A builder’s answers to a few plain questions show whether they have built on a slope before. Here are the questions to ask, and the documents to check before you sign.
You’ll learn:
- Why hillside experience matters when you compare bids
- The soil and structure questions to ask
- How to check a license, insurance, a bond, and a warranty
- What architect references, awards, and reviews tell you
- How to tell a real builder from a name on a website
Why Does Hillside Experience Matter When Choosing a Builder?
Most of the builders around our area don’t want to build hillside homes. It adds complexity and liability, because the hills move. Once a family moves in, the home keeps moving until it settles.
So on a hillside lot, look twice at the lowest bid. The jobs that end in disputes are often the ones that went to the lowest bidder, a builder who had never built a hillside home.
Research the website, the portfolio, the reviews, and the builder’s reputation where you are building. Then ask, “Do you have experience on hillsides?”
This is the lot before we started building the hillside custom home in Oakland. Ask any builder what they have built on a slope like this one.
What Should a Hillside Builder Say About the Soil and the Structure?
These 5 questions come from what we work out in pre-construction on every hillside job. A builder who has done this before will have answers:
- Who does your geotechnical work, and when do they get involved?
- Who is the structural engineer, and have you worked together before?
- What foundation systems have you built on a slope like mine?
- How will you hold back the hillside while you dig?
- What happens if you find something unexpected in the ground, like water?
A geotechnical engineer, the specialist who studies the ground, tells everyone how strong the soil is, and the structural engineer bases the plans on that. So the builder needs to be in communication with both at the beginning.
On a slope, holding back the hillside while you dig can mean shotcrete, which is concrete sprayed onto the soil, or temporary piers drilled into the ground. Some excavations can be 20 feet deep, and sometimes we hit underground creeks.
Ask how much digging the job needs, because the city will ask too. In Oakland, for example, the city requires a grading permit for any land disturbance where the slope of the ground is steeper than 20%. Rules differ by city, so check with your own permit office. Hillside construction challenges covers more.
On one job in the East Bay Hills, we removed about 1,200 yards of dirt from a vacant lot with dump trucks. Some of the lower foundation walls are about 14 feet high and 12 inches thick. On pour day, we poured about 100 yards of concrete, with 10 concrete trucks waiting to pump. That is the scale of work to ask a builder to walk you through.
| What | Amount |
|---|---|
| Dirt hauled out | About 1,200 yards |
| Concrete in the lower pour | About 100 yards |
| Concrete trucks waiting to pump | 10 |
| Some lower walls | About 14 feet high, 12 inches thick |
What Should I Check Before I Sign With a Builder?
Before you sign, look at 4 documents: the license, the insurance, the bond, and the warranty.
Also ask whether the price is an estimate or a firm bid, and what it includes and leaves out. A bid has the inclusions and exclusions already dialed in, which leaves you with a real budget instead of a guess. To get there, we charge for a professional service agreement, a paid first step, so we can get hard bids from subcontractors and vendors for every line item.
How Do I Check a Builder’s License?
The California Contractors State License Board lets you look up a contractor license and see any complaints on file. For any builder you are considering, check that the license is in the builder’s own name, and look for any disputes against it.
What Insurance and Bond Should I Ask To See?
Ask for the workers’ comp policy, the general liability certificate, and proof of the bond, then read all 3. You can’t hold a license without a bond.
For general liability, we carry a minimum of $2 million. Ask the builder to add you as an insured on their policy.
If a builder says they are exempt from workers’ comp, ask why, because a worker who isn’t covered can sue the homeowner if they get hurt.
What Does the Warranty Cover After Year One?
Some builders give only a 1 year warranty. That is short on a hillside, because a home there keeps settling after you move in. We cover craftsmanship for 5 years, including finishes, built-ins, cabinetry, tile, and trim. Every 3 months, a warranty team member visits to review your list and complete the repairs. We back structure and water intrusion for 10 years.
| Coverage | How long |
|---|---|
| Craftsmanship, with a visit every 3 months | 5 years |
| Structure and water intrusion | 10 years |
| Some other builders’ warranties | 1 year |
We stay in touch after we finish. A client called us about a door that wouldn’t lock and a crack in the Sheetrock on a house we built 6 or 7 years earlier. That was outside the warranty, and we told her we would send someone over the next week.
Why Should I Ask a Hillside Builder for Architect References?
Ask which architects the builder has worked with, and call them. A good builder has referrals and works alongside the architect instead of stepping on their toes.
What Do Awards and Reviews Tell Me About a Hillside Builder?
An award means someone outside the company judged the work. Read what the award was for. One of our projects, on the edge of an old quarry in the Berkeley Hills, has a steel-framed cantilever over the hillside. It earned the City of Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association Award for merging modern structural ingenuity with a 100-year-old home. Our Claremont Hills Residence, a sustainable, modern home with high-efficiency comfort systems and handcrafted millwork, won the AIA Best of the East Bay Award.
Read the reviews too, for what past clients say about working with the builder. Then call the references.
How Can I Tell a Builder Is Real?
Go see how the builder keeps a job site. A messy site is a symptom of a disorganized company, and disorganized companies run longer and go over budget. We will take you to see a project, under construction or finished. On every large project, we wrap the fencing and the portable toilets, so the mess stays inside the site.
Ask plain questions, and listen for plain answers. Also make sure the builder is a real company you can find:
- A real website
- A LinkedIn page
- A Google profile with a real address and reviews you can read
Our office is at 734 Gilman Street in Berkeley, and we have been in business since 2010.
How Do I Start the Conversation With a Hillside Builder?
Call each builder on your list and ask the questions above. If you have a slope and a set of plans, our custom home building page is the place to start.
