Septic tanks and grading

Grading continues to make really good progress - they are now estimating less than a week to finish the site work so that the retaining walls and foundation work can begin. When we stopped by the lot yesterday they were working with 3 people: one digging into the soil and mixing up wet soil with drier top soil, one bulldozing the soil down on the bench to keep building it and the last person running the large compaction machine to compact the soil. They have been getting good compaction values so the house should stay in place :-)

Today they also installed the septic tank system. We really like where they have placed the tanks on the lot - it's over to a side and completely out of sight from the house and deck.

The hole for the septic tanks.

Both septic tanks lifted in place. The large one weighs 16,000 pounds (or 8 tons). They are both made of concrete and super sturdy.

The site and grading work continues

After a small break our grading contractor is now back on site. They had to take a break to let the soil dry out a bit. 

They have now completed the second key and bench and installed another drain further up the slope. The two drains are there to protect the steep slope from sliding or moving in the future.

The weather has warmed up and while the soil on the surface is very dry, they still have to spend a lot of time mixing soil to get the correct moisture content so they can compact the soil to more than 90% compaction.

I also spoke to our general contractor about the progress and he has now put the foundation contractor in alert so they can be ready to start in about two weeks.

As part of the foundation work they will also drill and pout the piers for the pool. It will be super exciting to see real construction with concrete and pool work beginning very soon