re: New home construction thread. ANY AND ALL advice/tips/tricks welcomed

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ANY AND ALL advice/tips/tricks welcomed

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my fiancée is trying to plan a wedding, I'm trying to get a house built

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Secure a divorce attorney right now.

Foundation and slab are the most important parts of the house. You don't need to skimp on these items.

Lot of house slabs are poured with wire mesh as its reinforcement. The problem is that the reinforcement in a slab needs to be located at about the mid-point of the slab thickness to do any good . Wire mesh sitting on the ground is useless. The contractor may say that they will pick up the wire mesh during the concrete pour but the finishers will step on it afterwards and mash it back to the ground.

Rebar sitting on bar supports are now being used more often in house slabs. #3 or #4 rebar at about a 24" spacing sitting on 2" high bar supports. The finishers can walk on this rebar mat or step through the spaces. The rebar mat will maintain its position off the bottom of the slab.

Also, evaporation of the bleed water too quickly could occur if you pour the concrete in hot temperatures and the slab is fully exposed to the sun. You will get cracks in the slab. You can buy rolls of burlap from concrete companies to cover the slab after the pour. A couple of water sprinklers can be used to keep the burlap moist for a couple of days so the concrete can properly cure.

It is very difficult to have a perfect slab without any cracks but the rebar and moist burlap would definitely help in minimizing the cracks.

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Any thoughts of getting a Generac installed? Concrete has to be poured and of course hooks into your natural gas line. Wouldnt be a bad idea to get this done along with construction. You can get into a decent sized one for $10-12k installed.

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I will be getting gas line dropped for generac, but will have to hold off. I'm already over budget. $12k could be used elsewhere for now. Plus, my neighbors have whole house that I can run extension cord from (confirmed).

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the biggest complaint I see is people don't put enough wall receptacles in and home automation. It is far easier to install these things during construction than afterwards. If you want a security system with cameras or one of the nicer systems now is the time.

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This, I wish that I would have run my wires earlier (surround sound and surveillance wires). Also, If you hang Christmas lights, then go ahead and put some outlets under eaves. If you have the thought of ever needing an outlet in a certain place, then just put one there. Also, do not forget about ground outlets if you have an open floor plan.

If you have a bigger closet, think about going with florescent lighting in there. Your fiance will appreciate it later cause it really helps in picking out clothes (Mrs CG was really happy with this small thing).

If using granite counters, then go look for remnants at granite shops. A lot of them have leftovers from other jobs that are big enough to do a bathroom or laundry room and much cheaper.

And lastly, don't be afraid to ask questions even if you think it will piss the builder off. It is your house and you are paying him to do exactly what you want. Don't let him make you feel like you are getting in the way. You are the boss of the project.

Good luck on the wedding and the house.

Plan out where you are going to run your internet Modem, and hardwire cat6 ethernet from there to the TV's in the house, at least the Living room TV.

Screw a wifi signal.

And i second the elec plugs. My wife gripes every christmas because we dont have a plug where she wants to put the Christmas Tree. It's little things like that.

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It's little things like that.

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I know we're going to miss some things and hate ourselves for it. Only bad thing is, I plan to stay here a while, which is why I'm trying to get everything perfect.

And depending on which direction your house faces, be very careful with a wood front door. My house faces east and looked like this after only two years. I have to sand, stain, and varnish already. Hate it.

I'm currently building as well in Livingston and have a friend of mine doing it who's a contractor and builds high end custom homes in our area. its a stressful process and has taken forever to get going but they are framing it up now. It will be worth it in the end to do it custom and wait as long as we have. ill post updates

here's some pics of plans and the actual house and how it will look. it helped that we did a walkthrough of our exact plans and changed stuff we didn't like. ill follow the thread and update as well. a lot of custom things are going into mine. cypress beams, brick work, and stained ceilings on patio above outdoor kitchen.

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I would hire a CMT company to come and evaluate your subsoils for bearing capacity. This is probably the most critical part of your build.

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100% this. You need compaction tests done on everything that gets covered up with concrete or asphalt. You need to have cylinders pulled on all your concrete pours.

Very nice! Excited to see the updates as it comes along.