I noticed that my slab on one side of the house seems to only be about three inches above where the builder brought up the grading. Is this a major issue? I was reading that you need at least 4 inches for brick homes. Should I demand the builder lower the grading? What if that's not possible due to the flatness of the land next to the house?

It's not to code, so if you sell the house it may get flagged by the inspector and you'll have to correct it then.

In and of itself if you have positive fall away from the house it's not a huge deal. You may screw up drainage if you lower 3", so if you do get the work done be mindful of unintended consequences.

Apache said:

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It's not to code, so if you sell the house it may get flagged by the inspector and you'll have to correct it then.

In and of itself if you have positive fall away from the house it's not a huge deal. You may screw up drainage if you lower 3", so if you do get the work done be mindful of unintended consequences.

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Would it be up to code if we add the one inch from the brick lug ledge that goes up to the base board?

ETA: I think the fall is positive from the house, so what are the real concerns if it's not up to code other than the inspector flagging it? Water getting in? I'm not in a flood plane.

Here's a full picture of what I'm dealing with. I cut back the grass to get a better measurement. The worst part is at the circle where it's about 3.5 inches from the exposed slab down to the top of the cut grass. The downward slope seems to be about a foot of drop at 10 feet from where the slab meets the grade. It seems right on the edge of meeting code if we don't include the height of the base boards above the brick lug, but if we include that height, it would meet code?

Tons of downslope!

On the other side of the area discussed above, there is really no grade away from the house, pictured below. Instead it sort of just slightly slopes down along the side, but not away. Is this a concern?



Alternate pic from a different angle:

No that's fine. Obviously water not standing against the foundation.

Put some caulk where the pipe w/irrigation wiring is going into your garage. It's a vector for moisture & bugs.

(Wrong Emote, Sorry)

Hard to tell with the grass. The general rule is 6 inches of drop in the first 10 feet. Does look a little high at the trees, but then it also routes down around that corner. You can measure with some stakes and a string.

Overall in the picture it docent look like it pools against the house and you have plenty of foundation above the grade. The big things you are going for are not pooling against the house or anywhere near the house and being efficiently routed off the property. Also keep in mind it is hard to tell how well things drain if the sod is new.

Thanks, how are y'all able to tell from the pic that there's no pooling against the house?

Edit: Wrong emoticon

Again, lots of possible error looking at a couple pictures.

But to me it looks like there is a swale along the lines I added. That it goes away from the foundation and along the lines I drew toward where you are standing, or at least that side (front?) of the house. Also based on the grade line at the foundation it appears to slope pretty well toward where you are standing. So that would prevent any pooling in that area. Not perfectly done, but it looks adequate from what I can see in the picture.

The grass is pretty shaggy, so walking on it could tell you something different.

The slope seems really gradual to non-existent in some parts, especially near the A/C. There's also little trenches following the roof line where the water has been falling off the roof. Haven't gotten a chance to get gutters installed yet to prevent that.

How much does the water really need to pool against the foundation to start causing issues? Does it take years of that happening to cause issues?

There's absolutely no problem that I can see and no future inspector is going to make any comment about that. There's sufficient fall, coupled with drainage profiling, with a swale. Even next to your HVAC you're alright- water will only rise slightly till it falls into the swale. There's no code compliance issue either- not sure where that chatter is coming from. Much ado over nothing. You're far better off than many.

Thanks for your input. This my first time building a new house, and so I'm trying to make sure I find any big issues before the builder's warranty expires.

I plan to mow the grass this weekend and get a better picture of the grading to be sure. I did notice by walking around the yard that there are some little low spots where a little water was pooling on either side of the A/C. Is that type of thing a concern?



Edit: Actually, here's a pic of the low spot on the other side of the A/C. This whole patch of grass up to the foundation feels soggy after the rain we got last night. These low spots look like the points where the rain diverter on my roof was directing the water around the A/C, so it must have gotten erroded before they put down sod. Definitely should fix this right?

Not a whole lot more any of us internet experts can say from random pictures. It is really hard to evaluate 3d functional topography in a 2d picture from random angles.

If you are still really concerned you should hire an inspector or engineer to come out and take a look in person.

I understand, and it makes sense. Know any good engineers that can do this type of inspection work in the San Antonio area?

Sorry, I am in Dallas. Don't have anyone in SA. Sure someone here will though.

Just wait till it rains. If you have water standing within a few feet of your house, you may want to address it. Otherwise, you should be fine.

If you're concerned about those small areas near your condensing unit, grab a bag or two of soil or sand at HD/Lowes.

With the recent rains you should be able to document some standing water. That should be enough to get your builder to come place some fill and smooth it out. Nuisance water appears to be your only possible issue, nothing that would affect your foundation or anything like that. But on a new build it seems reasonable to have your builder fix any nuisance water problems if you're not up for doing it yourself.

Foundation is a non issue. The elevated foundation wasn't code until like 2000 or so. It was primarily added to the code to make it easy to identify termite trails up the foundations. Otherwise the foundation elevation and slope is about drainage and that you can inspect during rains. I almost always suggest adding drop inlets and pipe to enhance the drainage.