Hi all,

I need to extend 5" at the back of my DSL house for a wet kitchen and the soil at my area is soft. Neighbouring house extended but cracks is happening within a year or 2.

The contractor recommended to do a RC piling. Price quoted as follows:

Concrete piling with concrete bar 20ft, 30pcs - RM13.5k

i was surprised by such a high price. so would like to know if this is a reasonable market price? 

also he informed that if i don't need to use so much piles, the remaining are not refundable    not sure if this is the market practice?

the extension is only 5'x20', single storey.

thanks in advance

thanks for the info. yes i believe the price is including mob/demob, installation, etc. as it's the lump sum price from the contractor.

btw he also said that if there are remaining piles unused, normally they will not be returned and thus no reduction in price will be expected. not sure if this is normal or it's due to the transport cost is high and not worth it to return?

ya it's at Klang, the soil is quite bad as claimed by the reno contractor, as my house is at the "fill" part and normally the compaction is not done properly by the developer.

we managed to see the SI report from the developer, it's something like this (they didn't provide the hardcopy though)

- backfill: 3m
- clay: 9m
- sand/silt: 5m
- below that is the sandstone

from your experience, do you think it's something that require RC piling? and does it means that most likely i need to pile down to about 17m (3+9+5) to set?

i read from google, some say can do raft foundation, but i think the contractor is not familiar with this. do you think if raft foundation can be a cheaper option?

thanks