A few weeks after we closed, I met with the building rep to sign a contract. I wanted to get started on the garage before winter and he said there was time and a crew would be able to break ground before it got too cold.
The next step was to meet with the excavators-the guys that would level and prepare the ground. That meeting would not go so well. The excavator first suggested I change the orientation of the building which would require removing a beautiful Crimson Maple. I didn’t want to do that. Crimson maples are one of my favorite trees and it probably had been planted around the time the house was built. That was pretty much a hard “no”.
Then we started looking at the fill area and the “retaining walls” holding the dirt. After studying the structures for a while, the excavators were a hard “no”. Suddenly, I had the sinking feeling. Did we buy the wrong house?
The one chance I had now was to find out where the ‘virgin’ soil and original grade stopped and the fill started. If we could locate that depth we might be able to set the footings so that the garage wouldn’t slide down the hill-a slight exaggeration but we need ground that would stay put.
We contacted a local soil professional and he would be out in a week or two. My ground breaking would have to be put off until spring.