I am not a builder but rather a person who has been looking to move to western North Carolina for several years. I have seen so many houses with siding buried in dirt or walk out basements without a full masonary wall or masonary knee wall where untreated sheeting or siding is at grade. Another thing I have seen many times is where the exterior of foundation walls are veneered with a natual or manmade rock up to the bottom course of siding with no flashing. Is this just a North Carolina problem or am I expecting too much? Most people ignore this stuff but it makes no sense to me.
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I reside in the foothills of NC and it does seem to be a NC thing. Decades ago, a very nice, upscale house was being built next to our home we were renting. It had rained, clay was wet and they literally pushed that wet clay right to the cinderblock without bothering to put even roofing felt or builder’s plastic sheeting to protect the block. I imagine the owners had a bit of an issue with their basement. In my opinion, the graders don’t pay attention and grade too high next to a house. They also grade too high next to concrete drives or walkways. They make the soil grade even with the hard scape causing the grass to end up being above and not even or a bit below. So when you move here, expect some grading in your future.