Building A House Checklist: Groundwork
So, you’re ready to get started building your house. Yay!
Before you start nailing some boards together, there’s some work around your property you will want to do first.
We are going to go over everything you should have done before you begin building the actual structure that will be your house.
*Just a note: this list is composed of the groundwork you will need to consider doing if you are NOT using city/public access lines. This is for building in a rural or country setting.
These things will include:
*Clearing the land you will build on and/or the lawn you want of any trees, stumps, rocks, and anything else that will hinder the construction process or the smoothness of your lawn.
*Putting in your water
*Putting In the septic
*Installing electricity
*Foundation work
In this post, we will be looking at water, septic, and electricity.
Let’s dive right in, shall we?
The Water Supply
If you’re building in the country, your water supply will most likely be a well.
You can either have your well drilled or dug.
There are pros and cons to both, but most people just go with the drilled well.
We were fortunate enough to have a well already established on the property when we bought it. It was a dug well, in a good location, deep enough, and in good enough condition that there was little work that we needed to do to get it functional.
Something to consider, when trying to decide which type of well you want; you want to make sure your well is deep enough that it won’t dry out.
If your area tends to have hot, dry summers or you don’t have an obvious water source then chances are, if you go with a dug well, you will run out of water.
If we did not already have a well established on the property when we bought it, we most definitely would have had ours drilled.
It tends to be the best way to ensure you will always have water.
After you have a well, you will want to run a water line up to where your house will be. This line will be buried until it pops out where you want the water tank to be in your house.
Putting In The Septic
The septic is your sewer system. It is where all of your waste will filter.
You will need two things for this system:
*A septic tank
*A Leachfield
The tank is were everything gets broken down. The leachfield is where everything that was broken down gets filtered back into the soil.
You will need a hole dug near the house for your tank.
The leachfield filtration system will also need to be buried.
I HIGHLY recommend you hire a professional to help you map out where these two items can go in your yard.
Trust me; this is one area you do not want there to be problems!
Bring On The Power!
You will need to plan out a couple of things with this.
It is not as simple as plugging into the power grid.
First, you will want to locate where your power source is coming from-we had two options. This will most likely be a transformer on a pole or on the ground.
After, you will need to figure out how much distance there is between your power source and where you want the house.
If the distance is too far, you will need to put poles in and possibly another transformer.
You will then need to check with your local and state codes for the placement options you have.
The first option we had brought our power up through our front lawn. We would have had to either place a couple of poles in our yard or try burying it. Either way the distance was going to be too great and we would have had to place a transformer somewhere.
The second option brought us through our neighbor back yard, through the trees. We would have had to either cut a wide span of trees along the wire distance or bury it. This option was the right amount of distance so we would not have to put in a transformer.
Thankfully our neighbor was nice enough to let us go through his property. We also chose to bury it. This means less land destruction and less maintenance.
When you get this all squared away, you’ll need to purchase the wire. You will want enough to reach the house with a little extra wiggle room for connecting to the meter box and panel.
You will definitely need more than you think.
~MeganRelated Posts:
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