I am building a personal home on a hillside lot about a 10% or 15% grade. Top 2' of organics have been removed and native soil underneath is a sandy gravel. I am in Alaska outside City Limits so we are on International Building Code. I am building 24x64 ranch style single story.
Question 1 - Does code require you to be below the frost line if you are not on top of a water susceptible soil? I know ideally in my area your footing will be 42" down just specifically asking for code.
Question 2 - I read you can have higher then a 4 ft stem wall as long as not more then 4 feet are exposed without fill around it or it has to be engineered. If I build a 6' stem wall and then backfill about 42" of material around the footing and stem wall with sandy gravel (pitrun) after the stem wall is poured? Would this be acceptable and I qould not have to have engineered stem wall.
Thanks for your help
Question 1 - Does code require you to be below the frost line if you are not on top of a water susceptible soil? I know ideally in my area your footing will be 42" down just specifically asking for code.
Question 2 - I read you can have higher then a 4 ft stem wall as long as not more then 4 feet are exposed without fill around it or it has to be engineered. If I build a 6' stem wall and then backfill about 42" of material around the footing and stem wall with sandy gravel (pitrun) after the stem wall is poured? Would this be acceptable and I qould not have to have engineered stem wall.
Thanks for your help