At Home In The Woods

[MotorSeven]

#57 gravel is 1/2-3/4th's inch & is very common in the south.

If he went with a monolithic slab instead of a floating would he still need to compact?

 

[Diamondpilot]

I would compact also. When I built my sidewalks it was 3 weeks from the time they were dug and formed up. We put 4" of #57's in and it settled about 1" over that time mainly due to the rain. It was packed well and I hand tamed every bit of the gravel then poured 17 yards of concrete for sidewalks 6 years ago and not one crack still.

Also remember you said you hate wet basements and any crack can lead to water coming in.

Chris

 

[2manyrocks]

I've gotten lost in all the details, but I have a question about having to put in all the extra rock because of the foundation wall excavation being too wide. Are you sealing the wall and then wrapping the fill rock with geotextile fabric for drainage?

I would say any wife that would put up with living in a camper for 12 years is worth buying her a tractor of her own if she wanted it. Congrats on your baby.

 

[Obed]

I've gotten lost in all the details, but I have a question about having to put in all the extra rock because of the foundation wall excavation being too wide. Are you sealing the wall and then wrapping the fill rock with geotextile fabric for drainage?

The walls are sealed with Bituthene. Drain tile wrapped in fabric is at the bottom of the gravel for drainage.

 

[sld]

Here in the midwest we only have sand put down before a slab is poured.

Why is gravel used for this? Can you put sand around your plumbing lines to help against any movement?

 

[Obed]

I'd like to express my thanks to those who have provided input about compacting the gravel. Youf feedback has really helped. Without Cyril's asking about the compacting, we probably wouldn't have done it.

The wife called 3 local concrete contractors today to ask their opinions about compacting the concrete. One said that he never runs a compactor. He does not have the dump truck dump the gravel in the pad. He compacts the gravel by using a skid steer to dump and spread all the gravel. He said he's been doing this for 20 years and never had any cracking problems. The other 2 contractors said that they use a compactor to compact the gravel. All the contractors thought that using the compactor to compact 12 inches thick of gravel without doing it in smaller layers would work fine.

We are going to compact the gravel in the garage and entire basement. The rebar, wire, and plastic will be removed tomorrow and the compacting will occur. We are planning to pour the concrete slabs on Tuesday.

 

[Obed]

The basement plumbing drains failed inspection today! Yesterday the construction mgr and my wife filled the drain pipes with water. When the inspector arrived this morning, there was no water in the pipes. The plumber will come out tomorrow to fix the issue.

 

[Diamondpilot]

The wife called 3 local concrete contractors today to ask their opinions about compacting the concrete. One said that he never runs a compactor. He does not have the dump truck dump the gravel in the pad. He compacts the gravel by using a skid steer to dump and spread all the gravel. He said he's been doing this for 20 years and never had any cracking problems. The other 2 contractors said that they use a compactor to compact the gravel. All the contractors thought that using the compactor to compact 12 inches thick of gravel without doing it in smaller layers would work fine.

We are going to compact the gravel in the garage and entire basement. The rebar, wire, and plastic will be removed tomorrow and the compacting will occur. We are planning to pour the concrete slabs on Tuesday.

I think you made a wise choice. This is your dream home and you do not want to cut corners then have issues down the road.

Chris

 

[Obed]

Here's the waterproofing for the basement walls. You can see the drain tile with the fabric sock over some of it.

 

[Obed]

After installing the waterproofing, the walls were backfilled with 4 feet of gravel. The remaining depth was filled with dirt. We were told that we could backfill with 2 feet of gravel but we went with 4 feet as an extra precaution against leaks. The extra 2 feet cost $1000 in gravel.