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Prepping a house site and building a house

Columbo

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2021
Messages
274
Location
New Hampshire
Many of you have helped with my threads on the excavator I purchased to clear a house lot and do the site work. My background is in carpentry so the heavy equipment and dirt work side is new to me. I’d like to use this thread to document the progress on the dirt work part of this project and pick up more advice or tips from the pros. I like to avoid doing things the hard way if possible!! (I wasn’t sure where to put this thread but this seemed like the best fit).

My wife and I started this project (slowly) 2 years ago by clearing a driveway access towards the lot which is a mix of wooded and open. The driveway and house site area is moderately sloping and like many lots in the area it can get pretty wet.
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Last year the project continued with the driveway extended to the building site, power poles were installed by the electric company and underground electric service was run to the meter location. The house design doesn’t permit a meter mounted on the house and the remote meter will serve for temporary construction power too. Fortunately the house will go in an existing field so the only clearing I had to do was for the driveway.

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Columbo

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2021
Messages
274
Location
New Hampshire
First up this year is stripping the top soil off the construction area and stockpiling it nearby. The site plan calls for the uphill slope to be dropped by 4ft for the back yard area. I plan on moving the subsoil to the low side of the foundation for fill. More to come!
 

CM1995

Administrator
Joined
Jan 21, 2007
Messages
13,246
Location
Alabama
Occupation
Running what I brung and taking what I win
Nice work!

Curious about the tires under the 311's tracks. What's the reason?

The rock wall looks great. Those are not the best shaped rocks for building a wall and I know the aggravation of building wall using similar shaped rocks.

Don't just document the dirt side but the entire build. I'd like to see how it all comes together.

Cheers!
 

Columbo

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2021
Messages
274
Location
New Hampshire
@CM1995 Thanks! I’ll feel much more comfortable once the lumber shows up lol! I stored the excavator on the tires over the winter, it has several stiff or frozen links due to lack of use by the previous owner. I figured keeping the tracks out of the mud and water couldn’t hurt. No idea if it helped but no additional stiff links this spring.
 

CM1995

Administrator
Joined
Jan 21, 2007
Messages
13,246
Location
Alabama
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Running what I brung and taking what I win
@CM1995 Thanks! I’ll feel much more comfortable once the lumber shows up lol!

LOL. I would have been a 3rd generation framer (both sides of the family) but my wood working skills are horrible, however my father is a craftsman. Early in life figured out I was better at making money digging holes and filling them back in. :D
 

Columbo

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2021
Messages
274
Location
New Hampshire
LOL. I would have been a 3rd generation framer (both sides of the family) but my wood working skills are horrible, however my father is a craftsman. Early in life figured out I was better at making money digging holes and filling them back in. :D
Haha!! It’s always good to find one’s niche! This part of the project has progressed somewhat slowly as I’m learning as I go somewhat. Well, I don’t think the rest of the build is going to go much faster….
 

skyking1

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2020
Messages
7,462
Location
washington
That's nothing I would do with the tires under the tracks, but it is a good idea. I have been frozen down and clearing tracks that I could not shovel before a really hard freeze. It is a bad day!!
 

Camshawn

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2017
Messages
585
Location
Langley BC
Occupation
retired
Nice looking plan. I like the walk out basement. What kind of view do you have? Cam
 

OzDozer

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2007
Messages
2,207
Location
Perth, Western Australia.
Occupation
Semi-Retired ..
Control of the groundwater coming down from further up the hill from the house is important.
Any fill must be "keyed in" to the underlying natural terrain to prevent it moving off down the slope after heavy rains.

We've had a slew of people building houses in hilly terrain here, on a cut-and-fill. But problems arose when the earthmovers simply pushed the cut material onto the lower part of the slope, without ensuring it was keyed in to the lower ground level.

People then build their houses, half on the cut, and half on the fill - then when groundwater penetrated under the cut and fill, the fill slid off down the slope - and took one half of the house with it!

This happened so many times and resulted in such a number of lawsuits, that building regulations here now stipulate that you can only position the building either on the cut area, or on the fill area.
 

Columbo

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2021
Messages
274
Location
New Hampshire
Nice looking plan. I like the walk out basement. What kind of view do you have? Cam

I’ll take a better photo of the view next time I’m there working. The lot continues to raise gently to the very back, the view there is the best. However, that’s the area my wife has picked for a future barn. The driveway and underground utilities cost would have been too much, even doing the work myself, had we located the house there.
 

Columbo

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2021
Messages
274
Location
New Hampshire
Control of the groundwater coming down from further up the hill from the house is important.
Any fill must be "keyed in" to the underlying natural terrain to prevent it moving off down the slope after heavy rains.

We've had a slew of people building houses in hilly terrain here, on a cut-and-fill. But problems arose when the earthmovers simply pushed the cut material onto the lower part of the slope, without ensuring it was keyed in to the lower ground level.

People then build their houses, half on the cut, and half on the fill - then when groundwater penetrated under the cut and fill, the fill slid off down the slope - and took one half of the house with it!

This happened so many times and resulted in such a number of lawsuits, that building regulations here now stipulate that you can only position the building either on the cut area, or on the fill area.
Thanks for the pointers, that’s important! I’m looking at a 4’ high natural granite boulder retaining wall on the high side, behind the house. My plan is to have 8” of crushed stone and fabric behind this wall with perforated pipe draining to daylight in hopes of controlled some of the ground water before it gets to the lawn/house.
 

Columbo

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2021
Messages
274
Location
New Hampshire
I started stripping topsoil this afternoon. Slow going but at least I shouldn’t have to buy any loam for the lawn. I’m going to windrow it up on the high side of the site to hopefully stop some of the water running through when it rains. Eventually I will run it all through a screener and stockpile it for the lawn.

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Columbo

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2021
Messages
274
Location
New Hampshire
Well, time for another update. I have the site stripped and the house area leveled out. Tomorrow I’ll be setting the stakes for the corners and laying out the foundation excavation. Today’s fun was cut short by a cracked tooth adapter…

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CM1995

Administrator
Joined
Jan 21, 2007
Messages
13,246
Location
Alabama
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Running what I brung and taking what I win
Nice progress.

Question - Do you not have to put any silt fencing or other erosion control devices? Just curious because here we have to put up silt fencing around the site and a construction entrance at a minimum prior to the gov't granting us the permission to build something on our property.
 

Columbo

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2021
Messages
274
Location
New Hampshire
Fortunately the town isn’t too picky about that, partly because there is no “building department”. However, I will be putting up some erosion control just to keep things tidy. It’s just been on the back burner so far…
 

CM1995

Administrator
Joined
Jan 21, 2007
Messages
13,246
Location
Alabama
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Running what I brung and taking what I win
Not picking at you as the rules often times waste money and effort for erosion control devices that are required but not needed nor do anything. For instance we've had to run silt fence on the high side of a property more than once simply because the plans showed it and the inspector demanded it.

FWIW brush is a great erosion control device. It's usually available on a site, easy to install with a machine and withstands heavy flows. Crunch it up with the excavator and make dams where the flow will concentrate. When the brush check fills up with silt just pick the brush up, clean the silt out and reinstall all from the comfort of cab using joysticks instead of shovels.

I hate shovels. :)
 

materthegreater

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2012
Messages
642
Location
VT
I can't tell from the pictures if there are any at Colombo's site, but New England has a lot of erosion control fences that were installed by our ancestors - stone walls.

@Columbo, Did you guys get a lot of rain Saturday? We had over two inches. Didn't cause a lot of damage though because the ground was so dry most of it soaked in as it was coming down. Also, how do you like the Bobcat? Is it yours or rented? I can't quite make out the model number in the picture. Looks like you have a good sized potato in the first picture, is that what cracked the tooth shank?
 

Columbo

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2021
Messages
274
Location
New Hampshire
@materthegreater yes, there are some old time erosion devices on this property. ;) One of the walls borders the driveway and I’ve been adding the rocks I pull out of the excavation to it.

It’s a rental CTL from a new outfit locally. Bobcat T64 with 250 hrs on it. I’m not super familiar with other options, I only rent one occasionally and so far they are all Bobcats. It is comfortable though! And it has AC which my excavator does not.

I got all the layout stakes in at the end of the day today. The foundation contractor stopped by and we double checked them with his Total Station, only a few were a couple of inches off. I’m glad to have double checked it but pretty happy with my results using 2 tapes.
 
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