Soil assessment report: who can best evaluate this

Hello everyone,

my partner and I want to build a house in a new development area this year. The plot is reserved and the seller commissioned a contamination and soil engineering survey for the entire area. We also have this report.

Regarding the house, we are currently obtaining 2 offers:
- a general contractor based in a neighboring town and recommended
- an architect based locally and recommended

Now the question for me is whether both parties can interpret the survey results concerning potential additional costs accordingly and then also be responsible if extra costs arise. Or whether it might be sensible to already approach a civil engineer now using the survey results and request an offer?

Would it perhaps also make sense to have a separate soil report prepared for our plot? Or is this survey sufficient? A total of 12 borings were conducted on an area of 2,628 sqm (of which 405 sqm belong to our plot).

Many thanks
Teufelchen

Does the report contain a foundation recommendation? If yes, the general contractor and architect will plan something accordingly; they must do so even if they were aware of the report at the time of planning.

Good morning,

My partner and I want to build a house this year in a new development area. The plot is reserved and the seller had a contamination and geotechnical investigation carried out for the entire area. We also have this report.

Where in NRW is the plot located?

Regarding the house, we are currently getting two offers:
- a general contractor based in a neighboring town and recommended
- an architect based in the town and recommended

Now my question is whether both parties can interpret the investigation results with regard to potential additional costs accordingly and are then also responsible if additional costs arise.

This report from the seller relates purely to the construction of the planned roads in the development; individual parcels may correspond to the content, but they do not have to. In this respect, the liability of both providers for an individual plot tends towards zero; unless the individual measurement points indicate massive soil difficulties.

Would it perhaps also make sense to have a separate soil report prepared for our plot? Or is this investigation sufficient? Twelve boreholes were carried out on an area of 2,628 sqm (of which 405 sqm belong to our plot).

I would never build without a soil report specifically for the individual plot; liability in the worst case is severe. Even if the 12 measurement points may appear uncontaminated on the surface, a soil replacement might "be" necessary on your plot, or a water vein may run across the building area, or, or...

This also answers the question about hiring an excavator.

Kind regards

Hello little devil,
It was also explained to me this way (which I find plausible), that the house builder can always refer to the missing soil report in case of later damages, which is the responsibility of the client side. Thus, he does not have to be liable for the damages. If a soil report is available, where three boreholes are made exactly where your floor slab is located, the builder can and must anticipate this and later also be liable.

Hello, so we had a soil survey done for the property. Two drillings of 8 meters and two drillings of 4 meters, each in the corners of the planned house. Based on the foundation recommendation contained therein and the present soil layers, we were quoted an additional price (as a fixed price) for the groundworks included in the inclusive services. This additional price is based on the offer from the civil engineer working for the general contractor and is almost five digits. I find 12 drillings a bit exaggerated. What the general contractor or civil engineer keeps as a clause is encountering unforeseen rock layers (which according to our soil survey is not to be expected) and is therefore more of a pro forma clause.

What we see as an advantage in having a soil survey done directly for our property (there would also have been a general one for the area)?
- We can negotiate a fixed additional charge beforehand that normally must not be exceeded.
- If the building settles due to a faulty structural calculation or whatever into the ground, we can clearly refer to planning errors of the general contractor, since we explicitly provided him with a soil survey and he did not have to rely on assumptions.