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

Make decisions on things like windows, doors, fixtures etc in advance of when you think you'll need them.

Congrats on the house and your upcoming admittance to the nut house

Site Work: It is always recommended to have your building pad bored to determine the bearing capacity of your soil. If soils are found to be adequate then make sure you have proper drainage away from your foundation, all organic matter is removed, and begin work. If the soil is not desirable, follow geotechnical recommendations for undercutting and refilling. A good rule of thumb if you don't have a soil bore done but are skeptical of the soil is to undercut 3x the thickness of your footing design and refill in 6" lifts compacting as you go. Insure proper drainage from your foundation and you are ready to dig footings.

Foundations: There are many types, monolithic, block and fill, and conventional are the most common. My preferred design is block and fill which allows me to elevate the slab higher with less forming. I recommend your finish floor to be a minimum of 12" above the sub grade. This allows for raised flower beds without the threat of water getting into your house. If you choose to build 4-6" above sub grade then install raised beds you are very likely to have issues with water down the road. I elevate all my homes to 20" for finish floor of heated space, with porches and garages being 7" lower with fall built into porches and garages to allow for drainage of water. Exterior footings should be under the entire perimeter of the home as well as all sides of porches, garages, and should run continuous with no breaks. Footing design varies for different soil types and load bearing requirements, but a minimum of 18" wide and 12" deep with 3-#4 bars is highly recommended. Grade beams under load bearing walls are also highly recommended and should be at minimum 8" wide x 8" deep with 2 #4 bars. I use a footing design of 20" wide x 14" deep with 4-#4 bars, three at the bottom and one at the top tied to the grade pin with 12" wide x 8" deep grade beams for single story homes, and increase to 24"x16" footings with 12"x12" grade beams for two story homes. If doing monolithic, tie one additional #4 bar to the bottom of your mudsill anchors, and if doing a block and fill install uprights out of footings every 32" and lay a bond beam course every other course with 1-#4 bar tie continuous as well as tieing 1-#4 bar at the top connected to your mudsill anchors. Mudsill anchors or anchor bolts should be installed 2' or less from all corners and exterior door openings as well as every 6' in between. Welded wire mesh is recommended, 10 gauge minimum. I use 6 gauge. Support all wire mesh to insure proper coverage of concrete and also make sure to overlap it at least 6" and tie it all together. Insure proper coverage of rebar in footings as well. Rebar should have 3" coverage minimum and should be located in the bottom 1/3 and top 1/3 of the footings, not the center. Rebar should have a minimum overlap of 20 x the diameter of the bar used and all corners should have corner bars lapping 24" each way or bends should run continuous through corners. No crossing and tieing intersections should be done. I recommend using Hercules #928 chairs for exterior footings, #924 for grade beams, and #911 under wire. 5-#4 bars should be tied diagonally to the wire mesh starting 6" from all inside corners and being spaced every 6". It is also a good idea to do this around tub boxes. I'm tired of typing, I'm going to continue a little each day until I make it all the way through the process.

just picked out all the plumbing fixtures...that was not fun and at the end of the day it was whatever the wife wanted anyways. like the previous post said pick out all your stuff in advance. makes it easier.

Fiancée and her mom went and picked out plumbing fixtures while I was in Nashville for a bachelor party this weekend. We went over them last night and made a few minor changes in sinks, but other than that, we're on the same page. Came in $600 under allowances light fixtures are next. I'm glad your garage isn't 12' wide