Has anyone here already had such experience and can possibly estimate roughly in which cost range the additional costs for blasting and related matters would lie? Without a basement is actually no option for us, but we also can’t get out of the contracts (house, basement, bank, etc.).

I would be grateful for tips, right now some fear is already spreading with us.

2. Neighbor - Fence:
When we were outside again over the weekend, we saw that our neighbor to the right (aren’t we actually responsible for this side / fence) has made good on his "announcement" and set up a white (admittedly quite visually acceptable) wooden fence about 2.10 m high (he had announced 1.80) along the entire depth of the property (30m). Yippee, now we already know what kind of great neighborly relationship this will be

I tried to find out whether such a height is even allowed, but due to the lack of a development plan (only $34) I could not find much concrete.

I certainly won’t be a devil and force him to "shorten" it (even if it is too high), especially since I believe we would have been responsible for erecting a fence on this side if necessary, but I am simply curious whether one can just put up a >2 m fence like that. I almost feel like 25 years ago again... nice wall on the horizon

Many thanks in advance for your tips!
Andi

PS: Construction blog if interested: [E-Mail]melundandi@blogspot.de[/E-Mail]

Hello Andi,

1. Soil survey - costs possibly necessary blasting:

Has anyone here already had such experiences and can maybe estimate roughly in which cost range the additional costs for blasting and the related expenses would fall (just very roughly)?

That is difficult to impossible to answer; only from soil class 7 do we talk about "hard" to break rock - soil class 6 means "easily" breakable rock. Additional costs ranging from €25.00/cubic meter up to €40.00/cubic meter including disposal costs are therefore all possible.

2. Neighbor - fence:

... but I would just be interested to know whether you can simply put up a >2 m fence.

In NRW, garden walls and fences as privacy screens up to 1.80 m height can be erected without a building permit; I think in Bavaria it is similar. You can find more details in the Bavarian building code, in the Bavarian Neighbor Law, or in the textual stipulations relating to your property.

Best regards

I would definitely cautiously bring it up with the neighbor over a beer.... And if the fence is actually white, then hopefully it won't get dirty during the house construction or demolition....

Update:

Regarding 1.
After some fuss, I have now received confirmation from the geologist that at most soil class 5 can be expected. Not as concrete as I would have liked, but at least something. Hopefully, this means the blasting issue is off the table.

Regarding 2.
After the construction, I will sit down with him and discuss it.