I'm Building a Brand New House!! LetsDig18 gets us Started!!

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:00]Today we're getting ready to start another house build. Before we can build anything, we've got to start with the foundation. That means taking this raw lot, leveling it, flattening it, and turning it into a solid building pad for the new house. So, of course, I called Let's Dig In and Robert to take care of that for me. All right, so we're trying to lay this out. We're actually going to move the house a little farther up the hill because that lower corner is about 3 ft low.

[00:00:29]>> Yeah, that's a problem.

[00:00:31]>> What are you You had it at like 73 ft.

[00:00:33]70. The only thing >> So we got at 45 ft. We have to stay clear of the easement >> from the fence over 45 >> and then 15. So that's 60. So anything past 60 we're good.

[00:00:44]>> Okay.

[00:00:45]>> But we can go as far as 60 this way if we wanted to. I I would like to go this way a little bit more because the only thing that's going to come into play is when we come up two feet, it's going to get a little tight right there with the well.

[00:00:56]>> Okay.

[00:00:57]>> So, you had it at like 73. Maybe 70. I think 70 will be >> This is as close as we can get is over here.

[00:01:08]>> So, maybe right in here about 65.

[00:01:11]>> Let me do 70. That gives you a little bit of extra room in case something for some reason. Yeah.

[00:01:16]>> Nothing. What are you talking about?

[00:01:17]>> Stuff never happens.

[00:01:18]>> Nothing crazy happens.

[00:01:19]>> I mean, that'll that's going to give us an extra three or four feet, but I mean, the house is a touch smaller than that other than your porch.

[00:01:26]>> Yeah. This is just the porch.

[00:01:27]>> This is just the porch.

[00:01:28]>> Yeah.

[00:01:28]>> Okay.

[00:01:30]>> All right. So, now we need to go >> 62.

[00:01:34]>> 62 >> from the 70 mark.

[00:01:36]>> Oh, no. We got to square it up. Yeah.

[00:01:38]>> Is this going to mess up anything >> with the other one?

[00:01:44]>> So, we know where we're going this way.

[00:01:46]It's a pretty good size pad.

[00:01:47]>> All right.

[00:01:48]>> So, >> what?

[00:01:51]>> That's what she >> But the good thing is the ground the house shouldn't settle.

[00:01:59]>> No, >> cuz I can barely get a flag in the ground.

[00:02:01]>> Good hard dirt.

[00:02:02]>> All right. You want to go to 70 to the fence and we'll square it up off of that.

[00:02:09]>> Oh, yeah. That's a lot better. Why did you do this to begin with?

[00:02:12]>> Well, that's why I'm here now. I mean, don't get me wrong, it it's a better 20 ft really didn't make a big of a difference, but >> it does on the um dirt from me. You came on up to the craft.

[00:02:24]>> Well, keep in mind, we might not be square because we're a lot off of that.

[00:02:27]But >> yeah, we'll see. 90 by 90 is 8100. 65 by 65 that plus 8,100.

[00:02:39]All right. square<unk> of 12,325.

[00:02:45]So we'll do square<unk> of 12,325 is 111 ft. All right, get a square.

[00:02:59]Teaching the viewers on how to square off.

[00:03:01]>> How to square up the >> like an episode of the three students.

[00:03:06]Well, we were I gave him the wrong end because I thought we were going to do the other corner, but we can't do that corner.

[00:03:11]>> Who's Larry? Is that you?

[00:03:14]>> Not Carol. So, >> and this is the easy way to get it square.

[00:03:20]>> All right. Now, we got to do uh stay right there, Joe.

[00:03:24]>> Okay.

[00:03:29]>> I thought somebody was going to clear.

[00:03:32]>> I wanted to know where the box was going first.

[00:03:37]Hey, I filled it in.

[00:03:39]>> Looks great.

[00:03:40]>> Thanks.

[00:03:42]>> Now that we've got the pad marked out and squared up, we need to check the elevation at each corner so we can make sure everything ends up level.

[00:03:51]>> We changed that elevation up there. So, the one that I had is completely irrelevant. Now, since we was basing it off the high corner originally, we now move it. I got to check that. We make it ground level right there with dirt.

[00:04:05]>> Yeah.

[00:04:05]>> It's going to come up 10 inches which will get your drainage away.

[00:04:08]>> Yeah.

[00:04:09]>> Which is going to put dirt here and then concrete concrete will be about right there.

[00:04:16]>> Okay.

[00:04:17]>> The finish grade will be that much. And then we can >> we got room to grade that.

[00:04:20]>> Yeah. And that'll give us plenty of drainage away.

[00:04:24]>> Okay. Because if your finished floor is right, you know, thereish, >> we'll be able to back fill that create a >> back give us a swell that water will run down that way.

[00:04:32]>> Okay.

[00:04:33]>> We just need to figure out Well, if we come up 10 inches right there, that's not I think I think that'll be smart.

[00:04:41]>> Yeah, I agree.

[00:04:41]>> To come up. If anything, maybe I'd skim it down just a little bit. We're only six inches out the ground.

[00:04:48]>> I'm trying to keep this corner from being It's still going to be close to 3 ft out of the ground.

[00:04:53]Got you.

[00:04:55]>> I'm just trying.

[00:04:55]>> There's not. Yeah, we can't really change that over there.

[00:04:58]>> No, I mean the well kind of >> So, we're kind of Well, dictates that. I mean, we can we can raise that up a little bit.

[00:05:06]I mean, it's just sitting on blocks, right? I mean, that can be >> Oh, yeah.

[00:05:09]>> The pressure tank can be I mean, if we need to raise that up six inches, but I mean, we can't bury the top of the case, >> right?

[00:05:15]>> Robert can weld the What is that? What did they put in from the sleeve?

[00:05:21]Galvaniz. Well, galvanized.

[00:05:23]>> I thought it was PVC.

[00:05:25]>> Is it?

[00:05:25]>> I don't know.

[00:05:28]>> Well, we can just add to it then. There you go.

[00:05:30]>> We'll just glue it.

[00:05:31]>> We'll just put the We'll just pull the whale up an extra 4T.

[00:05:34]>> Yeah. Put the strap around. Bring the big >> I'm talking about pull the whale. Yeah. Just pull it up by pull the sleeve out of the ground.

[00:05:45]Chris, >> what's that? About 4 in.

[00:05:51]>> About 4 in.

[00:05:53]>> That's uh >> Let me drive.

[00:05:57]>> What is So, there's a driveway that's coming through here.

[00:06:01]>> Yeah, the driveway I can put anywhere in here. I just can't, you know, go further than the >> Yeah.

[00:06:06]>> So, it's probably going to ride that ridge.

[00:06:10]>> Oh, so it's not going to come in like right here? It >> could. He can do whatever he wants.

[00:06:14]>> Yeah, >> cuz I figured he would just kind of come in right here and turn, >> which is fine.

[00:06:18]>> And stay pretty close to the house.

[00:06:20]>> Yeah. Okay.

[00:06:23]Cuz I mean this is this is a another gully right here.

[00:06:28]>> Well, >> a little bit of one.

[00:06:29]>> Three inches.

[00:06:32]>> Let me let me cut that down like three or four inches. That way when we do our rock, we'll with concrete we'll be like six inches out of the ground. Then we can just kind of grade away from it a little bit more.

[00:06:45]>> Yeah.

[00:06:46]>> Every little bit's going to help when it comes to not being so high down there.

[00:06:49]>> Yeah, that's what we need to avoid if we can.

[00:06:52]>> Yeah.

[00:06:53]But we just we can't recess it down and just have a random hole right here, though. It's not It's >> not going to be right.

[00:07:00]>> Okay, we got her planned out. Got to get the grass stripped off.

[00:07:06]that rolled in and start bringing play.

[00:07:11]>> What's lunch?

[00:07:13]>> Hot dog.

[00:07:14]>> Hot dog day.

[00:07:15]>> We're going to introduce Josh to hot dog day.

[00:07:18]>> Yeah. You going to hang out with us?

[00:07:20]>> Pit stop.

[00:07:21]>> Oh, sounds good.

[00:07:24]Delicacy.

[00:07:25]>> Hey, I'm all for it.

[00:07:26]>> Gas station hot dogs.

[00:07:28]>> Oh, Jeff. That's crazy right there. But then concrete, we're going to be way the hell up here.

[00:07:33]>> How did it get, man? It didn't seem like it was that crazy.

[00:07:36]>> If I go down 4 in, that's still going to take.

[00:07:39]>> Yeah.

[00:07:40]>> Still going to put concrete right here, though.

[00:07:42]>> So, we've only got 10 in of clay anyway, right? That's the thickness of the >> whole slab. We're not going to go lower than grain.

[00:07:52]Then, we're in a hole.

[00:07:54]>> Do you want me to do it a little bit lower? And then we'll just contour that to make it drain.

[00:07:59]>> I think that's going to have to be play.

[00:08:01]What is this? What did they see?

[00:08:04]That's going to be >> You could just put a coupler on that.

[00:08:08]>> I'll raise that up like however high we got to.

[00:08:11]>> But we still can only grade. We only hide from the house to there to >> Yeah.

[00:08:16]>> to mean honestly this can be raised up a foot without changing anything. And that's not going to >> that's not going to affect anything.

[00:08:23]>> No.

[00:08:25]>> Yeah.

[00:08:25]>> Pretty sure the wall coat says the top of the line be so far off the dirt.

[00:08:28]>> Yeah. So, what we'll do is however far we have to raise this is how much the pump's going to come out. I mean, I've got it's sitting at 300 feet. I mean, we got >> we can come up four or five feet. It doesn't matter.

[00:08:39]>> Not going to affect it.

[00:08:40]>> Then cuz I'll have Casey building >> that's the grade of your >> Yeah. dirt. But, I mean, we're going to taper down some.

[00:08:50]>> Let me cut it down. I'll cut it down 10 in below that flag.

[00:08:54]>> Okay.

[00:08:54]>> So, that we're pretty much at ground level. Once your slab's done, we'll come in here and cut it out, make it drain away from it then.

[00:09:01]>> Okay.

[00:09:02]>> I mean, we have room. I just once the pad's done and then we can kind of use that dirt to back fill and >> Okay.

[00:09:09]>> yada yada yada yada.

[00:09:11]>> So, I'm going to go with that 71.

[00:09:15]Let's just make it somewhere around like 79 is finished grade. So the issue we've got is the So if you go out to the fence in the road that's higher that's the high point. So when water comes in. So the big thing about >> Does that look more better?

[00:09:32]>> That looks a lot better.

[00:09:33]>> But I mean still concrete is going to be like here.

[00:09:35]>> Yeah. But still it's better. House building is managing water, right? Cuz water's your enemy. So rainstorms is going to want to run this way. So you need a slab above the rain. But once you bring the slab out using the transit to see what the height is, you know, we're out like this high out of the ground.

[00:09:53]So, normally we would just grade this and add dirt, but we've got the well already here. We've got our trees planted. So, we're kind of married to this the lot how it is. So, we're just going to we'll have to raise the sleeve up some and bring all this up, which isn't a big deal, but it's not ideal.

[00:10:12]Perfect world, you would add your well after this is done. But we were trying to get this in because we needed uh more water and stuff out here anyway, but it's actually just sat for like a wasn't uh wasn't really needed yet, but >> Hey, Jeffy, this was flat right here.

[00:10:34]>> Yeah, >> was that one and that one didn't.

[00:10:39]>> I didn't want to mess with the top one.

[00:10:43]>> The precious commodity.

[00:10:45]>> Yeah.

[00:10:47]>> No, we got the grass stripped off and uh I still got to dig out a few spots.

[00:10:53]>> Showing uh Robert the new machine I got.

[00:10:56]>> Yeah.

[00:10:57]>> Yeah.

[00:10:57]>> Yeah.

[00:10:58]>> You like it? You don't like starting the stupid stuff. You got >> technology.

[00:11:04]>> Well, somebody told me pass.

[00:11:07]>> That was one two three four.

[00:11:08]>> Yeah, >> that was that's Volvo's code.

[00:11:10]>> Oh, nice. I'mma change it to something.

[00:11:14]>> One, two, one.

[00:11:16]>> It's the same number.

[00:11:17]>> It's 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >> 1 3 1.

[00:11:20]>> It'll just still be hit the same button.

[00:11:22]Perfect.

[00:11:23]>> You would do something like that.

[00:11:25]>> I changed the code, but it's the same button.

[00:11:27]>> Change the code. Long long as we don't let uh James get the code. We're all right.

[00:11:32]>> Change it to 3434.

[00:11:35]The next >> Chris has already been busy at work.

[00:11:41]strip stripping off the grass. So, you want to get this off. You don't want to just put your mud over top of the grass.

[00:11:46]So, we'll take that off and put it in the pile on the right is um top soil. So, we'll keep keep all that. And he cut it down a little bit so that that's the high spot. So, the more we cut that down, the less out of the ground that comes when it's done. So you're trying to get a whole flat spot and but we can only go down so much because end result we have to be out of the ground some so we can maintain water runoff. So it's a battle but uh I think we're going to be all right >> here. We are doing some final grading before we start bringing in the clay.

[00:12:28]Once we have the plan we can start hauling in clay, spreading it out and compacting it to build the pad up to the correct elevation.

[00:13:13]After the clay is spread, we run over it with this massive vibrating compactor that helps pack everything down tight so the pad is solid and ready to build on.

[00:13:37]Hey, hey, hey.

[00:13:58]All right, the pad is coming along very well.

[00:14:03]See how smooth and flat that is. So, we went a little bit in the ground over here.

[00:14:10]Not too much. So, by the time we add the gravel fill and the 2 in of foam and 4 in of concrete, we'll be above grade, which is what we want. And that keeps us. So, however far we went in the ground here, keeps us from being that much more out of the ground over there.

[00:14:29]Roller's been doing a great job. He's been using both of them. So, you see that little mound we were talking about earlier, how much that was going to be out of the ground, but it's not too bad.

[00:14:39]I'll raise the well sleeve a little bit and we'll bring where Chris is adding that dirt. I'll bring it out and taper it a little bit more around that and this will uh end up fine. So, we've got from here to the tree line to build this up some and it's going to work out. Things always look funny till the end when landscaping and final grade and all that happens. So, get out of his way.

[00:15:15]and it is super dusty. We are in the middle of a drought and uh it is not helping with uh packing dirt. So that gives you an idea of how much out of the ground we had to end up on this corner, which is why we slid it back some. Originally, I was going to start here and we would have been even even further out.

[00:15:37]But after the house is built and we do our final grade, we'll just have to bring dirt in and slope it all this way and fix all that.

[00:15:51]So, this is a good example of when you go out to buy property and you're looking to buy a lot to build your house on, you want to look at the grade because this is where expenses are added to a build. What do you think?

[00:16:07]>> I think it's it looks good. I mean, it's it's turning out like we thought. We're going to need a decent amount of dirt to get this how we want.

[00:16:15]>> But I do like that you slid it back cuz I think >> if if somebody wants to put a pool in, they'll still have a little bit of room.

[00:16:22]>> Room for that.

[00:16:23]>> Yeah.

[00:16:23]>> Plus, you need a little bit more room.

[00:16:25]Where does the uh where did you say the other sink was at the property?

[00:16:29]>> That's middle of the of the fork.

[00:16:32]>> And then it goes over there. So, if we look over there in the woods, there should be another one down there.

[00:16:37]>> And there you go, the finished grade.

[00:16:40]Now, it's ready to be marked out so we can start digging the footings for the house. That will be coming in a future video, so keep an eye out for that. As always, thank you so much for watching.

[00:16:51]Don't forget to like and subscribe. It really helps the channel out.