House Build 2023

[EddieWalker]

The water department only inspects the hookup at the meter and electric says they only need a foot of separation. I did send pics to the Entergy engineer assigned to my project and the inspector for the water department before I covered the trench and they both said they were good with it.

The reason they want it in separate ditches in my area is because a water break will flood the ditch and it could be extremely dangerous to fix that water line with the high voltage line in the same, flooded ditch. Off the top of my head, I believe they want two feet of virgin, undisturbed soil between the ditches.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

As big of a headache as it was to make that trench, I almost think I would just re-do the whole water line in a different spot, with a trencher if I ever get to the place where I need to dig it up. It does also scare me a little thinking about digging with primary voltage that close. That is another one of those hindsight things. But, it's done now.

 

[Handloader109]

A couple of more comments. Daughter's home was built by feller who had been building for 50 years. 2x6 walls. Filled with standard fiberglass batt. Osb, Wrapped,and hardy siding. Well over a foot of blown cellulose, I didn't measure, but it's at least that. One thing I liked, was before they sheetrocked the walls, every hole that was drilled foe electric work was foamed. Every hole in walls was foamed. Flex duct. Indoor unit is in mechanical room with the WH. Inside. Not in the garage and dang sure not in the attic. If the AC contractor wants to put the refrigerator unit and blower in the attic, find another guy. You'll lose 10% of your heating and cooling doing that plus with all this stuff having electronic minds, heat kills circuit boards fast. Yes, from experience.

Mini split is fine in the attic room. You can control and program them to only come on when you want it cool or warm. Cost is fine. And I'd stay with the 14 seer. You will take 50 years to recoup the 10k.

 

[pmsmechanic]

I don't see an issue with water lines and power in the same trench. Around here it's done all the time for irrigation center pivots. Water on one side of a 3 foot trench and power on the other. If you have to repair anything there is a disconnect at the main power line before it goes underground. Surely you would shut that off before doing any kind of work on either the water or power line.

Meters in this area. Urban has their meters on the house and rural has them on the transformer pole.

 

[Handloader109]

Yep, last 25 feet of trench has both water and power. Power came from different direction and met up with water line. Zero issues

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Let's keep this thread going. How about some footers? I realized I didn't get many pictures of this stage... Whoops.

I hired a surveyor to lay it all out, a crew came in and excavated, then a crew came in to tie rebar, set forms for the height steps, and set height markers. I was surprised at how much fall the site has and I was equally impressed the crew stepped the footers up and down by 1 block increments based on the fall of the land. That saved me a bunch of blocks. there were a total of 3 different heights/ steps, and they came out exactly a block height.

Then a crew came in and poured. It took 38 yards of concrete. That is way more than I would have imagined. After that cured the surveyor came back and marked all the outside corners with nails.

 

[EddieWalker]

I've never heard of surveyor's being used to lay out a house. Is it expensive to hire them to do this?

 

[4570Man]

I've never heard of surveyor's being used to lay out a house. Is it expensive to hire them to do this?

That’s how almost everyone does it in my area. It’s $500-800 depending on the size and number of piers for them to set the dig stakes and come back and set nails for the block.

 

[4570Man]

Let's keep this thread going. How about some footers? I realized I didn't get many pictures of this stage... Whoops.

I hired a surveyor to lay it all out, a crew came in and excavated, then a crew came in to tie rebar, set forms for the height steps, and set height markers. I was surprised at how much fall the site has and I was equally impressed the crew stepped the footers up and down by 1 block increments based on the fall of the land. That saved me a bunch of blocks. there were a total of 3 different heights/ steps, and they came out exactly a block height.

Then a crew came in and poured. It took 38 yards of concrete. That is way more than I would have imagined. After that cured the surveyor came back and marked all the outside corners with nails.
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I guess the more the better but that is a lot of concrete. I usually use a 18” bucket for economical houses and a 2ft bucket for houses with brick. It looks like they used a 3 foot bucket.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

4570Man has it about right for my area too. As many twists and turns as this house has, I can't imagine it would have been any cheaper to put up batter boards and pull strings.

I did not measure the trench but I think it was a 2' bucket. Those blocks are 8" wide if I remember correctly and it looks like the footer is about 3 blocks wide.