Yes. The builder should have thought this through more carefully and should not have started that tall retaining wall (which was a change order, right?) without your permission. You need to have a major sit down and perhaps bring in your own architect (was one consulted on this already). Also talk with your village about what is possible -- I'm assuming the builder is pulling permits. You need a solution before any more work is done. (Don't pay any more, obviously, until this is resolved). Good luck!

Even working on relatively flat lots, it's very hard to anticipate exactly where things will end up. I confess when I'm standing in a big hole in the ground with mountains of fill around it, deep inside I sometimes feel overwhelmed. I've had surveyors give me the wrong cut (depth of foundation); and I've eliminated city-approved retaining walls specified in drainage plans but which would have been ugly and essentially unnecessary. Even when buyers ask will there be steps or a deck in the garage, I can't say for sure.

Doesn't a walk-out basement mean you walk out to your yard.

Here, it almost always means, eventually!

There should have been better communication by the builder as to all the possibilities, difficulties and extra costs that might be incurred.

I would have gone for the pool to the side. It's always simpler and cheaper to adapt to the lot than try to rework the lot to adapt to you.

{{gwi:1432641}}
Too Deep? Too Late!

Don't you have grading/soils engineers who have already advised what will/will not work? We thought we did and still got another $19K just to re-build the footing on our glass view fence, but when I looked back on all the reports, they all had disclaimers & there wasn't anything we could do. The alternative was drilling 7 19' deep 18" wide caissons for $30K, so... It sounds like this should have been anticipated, though, as opposed to our current fence footing that no one had an idea how unstable it is until they tore the top down. Still surprising... Good Luck!

I would think a good surveyor would have prevented these problems. It's verrrrrry hard for a layman or GC to visualize(without alllllot of exp.) on how it will come out once the big machines start digging.

worthy....are those pictures from the 70's?.....those shorts sure do look like it............:)

After your surveyor laid out the foundation pins, you really should've met the builder and pool contractor on site and measured out the size of the pool and rough location. But keep in mind, that you'd probably be in the same place, you'd just have known where you were going sooner.

I don't think there's anybody who is perfect at saying "the house and pool will work with your walk out basement" on a lot that hasn't been at least cleared and the foundation survey pinned. Just too tough. What you've described doesn't sound awful. If you get all the elements you want in your yard, you just have some steps, then I don't think you made out too badly in all this.

I agree with Worthy, it sounds as thought the pool would have been better placed on the side rather than incurring an additional retaining wall.

And that brings another point... is that a contracted price of $7400 for the wall? Seems a bit low to me, but maybe the wall isn't as high as I'm imagining -- there are low walls and high walls and it's a *big* difference in cost. However, my calculator says that $7400 doesn't buy much brick or labor (not mentioning drainage gravel or weep pipes). And of course you want steps... yeesh, even I can understand that you need convenient access to the other portion of the yard.

As Allison1888 says, call a halt until you know positively want is going on and are satisfied that it's the best possible solution. I'd pay to have a good soil engineer sit in on the meeting. Pushing enough dirt to require a retaining wall can get into interesting problems which he should be able to point out or confirm. Right now, it sounds an awful lot like folks are just shoving dirt from hither to yon without having a good idea of what is supposed to go where. At least the expert can contribute a different viewpoint -- and possibly reassure you that, hey, those guys DO know what they're doing. Or not. But better to know in advance.

robin0919 1991 (top); 1988 (bottom)

The October 2008 issue of Architectural Digest includes a San Francisco Bay Area home that required the removal of 330 truckloads of soil to carve a building site on the hillside over the harbour.

Hijack here but I am looking at a lot with the exact same issues (I think) and would love advice on who to talk to before I buy the lot. And it is possible that what my (potential) neighbor had done would work for you.

Lot is .46 acre and slopes about 5 feet downward to the back and then comes up again. The neighbor (faced with almost identical constraints flattened it out enough for a pool and built a 1/2 walkout basement. By 1/2 walkout - the right side of the house basement is covered by dirt - no windows. The left 1/3 has a door and some windows. You walkout but can't really get to the flat part of the wall - they didn't build stairs. There is a patio on grade and then a sloped landscaped area - much cheaper than a wall. He built some drains underground that do dump onto my lot.

It looks like I could continue the drains and pass onto the next lot (which built is as a seasonal stream with a little bridge over it). This "stream" is tiny but clearly needs to be addressed.

I would like to do something similar to the neighbor with a 1/2 daylight basement. I would really like the kitchen/great room area to be level with a backyard pool. The realtor says it can be done but I take that for what it is worth. Is getting a surveyor in there the way to go? A builder - I don't have one yet? Pool builder - don't even know if I would wait a year or two on that.

I would like to not be surprised like OP but I don't think I want to spend $5000 before I've even purchased the lot....

I highly recommend getting an engineer to help plan the lot. My husband is an engineer, and even he didn't just "see" how to lay out our basement. After we surveyed it, and he plotted it out, he realized it couldn't be done the way we originally thought. We will have to have a side walkout instead of a rear walkout in order to have a flat backyard. I'm super glad we did the extra work instead of just guessing.

I'm concerned that you say your house is at the bottom of a hill with four houses above you (with pools). I'm wondering about runoff; you don't want a basement full of water or sewage. When pools are drained, where does the water go?

Jumping past the complicated issues right to the simple one: of course you can put your pool beside the house. You'll build a privacy fence along that beautiful flat land. Is it still feasible to change the plan?

Good luck.

Thanks everyone for your responses!

chisue- we are on a cul-de-sac shaped like an uphill horse shoe. The top house actually drains a different direction, the other two are on our same drain line, but they don't have pools. We will be the only ones with a pool (hopefully!)

landp- We will live in a subdivision with a bunch of picky rules ie can only have iron or iron looking fences, garages either have to open to the back or be a court yard entrance, no front facing garages, houses set back a certain distance etc. The good news is our builder called the developer today who owns all the property and he said yes we could have the pool on the side and yes we could do a brick fence. Our house is a corner lot so everyone driving by would be able to see us swimming, so a brick fence would afford a lot of privacy!

meldy nva- our builder broke the cost down like this
concrete material 1800.00
concrete labore 1436.00
extra excavating and hauling
dirt away 725.00
4000 bricks 2000.00
brick labor 1500.00

total for a 56' linear wall six feet high 7461.00

I didn't know if that was a good price or not, glad it sounds resonable. Cathi

Wow! That would be a major shock for a retaining wall! I hope it all works out because it sounds like it will be beautiful when you are done.

We are thinking of putting a pool in some day, too. How much does a small in-ground pool cost?

His bricks were less costly (that does vary by locale) and his labor faster (or cheaper) than I allowed for. And there's no allowance for drainage gravel.

Don't forget that retaining walls over 4', should be designed in consult with an engineer to provide appropriate slopes and tie-ins. This may be covered under your community's building code, since both ecological and safety issues are involved. You've got at least three houseroofs and lots of land that will be draining downhill onto your land; be sure that the retaining wall/s can handle all the possible water weight of severe storms. An engineer's advice is considerably less costly than replacing or repairing a poorly designed wall.