Making the Grade is a Juggling Act

Posted December 18, 2008 06:47 by Robert

Tags: site and foundation

The one thing a houseplan cannot dictate for you is the grading of your property, but its hugely important both from an aesthetical standpoint and for keeping water away, which is the enemy of any home. I just dropped by the house and the excavation is coming along nicely as you can see from the picture. We have a pretty level lot and based on the advice of many people, we are going with a 9ft+ basement as that extra foot makes a big difference if we decide to finish the basement in the future, without really adding much cost.  The main reason this extra foot is that you usually lose a foot to the HVAC ductwork and or wires and plumbing, which is why you see finished basements with all kids of bump outs in the ceiling. By going the extra foot, you leave yourself the opportunity to have flat 8ft finish ceilings without any box outs, which is a nice height especially if you are going to have any exercise equipment down there. We have actually filled in the hole a bit from where it was originally dug out to as we have decided to raise the house a little higher above ground to make sure that the water is gradually running away from the house in all directions. So even though the foundation is about 9ft tall, it’s only going to be about 6-7 feet underground. It’s a tricky balance b/c ideally you don’t want to see a lot of concrete, but you also don’t want to risk having any water pooling against the house. The highest exposed portion of the foundation will actually be on the back right corner of the house (about 3-4 feet) where we fortunately had planned for a small side deck and a set of full windows in the basement, so this worked out to our advantage. It’s easier  to hide exposed foundation under a porch or deck with lattice or stone and the full set of basement windows will benefit form less excavation since they need a concrete well rather than a more typical metal support for a traditional basement window. 

Grading is tricky and there are a lot of things to take into account including the amount of exposed foundation, water runoff and the nature of the lot itself. Also, if you live in a dense area such as we will with houses close to you on each side, you really have to pick a grade that doesn’t look silly in relation to those houses or property lines. If you pick a grade that is very out of whack with your neighbor, you may necessitate a wall at the property line to even things our or run the risk of sending water onto their properly which will not make for a good friendship . Finally, if you are building a taller house, you need to make sure that where you chose to sit the house doesn’t put you at any risk for exceeding the height limit of the home. This is often determined off the average grade if you have a sloped lot.

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