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Just hit a huge unexpected cost with our foundation pour in Austin
We broke ground on our custom build back in March, and I thought I had everything planned out. Last week the excavator hit a layer of limestone that wasn't on the soil report. Ended up needing to bring in a hydraulic hammer to break it up, which added about 12 hours of machine time and a whole extra day of labor. The contractor hit me with a $4,800 change order for the work, plus another $900 for disposal of the extra rock. I get that this stuff happens, but it really stung because we already blew our contingency budget on a tree removal we didn't expect. Anyone else run into surprise rock layers that threw off their foundation timeline and budget?
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margaret_williams54mo ago
And $5,700 is the kind of number that makes you second-guess every other decision on the build too. It's not just the money, it's the principle that a change order that big can pop up from something nobody could've predicted. Makes the whole "contingency" feel like a joke when you're already burning through it on stuff like tree removal.
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jessica_ross384mo ago
Margaret brings up a good point about that doubt creeping in after a hit like this. It reminds me of my buddy who was building a garage slab last year and found a buried stump right where the footer was supposed to go. He had to bring in a mini excavator just to dig it out, and that surprise cost ate up half his extra money too. @margaret_williams5 is right that when you're already stretched thin, a rock layer feels like a personal attack from the ground itself. It just sucks how one unexpected thing can make you question your whole plan, even though you had no way of knowing.
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