Totally with you on drainage being key. Fabric's great, but it's more like insurance than a fix-all. Reminds me of a friend who DIY'd his patio slab—did everything right except slope it away from the house. First heavy rain, he had a mini lake pooling right at his back door. Ended up jackhammering half the slab to redo the grading... expensive lesson, but he never made that mistake again.
Drainage mishaps can really sneak up on you. Had a client once who insisted on DIY'ing his own foundation prep before we built the framing. He was meticulous—checked every detail twice—but overlooked compacting the soil properly around the perimeter. First big storm, water seeped right into his basement walls, causing mold issues down the line. Fixing that wasn't cheap or fun... I guess some lessons just stick better when they're learned the hard way.
That's a tough lesson indeed. Curious though, did your client consider installing perimeter drainage or French drains during the initial prep? I've found that even with meticulous soil compaction, having proper drainage systems in place can make a huge difference. Had a similar issue once—client insisted on skipping drainage tiles to save costs. Needless to say, after the first heavy rain, we ended up retrofitting the entire setup... expensive and messy. Sometimes it's worth investing upfront to avoid headaches later.
Went through something similar myself, and I get the logic behind investing upfront, but sometimes budgets just don't stretch that far. When I did my own foundation, I skipped the drainage tiles initially—figured my site had decent slope and soil compaction was solid. Worked fine for a couple years until we had an unusually rainy spring... ended up installing French drains after the fact, messy and pricier than planned. Still, if budget's tight, it's tough to justify the extra upfront cost when you're not sure you'll need it.
I totally get the hesitation about upfront costs... when we built our place, I debated forever about waterproofing measures. Ended up skipping some of the pricier options because, honestly, who expects a flood in a dry-ish area? Well, cue a freak storm last summer and suddenly I'm scrambling to manage water pooling around the foundation. Did you find installing the French drains afterward was manageable DIY-wise, or did you have to bring in help? I'm still weighing my options here...
