[HammerOn]

I generally dig my house seats with an extra 2-3 feet all the way around them. It ends up being 1-2 feet by the time their dug in (hard to dig straight down). It allows for my initial cut to be a little out of square, room for my batterboards, room to get in to install waterproofing and drains. Digging in the mountains, foundations range in depth from 10-16 feet.

My problem is the unavoidable call back that settling has caused some issue.

1. The stucco line is exposed. (We've made this better by having the foundations stuccoed 6" below grade)

2. In the case that a tiny landing and steps were used, the settling has caused the steps to tilt.

Thinking about:
-Backfill with stone which is awesome for drainage but hard on the budget.
-Good ol' jumping jack packer. Hard on the back and some what on the budget.

What do you guys do?


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[HammerOn]

The soil type can vary greatly here in the mountains. Generally the clay content is good, and the soil compacts well if we can get the equipment to it. Our cut may be 8-10 feet and we will build a tall foundation to act as a retaining wall to fill and build yards and driveways on the uphill side.

We generally stagger the starts and work on multiple houses at once but by year end we average 1 house per month. Nature just can't keep up.

Once the floor system is on and we have some weight, we push to get backfilled.



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