SkullMesaRanch Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 (edited) Thanks to the help I received here and the CA sample building plan examples, my building plan was approved last week. It took a year to figure it all out but I was able to design my own house, generate plans, and get my conventional septic system approved without any "engineering." The county was extremely helpful anytime I had a question. The one area I had to hire an engineer is the G&D plan. I've attached a screen shot of the plan I got from them after 5 months of waiting. I was never able to talk with the engineer directly, only the owner who is a surveyor. None of the input, like equalize cut/fill was taken into consideration. I ended up with a plan that required over 100 trucks of fill to be brought into this remote, difficult to access building site. The local excavator said it was ridiculous and all material should be generated on site. So I modified their plan, reducing the FF heights and cutting the driveway as I intended instead of creating a giant freeway ramp. I'm not a drainage expert, although apparently I'll have to figure it out, but have to know how to route the flow. Can any drainage guys check this for me and provide feedback? I placed the FF height of the barn 1ft high than the house. I'm trying to avoid any flat ground for drainage purposes due to mud and horses. Creating a swale from the hillside through the 2 structures is not straight forward due to the difference in FF height. I tried to use the original plan as a guide but I moved the barn over to SE from the original plan I know this isn't a CA question but you guys have come through for me so many times and I appreciate it. Thanks, Beth modified G&D plan Feb 12.dwg Edited February 12 by SkullMesaRanch changed to screenshot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rlackore Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 Your contours are problematic, specifically the 2437 and 2438 near the plan-NW corner of the residence. Make sure the new 2438 is connected at both ends to the existing 2438. Keep in mind that the engineer is providing a 2' deep swale, and he probably did it for a good reason, so I would strive to provide the same when you revise the grading. Also, your revised driveway is going to require some tall retaining walls along both edges, something the engineer's plan avoids by using a bunch of fill. So, pick your poison: an elevated drive, or a canyon drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkullMesaRanch Posted February 12 Author Share Posted February 12 (edited) 2 hours ago, rlackore said: Your contours are problematic, specifically the 2437 and 2438 near the plan-NW corner of the residence. Make sure the new 2438 is connected at both ends to the existing 2438. Keep in mind that the engineer is providing a 2' deep swale, and he probably did it for a good reason, so I would strive to provide the same when you revise the grading. Also, your revised driveway is going to require some tall retaining walls along both edges, something the engineer's plan avoids by using a bunch of fill. So, pick your poison: an elevated drive, or a canyon drive. Yes, these are the areas I don't understand. Where is the 2' deep swale shown? I just see 2440 around the house and barn. Is it the highlighted area shown in the screen shot below? Are these trenches? The driveway doesn't need retaining walls, based on the neighbors driveways. I just need to shown the cut slope in the plan and don't know how. I have a soils engineer coming this week to test for stability. Hopefully resulting in more aggressive cut slopes than the county requires. Thanks for the feedback, Robert, it helps. Edited February 12 by SkullMesaRanch changed screen shot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rlackore Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 Yes, the highlighted areas are the swales. My mention that the engineer provided a 2' swale was technically incorrect - I should have said that the engineer provided 2' from the FF to the bottom of the swale. Your revised plan has only 1' from the FF elevation to the bottom of the swale. Your driveway won't need retaining walls if you follow the engineer's grading plan, which requires fill. Lowering the building pad by a couple feet may help you balance the cut/fill calculations (less fill at the driveway and front yard, more cut at the hillside). But, the engineer must have a reason for their design; have you called the engineer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkullMesaRanch Posted February 12 Author Share Posted February 12 1 hour ago, rlackore said: Yes, the highlighted areas are the swales. My mention that the engineer provided a 2' swale was technically incorrect - I should have said that the engineer provided 2' from the FF to the bottom of the swale. Your revised plan has only 1' from the FF elevation to the bottom of the swale. Your driveway won't need retaining walls if you follow the engineer's grading plan, which requires fill. Lowering the building pad by a couple feet may help you balance the cut/fill calculations (less fill at the driveway and front yard, more cut at the hillside). But, the engineer must have a reason for their design; have you called the engineer? The original plan had the swale at 2440 and the FF is 2441. I thought maybe the 2' deep came from a 4' wide trench with 2:1 slope on each side. With that requirement the new plan I just modified won't work either. That's the problem, they won't let me talk to the engineer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rlackore Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 Give them the FF elevs you want, then ask them to modify the plan. I'm sure they can get it done. Obviously, it will probably cost money, but maybe that can be offset by the savings in trucked fill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now