Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT Lodi Motors

[fourmotioneer]

Without being there in person to see, its hard to tell...BUT, I have fought water at my house for years and have learned (the hard way), that anytime I change anything water mitigation is in my train of though.

All that said, if water is pooling now, its going to keep pooling and likely get worse over time as things continue to erode. One question is, can it only be done now or can it be done later? Even if later, is there ever going to be a cheaper/more opportune time to do it, either way if you have the opportunity to direct it in another direction and keep it from pooling, I would say yes

I’m sold on the pooling fixes for the specific area it’s pooling. And leaning toward the best practice improvements as well, even if the benefits are less tangible.

It’s the best time to do it for sure. I also like tying the performance of the deck moving forward to the work done by this crew to minimize finger pointing. No “well you didn’t let us grade it” conversations

My main question now is are the rocks just builder OCD or should I expect some benefits? I like the idea but I don’t hate money either

 

[Trapps]

Water is the enemy. Anything you can do to mitigate it is worthwhile for the reasons you've already listed. Rocks/stone/gravel take up volume but allow water to pass through. At my home the addition of rocks also forced the chipmunks and rabbits to relocate during construction. They have not moved back in. Your builder might have OCD, but in this case it seems beneficial. Just ensure the water has somewhere to go away from the house

You're in this place for a longer haul I think, invest now and reap those benefits as early as possible.

 

[fouckhest]

As Trapps said, the rocks do have a benefit. I personally like rocks, even for flower beds, specifically for the reduction of future maintenance

 

[FullRaceMerc]

We always grade for water to flow away from the footing. Here it's required to pass inspection. If the situation calls for it we also waterproof the footing, install french drain with gravel, & drain it to daylight or a sump pump. But in most cases grading the surface is adequate. And even with the french drain below the surface is stiil dirt graded away from the house.

There are cases where raingutters & properly placed downspouts can improve the situation.

We don't normally use plastic on the surface. If we did, we'd probably use rocks on top to protect it from sun damage. But allowing the surface to wet & dry naturally seems better in most cases, as long as the surface flow is away from the footing. When we put rocks down, we use a weed screen that allows water to pass thru but prevents weed growth. Trapping water under plastic doesn't sound good.

 

[fourmotioneer]

We always grade for water to flow away from the footing. Here it's required to pass inspection. If the situation calls for it we also waterproof the footing, install french drain with gravel, & drain it to daylight or a sump pump. But in most cases grading the surface is adequate. And even with the french drain below the surface is stiil dirt graded away from the house.

There are cases where raingutters & properly placed downspouts can improve the situation.

We don't normally use plastic on the surface. If we did, we'd probably use rocks on top to protect it from sun damage. But allowing the surface to wet & dry naturally seems better in most cases, as long as the surface flow is away from the footing. When we put rocks down, we use a weed screen that allows water to pass thru but prevents weed growth. Trapping water under plastic doesn't sound good.

Appreciate the feedback. In this case, the application is beneath a covered deck that has gutters and downspouts. Would that change your opinion on the plastic and rocks?

This is for the portion on the left under the porch

 

[FullRaceMerc]

Appreciate the feedback. In this case, the application is beneath a covered deck that has gutters and downspouts. Would that change your opinion on the plastic and rocks?

This is for the portion on the left under the porch

I'd be thinking about water that gets under the plastic. Does it have somewhere to go? How well does the soil drain? Seeing your pic of the puddle makes it seem like you might want to allow some evaporation. If moisture can't escape somewhere, water saturated soil can get pretty foul.

 

[fourmotioneer]

I'd be thinking about water that gets under the plastic. Does it have somewhere to go? How well does the soil drain? Seeing your pic of the puddle makes it seem like you might want to allow some evaporation. If moisture can't escape somewhere, water saturated soil can get pretty foul.

My thought is that it would be graded away from the house and most would be above the plastic due to the porch roof

Definitely do see your point on saturated soil. The house is on soil that percs but based on the water in the pic perhaps that isn’t true everywhere

 

[fourmotioneer]

Photos below show that the garden (uncovered) is above the level of the footings and the drains onto foundation area. I’m thinking grading here will definitely be worthwhile. As for the rock, I’m less convinced but it’s likely better for erosion?

 

[fouckhest]

Rock lets water move, which is use case dependent

 

[fourmotioneer]

Water is the enemy. Anything you can do to mitigate it is worthwhile for the reasons you've already listed. Rocks/stone/gravel take up volume but allow water to pass through. At my home the addition of rocks also forced the chipmunks and rabbits to relocate during construction. They have not moved back in. Your builder might have OCD, but in this case it seems beneficial. Just ensure the water has somewhere to go away from the house

You're in this place for a longer haul I think, invest now and reap those benefits as early as possible.

Missed your comment yesterday but appreciated.

Definitely want my builder to be OCD. We had a good discussion this morning at my house and we are moving forward with full dirt and rocks.

Yeah, we will be here another 20 years at least. Looking at it exactly as you stated - looking to reap the benefits. And right now the benefits take priority over everything else

 

[fouckhest]

One thing I've also come to force myself to acknowledge in recent years is the fact that, "its never going to be cheaper" to do it. Combined that with when you have a trustworthy builder or anyone to do work, better get it done while you can.

 

[fourmotioneer]

Rock got delivered for underneath the front porch. Fill dirt will arrive next week and will precede the rock application.

Material is piling up currently but should start to deplete once engineer does his part next week. Was advised that drawings shouldn’t be too expensive and that it’s a 2-3 day turnaround. Of course, will be upfront with engineer about expectations when we meet on Monday




Here you can see where the rocks will live. At the far end is the small vent on the concrete driveway side of the house, about 100ft away

 

[fourmotioneer]

Grading and engineer visit:

Structural engineer came out and inspected and discussed for a while. Some notes:

• Being a covered porch, treated lumber isn’t necessary. If we wanted straighter lumber we could try untreated
• In general, before actual load calcs prove it, his assessment is that the current structure is plenty adequate
• No anticipated need to move to 2x12s as suggested by the crew
• He attributes most of the sloppiness to poor and hasty construction

We will be getting plans made and calcs run to be sure, but this helps somewhat on project scope. He will be running calcs on any roof posts we choose to move as well.

Between his guy creating site drawings and his calcs and permits, we will be set back a month or two. Then, the crew can start straightening the structure out and applying the new decking.

They came and removed joists from the front and started on grading improvements

 

[matt_i]

Might be late to the party here but I believe to live in or near same Twp as you. I worked on the battery pack for your friend's blue car.

I like the pea stone for mitigating critters, little pesky ground squirrels will show up some years out of nowhere and start drilling holes into places under the deck (etc), they are tough to trap/catch and too fast for my dogs. I haven't undertaken my personal deck refurb but that's one of my plans (upgrade to some sort of stone underneath). One year, I even had some aggressive milkweed (?) get pushed under the deck to the bare dirt below and enough sunlight thru the deck board gaps to start tickling the gaps and a few leaves started poking up. This is a ~28yo (lower elevation) treated wood deck with gaps that change with humidity and seasons.

Hopefully your guys can turn the corner and get finished to enjoy while nice weather is still with us.

 

[fourmotioneer]

Might be late to the party here but I believe to live in or near same Twp as you. I worked on the battery pack for your friend's blue car.

I like the pea stone for mitigating critters, little pesky ground squirrels will show up some years out of nowhere and start drilling holes into places under the deck (etc), they are tough to trap/catch and too fast for my dogs. I haven't undertaken my personal deck refurb but that's one of my plans (upgrade to some sort of stone underneath). One year, I even had some aggressive milkweed (?) get pushed under the deck to the bare dirt below and enough sunlight thru the deck board gaps to start tickling the gaps and a few leaves started poking up. This is a ~28yo (lower elevation) treated wood deck with gaps that change with humidity and seasons.

Hopefully your guys can turn the corner and get finished to enjoy while nice weather is still with us.

Appreciate you weighing in, and glad to know that I may be saving myself some critter trouble down the line. As far as weeds go, I have quite some thistle out in the beds that I battle each year but rarely see it under the deck. I do have some nice milkweed out on the edge of my lawn though

Took a look at your thread and couldn’t quite tell if you were in Lodi as well. I do recall seeing a Hummer EV on Zeeb back in August 2021 and thinking it must be someone working on that project. Normally see the Chrysler M plates coming back from CPQ. Anyway, I was impressed with your ability to DIY the garage build as a father. Lots of great skills you flexed there and a nice inspiration to me as I’ve leaned on my recent more money than time laziness. I really should consider putting up my garage with my sons

Cool that you worked on that pack. I did pack cooling on the Stellantis stuff that absolutely nobody is buying right now. Love my Bolt though. Bought it on the recommendation of my Milford friend.

 

[fourmotioneer]

Some new rocks, some planning:




Rocks are in. Next up is to bury some PVC pipes to get the gutter discharge across the driveway to the yard

Engineer should have drawings for us by end of the week. Then we mark up the changes and have him run calcs

Spoke about column wraps for the porch posts today. Leaning toward the Azek PVC column wraps. Will just need to make sure we secure porch railings to the wraps thoughtfully

Having a crew pump polyurethane foam underneath a section of the concrete pad that isn’t pitched away from the house. Another small detail to repair to be mindful of water shedding and make for a durable finished product

 

[fourmotioneer]

A distraction


First something for the automotive industry followers. We drive by Bob Lutz’s property pretty frequently and saw him out in his XLR with someone in his ZR1X last week. Cool spotting. Note the vanity plate


I recently became motivated to sort out the 2L 3A bubble block bottom ends that I had procured in hopes of installing in my pickup. Loaded the parts up and ran them to the machinist with my oldest

One was too far gone, but the other will clean up with .010” bore over. Since the next size up for pistons is 0.5mm over, we will bore over .020”. Took the other block to the scrapyard with my son. The pickup gets a lot of attention there

$660 to clean (whatever the style of cleaner that does a really good job - not a standard hot tank?), measure everything, clean up deck surface by taking off .001-.002”, bore .020” over and hone, install new intermediate shaft bearing, install new freeze plugs

Meanwhile, Colin at Techtonics tuning found some 16V pistons that will work for my 8V application. Is is machining those down so that the result is 9.5:1 static, and we are running a G-grind cam, which is just a hot street cam with some overlap

The result will be some power gained from the displacement and compression ratio bump. In the end, the dollar per horsepower quotient will be high, but Colin said I’d be happy with the result


Took the family to the beach in Muskegon, MI. People with concerns about EV range either take insane trips or just aren’t risk takers. It took two 25 minute charges to make a 7 hour round trip. With kids, that’s barely enough time for a bathroom or snack stop. One year in and I’m considering buying another one of these because they are just that nice for our family

Finally, builder and his carpenters come on Monday with the engineer to finalize their structural plans for the deck. Now that we have engineering drawings we are moving along and ready to start the work

Another thing we added to the list is trenching for drainage pipes and pits filled with gravel to get water away from the house. Probably another $7k but worth it to not have to worry about it