BREAKING GROUND
Congratulations you have made it past all the paperwork and now its time to get your hands dirty. Before you start clearing, double check that there is no pre construction meeting required in your permit. If a septic is needed, make sure you have caution taped the entire drain field off. If their are wetlands on your property make sure to do the same thing around your wetland barrier. Many people have found this out the hard way. Before I built my house I looked at buying a piece of property with a unfinished house on it. The builder had cleared his entire drain field before the septic was installed. He did not have another location to put a drain-field on. The house was close to being done and only needed some finish work. This was one expensive mistake that you do not want to make. The bank ended up owning the house and land. After seeing this I was very careful about where I was clearing and marked off everything with caution tape. Hopefully the seller had the lot surveyed before you bought the land. If you are unsure of your property lines then have it surveyed. Surveyors can mark your property lines and where you house will sit. All of this should be in your site plan that was approved in the permit process. On your site plan you will have a clearing limit that you will want to mark out. First put caution tape around trees that are close to boundary. You will be installing a silt fence around the clearing limit boundary.
SITE PREPARATION
Your very fist inspection will be on site preparation. Clear your area for your house and install a silt fence around your clearing boundary. If allowed get burning permit and burn all cleared material to save money. Install a temporary construction entrance with quarry rock. You may have to install a culvert under driveway. Make your entrance where you will have your driveway so you are not wasting material. As you can see, my dad and I did all the clearing and site preparation to save money. If this is not something you are comfortable with then have a excavation company do this for you. Preferably the contractor that will dig your foundation. You will also need to install your drainage bmp for your downspouts. For me this was a simple two catch basin, sheet flow, french drain. If you are having a contractor do the excavation have him include this in the bid. The drainage bmp should be done after foundation has been poured, so that you have exact location of dispersal trenches. All of this is in your permits and site plan. Now that you have your silt fence up, area cleared, temporary driveway installed, and house location flagged out, call for site preparation inspection.
