Is there a New House Program?

[MotJuste]

I am building a new house in Frisco that will be complete around January or February next year. It seems to me that I have an opportunity here, pre-landscaping, pre-sod, pre-foundation to do *something*. But what?

My window for getting something under the foundation will be closing very soon. Is there something I should consider putting down to avoid termites and such in the future?

What about the soil? I'm still months away from sod and landscaping and an irrigation system, but is there something I can do in the meantime to kickstart the soil?

In other words, a year or two from now when I'm living in the house and working in the yard, what will I wish I had done now when I had the chance?

Thanks,

Bill

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

Can I assume the slab will be an "engineered" slab? I think that's what they call them. They dig a trench around the house and a couple of cross trenches rather than just laying the concrete in 2x6 forms. This gives the slab a lot of extra strength. It usually puts the house way above grade - away from the termites.

As far as improving the soil now, anything you did would be destroyed by the contractors as they drive their trucks all over the place for several months. Your last act of building should be to have a finish grader come in to ensure the landscape is ready for landscaping. The grader will set the grade so that water drains away from all the buildings. Then is the time to do something about amending the soil. He's the last guy to drive on the property. He also will have tines on his tractor to mix anything you want. You might consider having a landscape architect specify what the driver mixes in. I would suggest 4 inches of compost as a start to mix in. The rest really should to on top of the soil anyway with the sod. Stay away from products called 'top soil.' Instead use a material called landscaper's mix. It's a nice mix of sand, organic materials, and some clay.

[durst]

The main thing I regret when I built my house was having the sprinkler system put in after the sod went down. I know this sounds like a bad idea, but it was going to be a LOT more money for the builder to put in the sprinkler system. So I decided to contract someone on my own to do it. The problem though, is my builder would not let anyone else touch my lot until after we closed. So I had them put it in right away. Thought it would be ok, since the sod came up easily. WRONG. The sod did come up easy, but they still made some bad trenches all over. And I had a bad week problem for the first year.

I would make sure no matter what that the sod goes down after the sprinkler system goes in. Also make sure you read up on watering the grass in good. New sod needs to be watered frequently at first, then switch to deep watering cycles. Good luck! It is nice to have a fresh start on your yard as we do, so you can be confident that there has never been any chemicals in your yard.

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

This is just me but if I was having a new house built, I probably would not have a landscaper do anything for 12 months. I would have it graded and lay sod from front to back, left to right. Then I would watch carefully for 12 months to see where the north winds come from (buildings affect wind patterns), where the sun/shade comes from as the days and seasons wear on. I would place marker flags to mark the low point of the shadows on the north side of the building in winter and same in summer.

Armed with 12 months of information, I would plant shade tolerant ground shrubbery from the the northside summer line back to the house for sure. Between the summer and winter marks, I would plant a shade tolerant ground cover. If it was practical to plant wind break trees and shrubs north of the property, I would do that. And on the west side I would go for tall trees to block the summer's pounding afternoon sun.