My new construction thread

[QuasarZ]

I have seen a few new home project threads on here so I thought I would add mine. My wife and I purchased 6.5 acres last December and after a lengthy delay we finally began our home project. First I had to create a swale to direct the "100 year frozen ground flood" around my house so I could lower the LBO to make my lot a walkout. Coordinating with the county, surveyor, and getting my neighbor to allow the swale through her yard and getting that easement recorded and finally digging the swale took quite some time. After all that I went through the permit process and we began construction last week. First part was making the 1000ft driveway. I will add pictures and update this thread as things progress.

Thanks for looking.

First a few pics of the bare land.

 

[QuasarZ]

Digging the swale. It is funny because the county is so concerned with this swale but after the winter we had and all the recent rain there was no water to be had. It is all a paperwork issue. Might turn this non useable area into a garden now or something.



This is only part of it, it is about 500 feet long. It rained a lot after we dug it and was a tad wet in that last picture. Grass is finally growing in it to help that.

 

[dave1949]

Is that a swale or a canal? :laughing:

Good to hear you are off and running on your new home project.

What does "LBO" stand for?

 

[QuasarZ]

Here comes the driveway. Finally, it was a pain walking back all the way with equipment to putz around brush clearing. Gonna be time consuming to plow!

 

[QuasarZ]

Is that a swale or a canal? :laughing:

Good to hear you are off and running on your new home project.

What does "LBO" stand for?

It is basically a canal haha. Some spots were 6-7 feet deep. Had to have a minimum bottom width of 5 feet and side slopes of 2.5:1. It was quite the project just to do that.
LBO is lowest buildable opening.

 

[QuasarZ]

Digging for the foundation.

 

[QuasarZ]

Setting up and pouring the footings. This is now up to date as this was today. Nothing scheduled until next week now.

 

[dave1949]

It is basically a canal haha. Some spots were 6-7 feet deep. Had to have a minimum bottom width of 5 feet and side slopes of 2.5:1. It was quite the project just to do that.
LBO is lowest buildable opening.

Thanks for defining LBO.

A project and a good bit of dirt to move, but if it saves you from flooding just one time, it's small potatoes. Your soils do look well-drained though. Oh well, you probably found or will find a use for the swale dirt.

 

[QuasarZ]

Thanks for defining LBO.

A project and a good bit of dirt to move, but if it saves you from flooding just one time, it's small potatoes. Your soils do look well-drained though. Oh well, you probably found or will find a use for the swale dirt.

It would have to be a massive flood. If the water ever did fill up the "holding area" and into my yard and into the swale, the city has a lot more issues to worry about than just my house. But like you say, if it comes down to it and saves my house thats great. I can use a lot of the dirt, but I will probably have a bit left over. Will probably just smooth out the entire back area which is fine with me. More level useable area. As long as I don't fill in the swale I can do whatever I want in that too, so as previously mentioned use it for a garden, or corn or something. Plenty of time to figure out landscaping and options. Just glad it is over, it was quite a nightmare going through the hoops to make it.

Also the ground is very sandy and it does drain very well which is nice.

 

[lilranch2001]

I built a swale across 300 foot of my property to drain a farm field that dumps onto my property and all season long it would be wet or swampy whenever it rained.
Your swale makes mine look like a rain gutter, and mine is 4-5 feet deep in places and 30 foot across.

I did only use my Bobcat CT235 CUT tractor, FEL and back box to get it accomplished, and had to haul the excess spoils 300-400+ feet to other low areas on my place.