Riedel Communities

You will rarely find land in the Texas Hill Country that is Kansas flat. Level is a relative term when describing the Hill Country, meaning the slope will only affect your foundation height by about 2 to 4 feet.

With the current price of $8.00 to $10.00 per square foot for a “level” concrete foundation in the Hill Country, it is important to pay attention to slope when selecting a building site.  Slope will add about $1.00 per square foot for each additional foot of foundation height that is necessary to maintain a level floor area from front to back.

To minimize extra foundation costs due to slope, it is best to orient the home so that you build with the natural contours of the property and not across the contours.  Think of contours like stairs that step either up or down your lot from the street.  It’s easy to envision how building down the stair steps would increase the amount of foundation as opposed to building along a single stair step.

Don’t worry about keeping the home square to the street.  You’re building in the Hill Country where it makes more sense to work with what nature has provided rather than against it.  Building with the contour will also normally provide the best orientation of your home for a view.

So throw out your flat land city way of thinking when planning to build in the Texas Hill Country and build your home to maximize your enjoyment of one of the greatest places on earth.