Did my soil testing today, I messed up...

[ajbremer]

Well, I went to my land today and dug a hole where my first pier will be. I also took 4 videos of the process and their kinda funny because I basically didn't know what I was doing.

In the first video I basically show you my four corners. In the second video I start to dig the hole. In the third video I have completed digging the hole, I take a shovel full of the soil and show the camera and then pour 2 gallons of water into the hole (that's all I had - I was supposed to fill the hole to the top). In the forth video, I come back to the hole to find that it hasn't drained at all. Here's where it gets funny. I got confused as to what kind of soil to put into the jar for the freeze test. I dug into the bottom of the hole and got the 'mud' and stuck it into the jar. I later realized that I should have put the dry soil into the jar...right?

I would love comments from you about what you think of my soil, is it pretty bad for piers, etc.?

Anyway, I've come to the conclusion that my soil doesn't drain hardly at all. Now doesn't that mean that I can still use pier and beam but I have to dig deep and make a wide dove tail base?

Ok, here's the videos - don't laugh too hard...

1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el1uwsVSLhI
2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yvrlC_QBJA
3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQPuzB6zqko
4) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYJug697fjw

Even though I should have put dry soil in the jar, can I set the soil out to evaporate the water and then put it in the freezer?

[astidham]

well with digging that easy, looks like the foundation will be fairly easy!
my original plan was to drill a 12" pier and dig the bottom 12" of the hole out to 24" for a pier footing.
member dug did this here.
this is one of my favorite threads, dug is very thorough 


http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=8038.0

[cbc58]

i personally would want to make sure I got this part right and put in a proper foundation...  just my 2 cents.  worth getting an expert opinion or local contractor out to the site if possible for peace of mind.

[John Raabe]

It looks like you have a pretty high clay content there and I expect that your saturated soil will expand when it freezes.

Getting piers down below frost line would be mandatory. Clay soils don't have the solid bearing of gravels so a flared footing is a good idea too.

I would check with a local foundation subcontractor, or better - a soils engineer, and have them suggest the best foundation type. My suggestion from the earlier thread still applies. That is, you may need to do a crawlspace perimeter foundation with footing drains.

If you do a basement or crawlspace foundation (PT wood or concrete) AND it is properly waterproofed with the footings at or below frost level AND you put in footing drains and backfill with drainage material such as crushed rock, THEN you can likely build a solid foundation even in poor soil. That is why this is the default foundation type that most inspectors want you to build.

The thread on simple soil test: http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=10043.0

[ajbremer]

Thank you for all of those responses.

I did put my soil in a mason jar and then froze it - it didn't expand at all.