clay or sandyloam?

[workinallthetime]

We are toying with the idea of building a home, the problem is in order to get insured the home will have to be raised about 5 feet off the current level.
i have 2 options:
1 drive about to the back of the property across the creek and start removing clayish soil from the side of a hill, this will require hours and hours of travel, and b/h work to dig from the hill and transport. i do plan on renting a full size backhoe to do the work with.

2 rent a dozer, expand a draw that is directly behind the site and use the sandy load soil for the pad, i will have to rent a dozer and larger loader to do this.

i would prefer to use the clay and not expand the draw, but if i expand the draw it will become a permanent pond.

any ideas or suggestions?

 

[Baby Grand]

How far below grade will the slab be? In other words, will you have a basement beneath the 1st floor, or are you building from an elevated slab up? Just thinking about drainage issues with the clay.

 

[workinallthetime]

no basements in oklahoma, water table is way to high from what i have been told for years.
There will be a 5 foot tall earth pad with the slab on top of that. I have had some really bad experinces with slabs on clay but they were just on clay. This would be a pad built on clay that is sitting on sandy loam.
I dont know if this will cause the same problems as what i have experienced with clay around here.
using the clay will take more time and money but i can remove it from an area that is usless for anything but trails. I can not haul any dirt in due to being in a flood plane. nothing can be hauled in or out, but you can move around what you have on site.
The parents built in this area years ago, 24 to be exact, the pad cost them $10,000 back then. Their pad is sandy loam and with piers to bedrock on 4' centers. Their slab has fractured in one place but does not seem to move at this point.
Hertz will rent me a dozer for about 1,000 a week and full size case bh for the same price. I figure a week on each machine to dig and move the material. If i dig from the hill i can borrow a cat bh to excavate, and use some sort of loader to transport. i cant use a large machine due to my creek crossing is only 8' wide and abut 30 across with steep banks on both sides.

 

[txdon]

I would do what Minkim did and build on piers that are 17 feet underground and 5 feet above ground.

If you do fill -
Make sure you use the right compactable fill under the slab, and use a vibrating roller every few inches of elevation to compact the fill. Then when it is finished do a soil compaction test. This is what I did on my slab that had to be raised 2' on one side. The soil had to be brought in because my soil was too sandy or too black gumbo. It was also on top of sandy loam. My builder hired the job out to an experienced crew with a dump truck, dozer, backhoe, and a vibrating roller.