Landscaping and Garage Foundations

We can finally relax, the hole around the cellar is now filled so no more danger of flooding. Our ground workers have used all the earth that was piled on the land to fill the non-load-bearing areas and gravel for the rest (250 tons of gravel!).  The garden has also been levelled, although it will need a bit more work before we put on the topsoil.

Here's how things are looking on site:

After speaking to the ground workers we discovered the reason why the pre-cast hole for the utilities was not used and the new hole drilled.  It turns out that the utilities have to be at least 1.20 deep so it won't freeze in winter. The pre-cast hole from the cellar company was only 40cm deep so unusable. It looks like they made a mistake in the factory while casting the wall.

The ground workers have also dug the holes for the garage foundations. They did this after being in contact with the cellar company as the foundations need to be poured soon after the holes are dug in case of bad weather (filling with water and the sides collapsing). Unfortunately after saying they would come last week, the foundations still have not been poured.

This was the final straw for us and we have put in a complaint to Allkauf about the cellar company for 3 reasons:

1. Not capping the drainage holes leading to the flooding in the cellar and the sludge and the associated additional costs.
2. Putting the utility hole in the wrong place leading to extra costs for drilling the new hole and for filling the hole cast by them
3. The delayed foundations for the garage

We first called our Allkauf customer service representative who asked us to send the issues in an email. We will do this once we know the final extra costs for the above points.

Here's how the garage foundations look at the moment: