Wellllllll the time has finally come. Kim and I will be doing the final walk through tomorrow, close on Tuesday, and start the move. Hopefullay we will not have much left to move by the following Monday. We are renting a lift gate truck for the shop machinery and the big stuff.
A couple of out side pictures,
"Leon" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:
Congratulations! Happy Holidays and a productive 2011!
New Year as well!
It looks like the folks you hired did what they were supposed to do when they were supposed to do it. Imagine, folks who tell you what they are going to do, and then actually do it!
Life must be good in the twilight zone.
--------------------------- Congratulations.
Enjoy.
My parents moved into a house they built after Christmas 1947.
New Year's 1948 was quite an event for the family.
Lew
Thank you Han
New Year as well!
Thank you. I hope we can relax enough to enjoy new years. ;~)
I'll have to say that there were no surprises that we could not correct. I feel that we got a pretty good deal on everything and they were accommodating on those items that were a matter of fitting into the builders given budget. The fact that I visited the site probably 20 times during the build may not have hurt either. ;~) The weather absolutely cooperated also.
Thank you Lew, Deja Vu! Coincidentally had we closed on Jan 9 instead of Dec 21 we would have lived in our current home for 30 years. It was going to be a starter home and then life happened. ;~) It is once again a starter home, for our son. He bought it from us in October with many more upgrades than it originally had. ;~)
Congrats, Leon. It has been a long time coming.
Now go dig that bloody mulch away from those poor tree trunks before it kills each and every one of those trees! (or is it beveled down to the ground there? I can't quite make it out, but it looks as if there are 6" of mulch all the way up to and against the trunk.)
-- "A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government." --Edward Abbey
It's an insidious plot to kill all the trees in Texas to make it look more homey, like Northern Mexico. ;)
I think you've uncovered an Obamunist plot, Swingy! That's why Dems are pushing for "immigration reform", to debark and kill all our trees. Next they'll be after the poor Canuckistanis!
-- "A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government." --Edward Abbey
Already aware of what too much mulch and or dirt can do if it is pilled too high around the tree, and around the trunk is not the only problem. It is not very deep at all, most of the bulge is the ball that came with the tree.
Thanks
I am no expert on the matter however when I took archetectural drafting in school the standard was rebar every where. It looked like we were designing freeway concrete overpasses. Our current 30 year old house and this house use tension cables. After the concrete has had a period of time to cure but not too long the nuts on the ends of each cable are tightened to a predetermined torque. To the best of my knowledge this does not acutally prevent cracks especially surface cracks but it is supposed to prevent the seperation of the foundation in the event it cracked all the way through.
I could see this system used in earthquake prone areas but Texas? Wasn't aware Texas had earthquake problems or is it Expansive Soils? Seems like a lot of work and expense to keep concrete from cracking. Haven't even seen that systems used in California where I would expect it, with all their silly regulations on the most minor things.
For both you and Leon:
Indeed, it is ALL about "expansive soils" ...
The tail that wags the dog regarding the types of foundation used in construction is the "soil report" for the particular foundation's _location upon which it is built_.
Our soil in this region is mostly expansive clays. The main problem, simplistically speaking, with this type of soil is periodic "upheaval" due to a cycle of drought and wet seasons, which puts pressure on the bottom of the foundation, said pressure from underneath causing foundation failures.
The best possible foundation for this type of soil is, IMO, a "structural slab with void space", which alleviates the upheaval pressure by actually having a void beneath the foundation.
An extreme example of this can be seen in the following foundation I built last year where the soil required a 12" void space beneath the grade beams, even though it was a crawl space and not a slab on grade:
These types of foundation are much more expensive than a post tension slab, the latter which has a high fixability factor in the event of a foundation failure, and this factor is a valid concept.
As you can see in the previous link posted, many types of foundations will work in these types of soil, but it boils down to the fact that tract/volume home builders can play statistical odds on foundation failures that custom home builders can't readily play when it comes to choosing a foundation type.
In a nutshell, you ALWAYS let the soil report dictate the type of slab, and in most cases the builder will have a choice of valid types and costs from which to choose stated in that report.
With foundations, you make your choices and you take your chances ...
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