Establish Proper Grading

What we were able to do is harvest some of the existing sand from below the patio. We spread that throughout the mud and that gave us just enough traction to help us keep working in these conditions. All right, guys. The very next thing we're going to do is actually talk to a building inspector to find out when we need a permit and when we don't need one. Because after all, if we don't need a permit, we can avoid all the extra fees that the city likes to tack on to our projects. All right, guys. I got Mike on the line and he's actually the building inspector and we're talking about the difference between attaching a deck to your house and leaving it separate. There's different requirements. So, Mike, when you have a deck separated from the house, can you walk us through the requirements? Well, yeah. What the building code says, if you're less than 30 in above grade and not attached to the house, you don't need a building permit, unless unless that deck is in front of a required uh egress door, which would normally be your front door. So, if you're building a deck at your front door, you got to have a building permit because there are other requirements. So on a deck that's not technically attached to the house, you don't need frost footings. You can just put in standard footings. You don't need a building permit. But if we attach this house, if we actually attach this deck to the house, everything changes, doesn't it? Yes. Yeah. Even if it's even if a meta building permit is required because now you have to have frost footings because you're attaching to a structure that has frost footings and it's not made to move. The thing about building a deck on without frost footings is it'll move a little bit with freeze thaw, which is not desirable when you're attaching it because there'll be a hinge point at the house and that could that could loosen up over time. So once we get the demolition complete, the next thing to do is to prepare the soil that's going to be beneath the deck. That needs to be pitched away from the structure. So, when you look at this grade behind me, it looks like it's got a nice taper running away from the house, but actually it's the reverse. Right now, the grade runs into the house. Looks can be very deceiving. That's why we're going to be using a laser to make sure that we get all the grades established. If you don't have a laser, you can use a level and an 8ft board to help you achieve your grades. Just simply pitch your board the way…