Topographical issues

[Kelena]

Let's say a lot is not perfectly flat, but has little hills, valleys, and a big lava mound in the middle of it that is large, but is not large enough to put a house on. Possible to do something with that? What do you do? Level everything? Can you "fill" in a lot and make the house higher than grade? Expensive?

[Hotzcatz]

Sounds like a post and pier lot to me! Or you could set one part of the house on grade (on the ground) and build the rest of the house on post and pier where the land falls away.

[jdirgo]

You can technically fill the lot up the level of the highest pre-existing point on the lot. My design for a lot that I owned in HPP that was like that was to have part of the house built post-and-pier and another part of the house resting on the lava berm.

(if you remember Glen, that was the house that I refer to as "The Tragedy" -- the tragedy being that I don't own it anymore)

John Dirgo, R, ABR, e-PRO
Island Trust Properties, LLC
808-987-9243 cell
http://www.hawaiirealproperty.com

[Kelena]

Thanks, catz! Thanks, John! I like the idea of building partly on the berm.

Yes, John, I do recall "the tragedy". That was a nice property but Pele wanted someone else to pay the taxes on it!

[John S. Rabi]

John, I think we all had "The Tragedy" in our lives. I built a really cute, little house in LE, I called it "The Doll House." It was sold before the construction was finished. I loved that house so much that I wanted to buy it back when it came on the market as a resale! (Having a somewhat cleare mind the following day, I didn't because I still could have built the same house for $50K less than it was sold for.)

Aloha,
John S. Rabi, ABR,CM,CRB,FHS,PB
http://www.JohnRabi.com
Typically Tropical Properties
"The Next Level of Service!"