Ugh.  The City denied our permit the first go around.  Corbel got the notice via a letter and fax.

The one line reason stated:

Slab elevation does not meet City requirements

This was unfortunate and unexpected given the amount of scrutiny and effort that went in to the permit package.

To understand our predicament, here are some terms you should know:

• Slab elevation – The height of the slab above the finished grade
• Natural grade – The height of the ground of the lot as defined by your topographic survey
• Finished grade – The height of the ground of the lot as defined once the drainage plan has been executed

There are two City requirements associated with the slab elevation, a) the slab elevation should be 12″ higher than the top of the nearest sewer manhole cover, and b) the slab elevation should be 12″ higher than the top of the nearest stormwater inlet grate if the property is served by ditches/swales. If there is no stormwater inlet grate (we have none as the stormwater moves down the swale to the stormwater connection at the end of our street), the slab elevation should be 12″ higher than the middle of the street.  The requirements are completely understandable and for the benefit of the homeowner.  After all, recent rains in the Houston area have shown that drainage and stormwater are something to be dealt with considerable care.  This typically means that most drainage plans require the home and slab to be elevated on an “island” in contrast to the natural grade.

The problem came in the visibility of the requirements.  The first requirement related to the manhole cover was well published in the New Home Construction Guide on the City’s website.  However, the second requirement is only revealed in the Drainage tab of the City’s Project Spreadsheets.  We met the first requirement but did not handle the second.

Why did the Civil Engineer not catch this requirement or be more familiar with all of the City mandates in his plans? 

We went with the firm Robert Dame Designs recommended which seems to have worked out well with Structural but not so well on the Civil side.

Get your civil and structural engineering plans done with firms that have recently completed projects in your municipality.

We found ourselves revising the drainage plan for an 8″ higher slab.  This trickles down into many other plan sheets as the revised slab height affects the overall height of the home which should be under 35′ from the surrounding adjacent finished grade, the garage which should be at finished grade, and all the topological changes to natural grade associated with the new contours defined the the drainage plan.

Since we have a structural slab which is independent of building and/or elevating a construction pad, we were lucky not to incurring any additional costs. The beams will be raised above their usual 18″ above natural grade to 24″ and the garage walls will be stretched and a step added in the transition to the mudroom to accommodate the additional 6″ so we’re covered.

The plans are being revised and will be submitted shortly.  We’re hoping for a clean and abbreviated evaluation this time…