ᐅ Accepting soil from the immediate neighbor for filling the property?

Hello everyone,

We will soon start building our house as latecomers in a new development area. Since we acquired the plot afterward, the neighbors around us are already well into construction. The plots range from about 30cm (12 inches) on one side up to about one meter (3 feet) below street level. This will need to be filled later. Our immediate neighbor is currently building a basement and, by arrangement, is temporarily storing his soil on our plot. He has now offered that part of the soil can remain on our plot so that we don’t have to add fill and he doesn’t have to pay for expensive disposal.

We will build on a slab foundation and will need soil. A soil report for our plot is available and, more or less, also for the neighbor’s (I can share excerpts if needed). It states that the topsoil must be removed for construction. Our architect advised us not to accept foreign soil, and since we don’t yet know how much soil will be needed or how much of the lower layer will have to be removed, the question now is whether we should accept the soil only for the garden behind the house.

1. Is the soil even suitable for that? Do the plants require a specific quality?
2. If we accept the soil, will it cause us more costs than we save because our own excavated soil would have sufficed for the garden? I assume that buying soil is much cheaper than disposal, as many builders in our and surrounding new development areas have had similar requests.

I don’t think anyone here can answer that for you because
a) we don’t know the soil quality at your site, and
b) we also don’t know how much excavation material you will need later for backfilling or if your own excavated soil will be sufficient.

Oraclefile schrieb:

1. Is the soil suitable for this at all? Do the plants require a specific quality?

You can only use the excavated soil, if at all, for filling pits or low-lying areas (as a base). Plants, grass, etc., need topsoil, which is usually 20-30 cm (8-12 inches) deep.

Whether what you get from the neighbors is enough, too much, or too little, no one here can tell you since we don’t know the local conditions.

I would not recommend it.

1. Plants can grow through asphalt as well, but if you want a nice and low-maintenance garden, using fill from somewhere else (including your own property) is not necessarily the best idea.

2. Yes, you will possibly or even quite likely incur additional costs because of this. Where do you plan to put your excavated material then? Dispose of it?

With no basement, there is more excavation and fill sand left over than you might expect,
say nothing to [ ].

Thank you for all the feedback. Since our construction project is still very uncertain and we keep receiving requests to accept soil from nearby construction sites, we have decided not to accept the soil. It is reportedly very sandy, and with only 20-30cm (8-12 inches) of topsoil needed, the benefit is questionable anyway. This saves me from adding more details from the soil survey.

Thanks to all of you!