Starting a new house

[BruceWard]

A Komatsu PC300LC arrived this morning and started clearing trees. It will be excavating for the basement tomorrow. I had a lot of fun watching the 85,000 pound excavator work!

Arriving and unloading

Trees are easy work for it

Stacking rocks to use for a retaining wall later

The house and driveway areas are cleared

A JD 750 dozer and a rolling compacter are arriving tomorrow.

 

[EddieWalker]

Looks like a really nice view that you'll have there for a house!!!! How much land do you own between the house site and the lake? Can you take out more trees that block your view? One thing that I'v learned, is that you never miss a tree after you get rid of it, but if you leave it, you will always regret doing so until you get rid of it.

Eddie

 

[scoutcub]

Agree with Eddie, a beautiful piece of property!
I also concur about the trees.....definitely look to see which ones you want removed to give you the "best" view, especially while the excavator is there.

Are you going to document the whole building process? If so, perhaps move the thread to the "projects"?

That excavator is a monster....makes my 312 look like mini.

Good luck and have fun!!

 

[BruceWard]

We made some progress with those trees today

I believe it will be about 180' from the house to the water.

I do plan to document the whole build. Hopefully we will have footers and be starting concrete walls next week.

Emma has been helping

 

[JDgreen227]

Uh-Oh...I knew it would happen once I began coming back to TBN, I have that dreaded disease called EQUIPMENT ENVY...it probably affects the majority of us here at one time or another. Never mind that our property has only enough trees to keep that excavator working for a half hour at most, I still WANT ONE.

You will have a beautiful view...please keep us posted on the progress.

 

[scoutcub]

OK, now I see why you can't take out too many more trees with the machine.....!
That'd be quite the task fishin that thing out of the water.....:laughing:

 

[JD40MO77]

Just wondering if the contractor recommended that big of machine due to the amount and size of the rocks it looks like you have there??

We are considering starting a new house with a basement and I have some access to the father in laws 580K backhoe but we are afraid of what we are going to run into once we start digging..............

Has anyone heard of a way to build a diy core drill to see what's down there before we start digging.

By the way we are located in edge of the Ozarks in southeast Missouri.

Looking forward to watching your thread!!!

 

[CrownHawg]

Bruce, that site looks like the hill over looking Greers near Choctaw. Is this right? Beautiful view you got!

 

[lakngulf]

What a view!!! and what a machine. Jobs are so much easier when you have the right piece of equipment.

 

[BruceWard]

In less than 4 days of work the excavator turned

this

into

I hired an excavating company who normally does large utility, shopping center and housing tract projects. They are used to large equipment and needed it to deal with the rocks. Here are a few

This was a single rock

The property is in Royal, AR on Lake Hamilton.

Next week we should have a jack hammer on a PC220 which is slightly smaller to break up a few stubborn rocks and dig the footings.

I will post pictures as we progress.

 

[Pilot]

Agree with Eddie, but add that you want to look carefully at trees that could fall on the house and take those down, too. Also, remember, trees grow, so trees that will be big enough to hit the house in 10-15 years should be considered for removal also.

Excavators are commonly used for logging around here. We've had them operate on slopes up to 40%, but for site prep work, not logging.

Are your house plans a proven design that you have seen in real life? Our house was built based on a new set of plans--I'm not sure that plan had ever been built before. We found during and after construction that there were several things that could have been done better and we would have seen most of them if we had been able to go thru a completed house. If it's a new custom design, go over the plans very carefully and place yourself in each room. And check on routing of utilities. One problem for us: A heat duct routing necessitated the master bath light switch be put outside the bathroom door, so in the middle of the night, if someone turns on the light when entering the light goes right in the face of the person still in bed. We had planned plenty of electrical outlets for where we wanted the bed to go--electric blanket, table lamps, alarm clocks, etc.--and had to move the bed to another location.

 

[dmccarty]

What Eddie and Pilot said. It is worth repeating about the trees.

We both wish we had taken down more trees. When we decided on the house site I went back and flagged the area to show which trees had to go. Brought the wifey back and she agreed.

At the last minute we decided to slip the house to the north 20-30 feet. No big deal. The site prep guys cleared the trees. When I showed the wifey after they were done she was shocked. I warned her that things had "changed." :laughing: She thought we took out too many trees. I was thinking we needed to take out a few more...

She now agrees we should have taken out more trees. There are a few trees if they fall the topmost limbs could hit the house. I will take them down as time allows. We need the space and it is not worth having the trees on the house. It is going to cost me a lot of time to cut the tree down, cut them up and dig up the stumps. The site clearing guys could have one it in a few hours.

There have been several threads about designing and building houses on TBN. Might be worth your time to read them.

Later,
Dan

 

[jayste]

Bruce, I'm looking forward to this thread.:thumbsup: That's going to be a great view and the road leading to is beautiful as well!

 

[BruceWard]

You guys are right that it is much better to have the excavator spend a couple of minutes pulling and stacking a tree rather than cutting it later. We have removed every tree within 70' of the right side of the house, left a few mature trees withing a similar distance to the left, only left a couple of very mature trees on the street side but left a lot of trees starting 30' out on the lake side. The unhealthy and pine trees were removed on the lake side. I will likely be roping and cutting additional trees to improve the lake side once we have the windows framed. I will be wishing I had the excavator do it.

This is the driveway looking from the yard to the street

This stuff has been delaying the arrival of the PC220 with the hammer

 

[Jstpssng]

Uh-Oh...I knew it would happen once I began coming back to TBN, I have that dreaded disease called EQUIPMENT ENVY...it probably affects the majority of us here at one time or another. Never mind that our property has only enough trees to keep that excavator working for a half hour at most, I still WANT ONE.

:thumbsup: I agree; every kid over thirty should have one

You will have a beautiful view...please keep us posted on the progress.

i was thinking the same thing.

 

[BruceWard]

After a little over a month, 3 snow storms, 5 days of jack hammering and some blasting we are finally down to grade over the entire house area. In fact on Monday (after the snow melts) we will be building back up with gravel in some areas where we are below grade.

The house will be sitting the corner of this picture

We had a clear sky on Monday, I am standing near where the front door will be

This picture was taken below the rock wall holding back an area we built up beyond the house. The house will be entirely on freshly excavated material.

This is looking down hill from the basement level

 

[BruceWard]

The slab was poured today

 

[BruceWard]

Here are some current pictures for an update

 

[EddieWalker]

Looks great!!!!

How many recessed lights did you put into your house? LOL

Eddie

 

[BruceWard]

How many recessed lights did you put into your house? LOL

A little less than 100. I did the electrical myself. A can light is $7 + $4 for the trim. I went a little crazy with them.