Originally we thought that we would need up to 25 concrete piles under the house down in the sand, to satisfy the building conditions of consent. This was reflective of the experience of some other houses along our beach stretch. As we are in a coastal zone, structures in the Zone of Adjustment must be supported on piles to withstand loads...So we had to get Geotechnical engineers (Croziers Peter and son Terry were very good) to provide soil tests down to 16m+ and to provide structural design for the piles. Thanks to our builder Paul and engineer Anthony, we have been able to re-design the structural engineering so that we reduced the number of piles to 8! This was a great savings on our budget and shows that a little bit of extra work up front with planning and smarts can really make a difference in a build.