They started laying block yesterday. I got some videos from my builder, but only these few pictures.
The mortar joints are clean in the video and they were at least 9 courses on this back corner.
So, I decided to raise the control point at the front of the garage. This added 2 courses of block to whole foundation. The back will be 17 courses high, or 12' tall now. All of the 12" block on the bottom will be covered with backfill. In some areas, it'll be more, but I'm running brick to at least that point, so if some brick are buried, so be it.
I went this route for two reasons. It'll bring the front elevation higher than the cut, so I'll be able to back fill and get positive flow away from the house. It'll also allow the garage and driveway to be roughly the same grade as the big pad, instead of turning slightly downhill. The more we looked, the more I feared that we wouldn't be able to cut enough to get the water going away. Another reason, I have a mountain of topsoil that needs to go somewhere. I can use it in all landscape/grass areas. I'll have to import more compactable fill, but long term, I think it's for the best. For good measure, I'm also doing under drains on the inside of the foundation at all low point walls. That will be backfilled with stone, equal height with the fill on the outside. There will also be foundation drains on the inside, that tie into the roof drains.
Hopefully all of that makes sense
