New World Datsuns...

No problem at all. That's about how I understood it. After the concrete walls are poured it gets waterproof coating painted on and a membrane applied. The seams get caulked and a drain pipe gets layed in before backfill of rock then gravel then dirt.
Would have been much cheaper and easier to just build on level ground and skip the basement. I'm an idiot.

The red stuff,if its anything like a metal concrete form,its a oil.

I did a stint at a highway barrier making plant back in the 90s

The red boat is back together and test fired.

Got concrete yesterday.

So what kind of drainage are you going to have on the back of the house?

Along the bottom of the wall in the first pic will be a flexiible drain pipe coverd by rock. The pipe will drain downhill under the back yard. Then a waterproof membrane gets applied to the outside. Then it all gets backfilled. Everything above the basement (uphill side) is covered with house and garage.

It can rain pretty hard over there, no small pipe is going to handle it.
I would be thinking some kind of wall diverting it to the side, or maybe a trench.

It'll make more sense as it progresses.

looks good Jess, thanks for the update.

as for the drainage, it's all been planned / engineered for the area by the architect.

take it a soil test was done, not sure if you mentioned that in a earlier post.

Exactly right. I may have mentioned in passing. So far I've spent over $10k on soil testing and additional engineering above and beyond what the architect was paid. Many, many times more than that on excavation, addition concrete, and retaining walls. Not bragging, but not an FML by any means. Just pointing out that it would have cost way less to build on the flat portion at the bottom of the lot. I wanted the added square footage of the basement and the view.

Concrete guys are supposed to be back to peel forms today or tomorrow. Then I need to drill a bunch of holes in the footings (another engineering requirement that was added late) to add more rebar to anchor the footings to the floor slab when it gets poured. We'll be laying in drainage monday or Tuesday.

thought I'd post your pic here in this thread also.

[url=https://postimg.cc/image/9875tk8jv/]


question, from the top of the footings to the top of the concrete wall, is that 10' ?

Also, will there be a wood or concrete sub floor. I'm seeing either re-bar poking at the top of the concrete wall or top plate bolts, that's why I ask.

You beat me to my own post. I was planning to update later today. Top of the wall is probably 9' from finished floor which will be concrete slab at the level of the bottom of the door frame. Plans spec 8' ceiling in the basement. What you see poking out the top is studs for the plate. The square pad with the black tub on it is one of 2 post locations. The dogleg shaped pads are where the stairs will be.

I drilled 97 holes in the footings yesterday. Brown dog was no help. It was in the 20s.


My contractor will be here in about an hour with a skidsteer and we'll get the drain pipe in and get the rock over it.

Looks like you sent the brown dog to a corner, or is that where he lives, under the stairs?
I would guess you were tired after drilling that many holes, is fresh concrete softer?

It actually drilled pretty easy. Much faster than I expected but my dainty wrists and biceps were a bit tender this morning.
I spent a few hours with the skidsteer today. We laid the perforated pipe around the 3 uphill sides and covered with rock. Then I backfilled the downhill side and leveled out the area that will be the back yard, mostly because it looked like shit. It'll get dug up again for septic and drain field along with 2 large drywells that will collect the gutter runoff and whatever may trickle out of the drainage pipe we put in today.



You can see the waterproofing in the 2nd photo. That will get another coat then be covered by a membrane. Then the whole area will be under 6-8 feet of dirt. If all goes well the excavator will be back in about a week for backfill and compaction.

At least you're there and can oversee what's going on. Making sure someone doesn't cut corners to get the shit done quicker.

Not sure I have any control of getting it done quicker.

Damn, that looks like a big place! 2 post in the bedroom?

I would not do good in this situation, when I build something I keep at it till it is done, not sure I would do well waiting for others I am paying to do the work, I would not understand the waiting in between spurts of work.
When I put my roof on myself I worked on it every day till it was done, I may not have worked 8 hours every day as it was stinking hot outside, but I did work on it every day, it took 2 weeks and 2 days for me to tear it off, replace a little bit of plywood, get the roofing up onto the roof and install it, a few of them days were only 4 hour days, but none were more than 8 hours.
I am more than happy with my choice of roofing, I picked 110mph roofing made to stay where it is even in hurricane winds, I also blended the valleys so I didn't need valley flashing nor did I need to cut any roofing, but it took time to blend it, also the neighbors thought I was crazy for picking red roofing, but that is what I had before, but most the granules had fell off and the roof had been turning black for years, it was a 20 year roof when installed, it was 37 years old.
We have moss grow on everything over here as you know, I decided to deal with the moss myself using chemicals as there is no roofing made it will not eventually grow on, but wind protection I could buy, this roofing had a shitload of tar on the bottom side, when I layed roofing on the roof when installing it I had to sit it on the roof upside down otherwise it would stick to whatever I set it on.

HRH wrote:Damn, that looks like a big place! 2 post in the bedroom?

Thanks, man. No, I'm going old school with a drive over pit in the basement.

Wayno, I'm not patient by nature either. There are a lot of factors at play here that make the progress slow.
1st and probably most insurmountable is the building boom in the greater Boise area. All the subs are really busy so the best you can hope for is that you get on their list and wait in line.
2nd is that the nature of this build (basement on a hill) is rather unusual for the area. There is a lot of added hassle with engineering and extra inspections. It all takes time.
3rd is something I think I've mentioned but maybe haven't. My contractor is an occasional building partner with my dad and they worked out a deal a couple years ago so that Bob is basically doing this build at cost. This is a huge blessing to us on the bottom line. So, because I really appreciate what he's doing here for me, I don't want to be pushy or difficult. As long as he's building it right and to my specs, I'm really in no big hurry as long as it's wrapped up by June when the girls are out of school.
4th thing, which is actually a huge bonus, is that the contractor is building basically the same house for himself right now. The good thing about this scenario is that once a sub finishes at his house he can send them directly over here. His is being framed right now.
Progress is still being made. The waterproofing guys are up there right now. The main excavator is coming back next week to backfill and compact. Then another excavation guy is coming in to do some more surgical prep for more concrete, drainage, and septic. Framers are supposed to begin in early January.