As of current, I am going with Superior Wall for my foundation walls. One thing that I try to figure out is how the Superior Wall is to be situated relative to the foundation slab. My PE brought this up when I told him about Superior Wall. He said traditional wall has footers that are "thicker" than the wall itself, which provides "ledger" to the slab at the wall interior. Superior Wall does not require footer.

I asked the rep the question and he said the gravel base under the wall and slab is supposed to help and he also assured me that there have been no problems reported. I on the other hand, still have a hard time visualizing how the connection is supposed to look like, and what I am supposed to do w.r.t. waterproofing, and insulation for the slab? Can someone shed some light on the best practices out there?
Thank you so much.

You are right on. The PE that I hired told me about that too. Then he brought up the idea of so-called "top chord bearing floor joists" and I am settling in with now. This floor joist has top flanges made of two 2x4s, which are three inches thick. Only this three inches sits on top of the basement wall instead of the whole floor joist (11 7/8"). So now my main finished floor is above the finished grade by one foot. I then figured that the garage slab of 4" thick above the grade will offset the one foot and make it 8", which is one step down and not too bad.

So that is what I'm going with.  I also have a courtyard in the back with a couple of patio doors in the back of the house facing the courtyard. To offset the 1' there, I plan to have a patio (down the road) covering the courtyard. I assume the patio with the concrete base will sit above the grade and will be maybe 4-6" thick. That will offset the 1' below the patio doors and end up being one step down also. I hope it all pans out like I planned.

I'm getting ready to break ground in the spring. My current property is not connected to the public sewer. The public manhole is about 120 feet away, and I plan to have the new house connected. I am thinking of waiting until after excavation and foundation wall erected (going with Superior Wall), and before slab is poured, to dig the sewer trench and run the pipes over to the lot. My thinking is that that way there would be no guesswork as to how deep or where the sewer pipes should go, with the physical foundation being there. Can anyone think of any downside to my plan? Thank you so much.

We were shopping with HD for Andersen windows and heard that they recently had a price increase of 5%. Major appliances are to have a price hike by 8% this April, as we were told by a dealer. I start to sense a price hike of, if not all, many building materials that is looming due to the price increase in raw materials. I'm in the D.C. metro area. I wonder whether anyone else has gotten any notion of the price hike.

My current thinking/reaction to dodge part of the hit, is to buy some items well in advance and put them in the storage somewhere. I don't have a firm plan to implement this yet, as I just got the news. I am trying to come up with a list of items to buy ahead of time and put in the storage that would make sense (storage costs, too). I wonder if anyone else is in the same boat and have any suggestions to make.

My gripe about my current tub is that it is not deep enough. Upon searching the Web I found this tub by Kohler to be one with exceptional overflow depth (note that many tubs are spec'ed to be of greater-than-usual depth but still with standard overflow depth, which is what really matters). I called local Kohler vendors and no one has this model in their showroom. Kohler doesn't have info on who may be carrying this model either. Before deciding on this, I wonder if anyone else happens to prefer deep tubs and can suggest alternative brands/models. Thank you so much.

kohler.com/onlinecatalog/item16194902

Hi Don,

I came across your posting about dealing with AllPro (see below). I'd like to get some details if you are willing to share your bad experience.  Did you still end up doing panelized method and do you have another supplier that you had good experience with?
Thanks for your help!
Jade


By Don in Agoura, CA on 2/10/2005

My experience with AllPro and Larry was particularly poor. I am lucky I am only out the deposit on engineering my plans and four months of my life, (and interest payments) and not a panel deposit. Contact me if you want details of my experience as posting them here does not seem appropriate.

I stumbled on this link about a class action for Zurn PEX brass fittings. It caught my attention, as I am going with PEX tubing for my plumbing. I am not sure what to make of it. I've heard that Zurn is a pretty big brand for PEX systems. A couple of plumbers that I talked to had nothing bad to say about PEX, but then said that only a small fraction of job requests they got were for PEX systems. I need to decide fairly soon whether to PEX or not to PEX. Anyone ever have to face the same choice? Thank you so much.

zurnclassaction.com

I will have two fireplaces in my new home and am having a hard time deciding the type. Wood burning is out of the question for us. I have heard that gas fireplaces are considered as negative energy because they draw energy away instead of supplementing. It is only a matter of by how much. From that standpoint, electrical fireplaces are said to be 100% energy efficient, as they are really just space heaters and don't cause energy "leaks". They are also cheaper and easy to install from what we heard. I'm sold on the idea, but remain skeptical as it sounds too good to be true.

My concerns though, are about 1) Aesthetics - do they look realistic as they claim? Can someone tell it's a hologram fire versus a real one from, say five feet away? 2) Noise - the fan in an electrical fireplace will be a dead giveaway for what it really is - unless they are really quiet. Does anyone have any experience with electrical fireplaces as permanent fixtures in their home?

My new construction will have a fairly large basement and I am considering bringing some natural light to it with tubular skylights. My rooftop is two stories above the basement ceiling, which is far away, thus I am thinking of mounting the domes at the foot of my south-facing wall, either on the wall, or on the ground butted against the wall. Has that ever been done by anyone?

Depending on how simple the installation is, I'm also considering buying the parts online and have my framer/windows installer put them in place for cheap during rough framing - thoughts anyone?
Thank you so much.

I am planning to order panelized exterior walls for the building, as I heard good things about a quick dry-in. I wonder whether I should go ahead and have the interior wall panels pre-made as well, from an economical standpoint?
Thank you so much.

I have not written or signed any contracts, yet but will soon (breaking ground in April). I wonder how detailed should the contract be. An example: should I request that the subfloors be "glued down and screwed down" on the contract, or should I trust that the framer will do so? One told me that is what he will do. There are a lot of such "good practice" items that I want to make sure that they do practice, but don't want to offend the trades if they seems too proverbial...

We are not the handyman type and we own very few tools. Probably fewer than most average households do. Getting into the O-B phase, I think I need to get a few essential tools that allow me to survive the experience. I plan to stay in the old house while the new one is being built on the same lot. That way I can see how the construction is going during my off-work hours. I also plan to spot-check things. I don't plan to actually participate in any work, or dare to (having not ever owned too many tools). What are the top few most essential things that an acting O-B should be equipped with? I would love to hear anyone's personal experience.

Great. I'm relieved to hear that others are able to make do with inexpensive tools. 

Hello Nadia,
I came across your post and was wondering which option you went with. I am about to start in late spring. I'm definitely getting floor joists and roof trusses. I'm not completely sure about panels. My concerns is how to coordinate panel vendors and my window vendors to get the rough openings right. Any experience will be greatly appreciated.