This may have come up but I missed it, but do you own the property and have a contract for just the building of the home? Is this a tract or development home where you make one purchase for the home and land together?

We made one purchase for the home and land together

Guessing the first photo pipes are sump pump-related. Suggest you ask your builder or GC when it's OK to visit and about the pipes, etc. (It's YOUR money.) Skip the 'cleanup'. This is going to get much more cluttered; it's a Construction Site!

Technically then if you do not own the land are you even allowed to be on the site? Some developments you really aren't allowed to access the home as they own the entire site. Not saying this is the case but in development or tract type homes they own the entire shooting match until the final transfer has taken place. And there insurance does not cover people outside of their employee to be onsite and accessing the house under construction. Of course I have no idea if this is your situation of not.

Thanks - will find out. Know the title already transferred to us regarding the lot and GC said we could visit the site when the crew wasn't there...

OK, my concern is sometime the house/land is transferred all as one and you don't really own or have access to the house until you own the entire thing.

You can ask for a schedule, but it might not happen as planned. It's normal for a trade to plan to be there on Tuesday, but not show up until Thursday. Or, he was in the area, do he showed up on Monday. The GC may not want you talking to the trades, at least not while he's not there. You don't want mixed messages, with you telling the trades one thing and him telling them something else.

As for how to get into the hole, ladders.

I can't zoom in on those pictures to say for sure what the pipes might be. (Stupid houzz mobile site.) But the big white one might be drain, if your sewer is lower than your basement. I'm in an older area, and the street sewer line is about 3'above my basement floor, so my sewer pipe does not run under my foundation.

There should be a weeping tile system around the base, but that might not be in yet. They also usually paint on a waterproofing, I don't think you've got that yet.

1. Is it okay to ask the builder the "schedule" for the week - so I know what is supposed to happen that week, what days/hours the workers will be there? Just curious if there's an unwritten "rule" about this?

I do ask, and I do realize that weather, delivery schedules, sub availability, and the like are often going to change this -- and I know for certain that the GC knows that I know these delays will invariably happen. Just don't act put out when they do. BUT NO, I don't ask about which days and hours workers will be there. That sounds too much micromanaging. (And it is.)

2. Is it okay to visit the site while the workers are there and take pictures? or that is best done "after hours" when no one is at the site? (I ask b/c I've seen some people's new build blogs showing pictures with workers/crews in the pictures). I have not done this myself.

MY GC welcomes me being there and taking photos. I do avoid posting faces of workers when I post online, but I'll take all sorts of photos while they are working there, or not.

3. Footers and 8 ft basement concrete walls were just poured ~2 days ago.

a) How do you know if the basement has been waterproofed/sealed?

I'm not enough of an expert to judge on this, unfortunately. But as noted, I am taking photos... I also note that my GC has been upfront on other things that came up that he could easily patch over. (There are other aspects of the house build I CAN catch, and so far he's been clean on those.) Oh, I also have a nosey future neighbor who has an eye for this sort of thing and he's come by and made comments I only learned about to my GC afterwards. (Like, make the driveway wider -- GC noted he does plan to, but right now the scar in my yard is just for delivery... Both the neighbor and the GC mentioned this conversation to me.)

b) How do you access/get "inside" the house? (I'll attach pics so it may make more sense for you) - I can walk the perimeter/outside walls of the basement, and there are two small holes in the basement walls that allow me to go inside the garage, but that's it. There is no "hole" anywhere to get "inside" the house - I'd like to be able to get in there and take pictures and clean up. Is the crew using ladders to get in and out?

Since of late I've been having serious knee swelling issues, my GC has kindly made temporary steps with a railing to access what I need to access. Although my build differs from yours, some accommodations should be made. I mean -- THEY have to get in there, don't they?

4) I'll attach some pics after this post - just curious what I'm looking at regarding pipes. I was told my HWT, furance, etc would all be going in one location in the basement but I'm wondering if that's not the case...would love to know what I'm talking about before calling the GC.

I set the general location for all the mechanicals in the basement with the GC early on. He knows I want another corner for the root cellar, and another place for the workshop. And another place for the farmhouse sink/half-bath toilet arrangement. He gets to decide in his large quadrant how all the mechanicals go -- just confirm with him the area he has for that, and should he need more space than you want to designate, you both should talk about that NOW. Or, perhaps, yesterday.

5) If there are plans to rough-in a 1/2 bath in the basement - when does this occur during the build? Should I see anything right now?

I am going to have plumbing in my basement, too. No, you probably don't need to see signs of that yet.

I am glad to have a great communication with my GC.

Oh, re cleanup. They're using my future garage as the dumping place for a ton of plastic water bottles. I'm simply rather amused, and I don't need to do any cleanup on my own at this stage. They'll either remove them before they pour the concrete in there, or it will amuse archaeologists a few centuries down the line. Otherwise, these guys have been really amazingly tidy!

Ooops I just read other responses. In my case, I've owned my land since 1998. I bought it free and clear. If you actually own your property, note what I said. If you don't, you will need permission to access your future home. Talk with your GC about working-time access. Mine loves it.

We tend to go at the end of the day. That way we can touch base with the GC/builder if there are questions, get an idea of what the basic schedule is and yet be out of the way of the workers. We tend to stay after they are gone to take photos, but have taken them while they were there too.

Great comments/advice

Re: Aremis_ma: my intent and questions are not intended to micromanage. I asked about if it's proper etiquette to inquire days/hours when workers are there so I know when and when not to show up ( to avoid workers). If preventable, I prefer not to drive 30+ minutes only to find I can't walk around, take photos, etc.

kbear: In my experience it's not okay to show up whenever you want to see the house But I've only ever worked out of a show home which my company becomes liable for all visits through our homes under construction. A simple appointment made a day or two in advance is normally all we require.

Who is your point of contact for your builder? A lot of your questions should have been discussed with them before building your home. Things like how you'll be informed of progress, site visits and things like who to talk to if you have questions. It shouldn't be a big deal getting a schedule of what's going to happen for the week as long as you understand all the issues that can delay things.

Also have you not received architectural drawings for your house? This will show you where your HWT tank and furnace will be. Why this is a concern at the foundation stage is a bit strange.

It seems like you are micro managing so much and the foundation was just poured. You need to trust your GC more then you are. I am afraid to see the rest of your questions as the house progresses. To be quite honest it doesn't seem like you were well prepared for what's going to be a long process over the next 8 months for your house.

We stop by almost daily. We try to do it at the end of the day so we might avoid the workers. We are taking pictures of everything, but we try to be careful to not post pictures that clearly show a worker. We're not taking pictures of them, but rather the house. Our builder was concerned about the liability issue, so we changed the contract before signing to let him off the hook for any liability for us being on the property. We wave at the workers or say hello. but stay clear of their work, except when the superintendent is there and wants to meet us for something. Bringing them cookies does seem to be appreciated. We reinforced to our builder that if we have a question, we will come to him, not the workers. Our builder uses BuilderTrend software so we have a good idea of what's sort of going on schedule wise, but it's not a daily prediction. We've been surprised to find workers on site on weekends and holidays! We've done our more detailed inspections, like verifying the size of rooms,when no one is on site. The questions you asked about the pipes, etc.--we just asked our superintendent those questions as we went along. Not to micromanage, but rather just to understand what's going on. We've caught a couple of potential mistakes that were easy to fix now just by asking a couple of easy questions. We also ask our superintendent what we can do to make his job easier. It's a balance between "trust, but verify" and "don't get in their way."

As others have said, if you own the land, then it's your land and you can visit as much as you want to. When I visit and know there will be people working, I usually take some coffee or food. It goes a long way in your relationship.

You'll know when the basement has been waterproofed when you can't see the concrete from the outside. It should be covered in something black. Read online to learn the difference between damp proof and water proof, then talk to your builder about what they're planning on doing. Bare minimum code might not cover what you had intended.

The two pipes on the exterior of the house tied to the drain tile might be bi-directional clean outs. It's a little difficult to tell from the photo, but if the vertical pipes are connected to the horizontal with a "y" rather than a "t", and they're facing opposite directions, then that's what it could be.

Tough to tell what the other two pipes are from your picture. The PVC is a large diameter pipe that sits away from an exterior wall. This rules out sump pit connection since those sit close to the wall. It can be assumed that it ties to the interior drain tile so it might be a floor drain? Not sure what the thin one is but it looks like 1" copper with a fitting on the end? Do you know if the water valve is installed in the yard? Could be water.

If you have plans to rough in a 1/2 bath, then judging by the pea gravel that appears to be in, you should see PVC for the toilet and sink sticking up. Ask your builder. You also don't appear to have any stacks for the other floors so plumbing probably still has to come in to lay the basement rough in and start the stacks. They'll also either have to dig under the footing or drill through the basement wall to connect to sewer, depending on your height differential. It's important to find out how high your basement is above street sewer tie in. Judging by the other houses, I'm guessing you'll be high enough and they'll dig under the footing to connect to sewer.

Question:

What's with the hole to get into the garage? Are you planning storage under the garage and using a precast concrete garage floor?

The large PVC pipes on the outside appear to be where your rain gutters will tie in.

That is exactly how mine looked.

You should see a weeping system go in soon. If you want a sock, now is the time to let them know.

Carol- the op wants access into the construction site to clean up... It's a little past just asking questions.

Like I said it doesn't seem like they were very prepared on what to expect with their build. That's not entirley their fault as the builder/gc should set those expectations before anything gets started.

A simple meeting with the gc would clear up all the questions she has and could help set expectations the op has with the gc and vice versa. Unfortunately once the build starts its kind of a crap shoot as to setting those expectations that weren't previously discussed.

There are so many on the monthly building thread that talk about helping to clean up their site. Maybe the OP has been reading the monthly build thread and got the cleaning idea there. I imagine most of those posters who clean their site are owner builders who are without a GC, but I don't believe all those cleaning up their sites are.

Years ago, we built a starter home with a builder. We were able to visit often, but generally chose to come after the subs left. Our builder did not even lock the door, so along with our visits the rest of the neighborhood had toured our site repeatedly LOL. In today's day of liability, I can't imagine what our builder did was wise.

I remember one afternoon, stopping by the build. The father of the builder was frantically sweeping the sub floor as the GC told him to hurry up as the carpet was on the way. DH and I grabbed two brooms and helped the chap. I am glad we did, as otherwise all the dirt would have remained under our carpet, The sweeper sub was not given nearly enough time to clean up. That was the way that build went, and we were glad we visited often as we caught many errors along the way. The GC had too many houses to manage and mistakes were being made frequently.

Carol