[AT] Continuing "What to do"

[charlie hill]

Cecil,  I'm going to pick on you a bit because I think you will agree with 
me.
After a 40 year career in construction and then real estate appraisal it 
still
amazes me that people pay so little attention to foundation design and 
finish
landscaping prior to construction compared to what you see with commercial
and industrial buildings. It's become a pet peeve of mine so please indulge 
me.

It seems like folks build a house in a hole and then
try to figure out how to drain the hole after the house is finished.  Given 
your
background I'm surprised you made the mistake of not considering soils but
anyone can make a mistake.

I bet if you had been designing a foundation for a commercial building on 
your
site you would have not only put piles under it but you probably would have
preloaded the site with good compactable soil that you later graded down
leaving a solid, compacted base to "float" the slab on and at the same time
gaining enough elevation to allow for settling.  Or you might have even
mucked it out to a solid base and filled the hole with compactable fill.
Of course when you have to write the check yourself for all of that site 
prep
it is easy to see the temporary merit of doing it the other way.

Near where I live is a piece of property that is not low but it's wet and it 
does
not have good drainage to anywhere.  It's about 25 acres and the folks that 
own
it moved up to Chicago and made a bunch of money.  They retired back home to
build their dream retirement home.  They cleared off a corner of the 
property and
built the house with a conventional floor system and after the fact realized 
they were
in a hole.  In the past 3 or 4 years they have completely graded and 
re-graded the
entire 25 acres and dug two large ponds to try and dry the yard up and get 
the water
out from under the house.   I think they finally have it fixed as long as it 
doesn't rain
enough to flood the ponds and at normal water table they only have about 2 
to 3 feet of
bank before they flood.  Now I notice that their outfall ditch seems to be 
flooding some
of their neighbors slightly.  Had they simply shot grade on the site they 
would have seen
that all they needed to do was build on the other corner of the site.

I'm writing all of this not to pick on you exactly but so that others that 
might read it and
not know better can be warned.  Think of the final elevation, grading and 
landscaping FIRST
not last.  I guess this sounds like I'm trying to be a smart A$$ but as I 
said it's a pet peeve.

Charlie

-----Original Message----- 
From: Cecil R Bearden
Sent: Tuesday, January 12, 2016 11:04 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Continuing "What to do"

In Dennis'  defense, this Oklahoma mud is really something else.    It
is about as sticky as super glue and as slick as greased owl S**T !   (
My Dad's favorite expression ).  You can get stuck in a truck with mud
grip tires in as little as 2 inches of this stuff.    It is a very
sticky and slick clay.  To drive in our mud, you have to have aggressive
tire tread and enough power to spin the mud out to take another bite
when the tire comes around again.   A friend has a pickup with a high
speed rear end but with only a 350 engine, and it cannot spin the mud
out of the tires.

On a tractor, the mud will build up in front of the front tires and then
stick you.  If you put any load in the bucket, the tires will sink.  You
have to keep moving fast enough over the ground to stay on top of the
mud.  When it dries, you need a pick and hammer to get it loose.  When
you wash the last of it you need a detergent to loosen the last film
that is left.
If I park a truck on a dry place and it sits without moving for a year,
it is down to the axle.  If I park it on boards to hold it up,  it lasts
another year.  We have to design foundations with piers down as much as
6 to 8 ft to hit a shale layer.   My house was built in 1985 when I was
not really familiar with this soil, and has a conventional 12 x 18
footing with no piers.  It was also poured monolithic.  It has sunk
nearly 4 inches in the 30 years since it was built.  That is an entire
structure 34 x 66ft and functions as a solid slab!

Just FYI about the mud in most of OKla.

Cecil in oKla



On 1/12/2016 8:19 AM, Ralph Goff wrote:
> On 1/12/2016 1:01 AM, Dennis Johnson wrote:
>> Ralph, Larry,
>>
>> Maybe I need to practice being stuck more to develop that. Tried it
>> earlier without a lot of success.
>>
>> Thanks
>> Dennis
> Hope this picture is not too big for the list. I took it last June
> while filling in a muddy crossing with sand. Loose sand on
> top of mud and water so the Massey sunk almost to the front axle as I
> pushed into it with the bucket. I thought it was
> worth a picture before getting backed out of there using the bucket.
>
> Ralph in Sask.
>>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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