The process is elegantly named mucking out.The mucked out soil is hauled away and is replaced by red clay.The final pad on which the house will sit.

This should include the main beams, posts, sub-flooring, and floor joists.It is recommended to modify/replace stacked block support under home with one properly-sized wood post secured to concrete pier pad AND gussetted to beam supportThere are one or more wood support posts, as seen in crawl area, that are situated on pier pads that are below the soilThere is no insulation installed under structure

We'd paid for new carpet AND a new, thick pad, but he tried to just leave the existing pad in place.

Is there a cheaper solution than ordering foam pads to redo the slope of the roof?

Also, do you recommend getting the water proof pad underneath?

I'm padding on for a new hot water heater and new toilets.

Obviously this would require a considerable amount of trust that they would see the project through and also that they would not be padding payments to subs but aside from the trust factors (which could be mitigated to some extent by appropriate legal terms) does this seem like a reasonably fair arrangement?

We'd also be interested in referrals for prefab homes and/or builders.Second is what we should expect to spend getting the pad ready. 

@Dan Handford you are talking about what i call the "technical" terms.Technically a broker maybe braking the law (in some states) if they do a deal without actually getting the listing. so yes, they have to get a listing.

Craigslist got 0 hits, trulia/zillow/hot pads combined got about 3.