Is soil investigation necessary?

I would also advise you to get your own soil survey.

Within a few meters, soil conditions can change (see e.g. post from ). Just as easily, a water vein could run through your property at any time, which in turn can have a major impact on your construction project (additional foundation costs). Even with a soil survey, you are not completely safe from such issues. The water vein could run 2 meters next to your borehole. But with the survey, you do have significantly more planning security. It is your protection against high, unplanned additional expenses.

By the way: At our boreholes, at one you could hear a splash in the water when you dropped a small stone in. But only at one borehole. The cost in our region is 1,000 to 1,500 euros. I assume your general contractor has probably estimated a somewhat higher price to be on the safe side.

Our general contractor insisted on a survey, by the way. To be precise, we even had two surveys done. The first by a large solid house provider who builds in city and country. If we had built with them, the costs would have been refunded. Price comparable to . This survey covered 2 pages. The information contained was not sufficient for my general contractor. So we had a second survey made by a regional provider, which comprised 12 pages and described the conditions in detail.

Would your general contractor continue building without surveys? Who knows? Theoretically, he could say: I recommended the survey. The builder did not want to have it done. I’m out. In that sense, I even doubt that a court would see any contributory negligence on the part of the general contractor.

My recommendation also clearly goes in favor of the [Bodengutachten] (reasons have been sufficiently mentioned). However, I would still get an offer for that. We paid €1,000 for 4 measuring points. Your offer seems to me "a bit" high.

I assume that your provider will then withdraw from the contract ... at least if he is smart. He can apparently also "let himself write freely", but in the worst case he would have to face the court saying that he "should have known better".

That was also a topic for us recently. It would cost 1,080 EUR net via the general contractor. But he says he doesn't need it, meaning he would release himself from liability with us and that's it. I thought he would then be out of the issue, but it doesn't sound quite like that in your case.

Hi,

That was also a topic for us recently. It would cost 1,080 EUR net through the general contractor. But he says he doesn't need it, meaning he would release us from liability and that's it. I thought he would then be out of the deal, but it doesn't sound quite like that in your case.

I would never forego a soil survey; when it comes to the cost of the house, a thousand euros really doesn't matter. Whether you do the survey before the first groundbreaking or only after excavating the construction pit to then look at the overall picture is certainly a matter of opinion. Apparently the experts can't agree on that...

If you forgo a soil survey, you not only risk the worst case that the house collapses (which is certainly a very, very unlikely scenario) but you basically forgo the entire warranty. If cracks occur later due to construction defects, doors and windows stick, or whatever else happens, the builder will always say: "Sorry, the ground was bad, the foundation is settling, I can't help because no soil survey was done." And then the quarrels start, which you can hardly win.
In other words, they can botch the job as much as they want, and you won't really have any recourse afterwards.

And the risk for 1,000 €?

Best regards,

Andreas

Wow, many people replied (great)


You are right. I was just surprised because, according to the city, we would be the only ones in the development area to have such an investigation done. So far, there have never been any problems (according to the city).
And regarding additional costs, we are already curious; we have included a buffer.
Whether it will be enough remains to be seen.


Can you explain to me the difference between "drillings" and "ram core soundings"?


It's not about saving euros for us, but about necessity.
If the measurement has been sufficient so far (for whatever reason), it would be unnecessary to do the same again.
But I have to agree with you. I am usually very safety-conscious and as far as I can see now, we will hire an expert.


Thanks


see above: We will now hire a geologist after all

@all:
Is there a precise list of what must be included in the geotechnical report?
Or is a general statement sufficient for a request for quotation, something like:
"We request an offer for a geotechnical report (see plans)"

Thanks again for the numerous responses.
Best regards
Freund_User3

I am only stating how it was initially offered to us. We are waiting and watching for now. The only thing that comes to mind is that all the houses built 20, 30, 40 years ago, before it became fashionable to drill a hole every 5 meters, have not all collapsed on themselves.