We had a quick look at our lot last night with the septic/well guy. As we already know the soil is heavy clay, and we are in a low spot. If we want a septic field it would cost over $16,000 We may just go with a holding tank.
Now that’s a fine looking driveway, lots of clay and well packed, we just need some gravel on top.
Just a quick note to anyone buying vacant land to build on. If you are considering buying land outside the city to live on check how high the land is compared to the bottom of your neighbors basement windows. The municipality will make you build to a certain final grade. Your final grade of your house is measured at the top of your cement pad, or if you have a basement it’s measured to the bottom of your basement window. You will be required to haul in fill to build your driveway if things are too low, and you will need to get gravel to build up your foundation for a cement pad. Our land is three to four feet under final grade, before we build a 1720 sq ft concrete pad, we will have to build it up with gravel to support the weight of the concrete and house. Before you apply the gravel you strip the topsoil, hopefully only one foot if were lucky. If we have to build it up 4.5 feet X 1720 Sq feet we need 7740 Cubic feet or 287 cubic yards of gravel. We already hauled 600 cubic yards of free fill that cost $5000 to haul from 12 miles away, I expect that gravel will cost more to buy and the same to haul. If you do buy something that is in a low spot, you can easily work around it, but you can save yourself a lot by buying something that is already built up or not as low.