Do you know about compacting soil?

[_RaT_]

I need to compact a pad for a building after removing some organic material. One corner was particularly deep, about 3 feet. I have great non organic fill material but will need to compact it. The rental yard will rent a vibrating ride on smooth roller. Without the sheeps foot roller, do you know if I can get the compaction providing the material I am using is not to wet? I thought I would ask here and see if anyone has a clue about this. I will be having the area tested for compaction.

 

[Westonium]

From my experience, the material needs some water to aid with the compaction. Not soaking wet mind you, but to lubricate the particles so that they slide together.

If you do it an inch at a time, you should be fine. I compacted about 150' of soil full of decomposed granite up pretty high. Very labor intensive. You really need 1 person to shovel all day, one person compacting all day, and one to spray or mist water (depending on how hot and dry it is) and whatever else.

Assuming you have a nice compactable material, you should be left with something remarkably tough.

 

[deereman63]

im planning to put in a gazebo this spring.I was wondering about the foundations my self. I am worried that any compaction would be subject to subsidence and there fore was thinking of placing the building on builder's buckets of concrete at least on the corners and centers. do you think this is abetter way to go

 

[RonL]

Rat

The smoothe vbrating rollers are used for granular soil. The sheepsfoot rollers are used for cohesive (clay) soil. If you are bringing in fill to compact I would assume its granular soil. How thick a lift you can do at one time depends on the machine. If you are using a small walk behind plate vibrator you might limit yourself to a couple of inches. The large ride on vibrating rollers will allow you to do substantial lifts. Water acts as a lubricant for the granules and helps in compaction. Too much water is not good, though. Go to Multiquip's web site and scroll down to the compactor section. There is a section that tells all about soil compaction.

RonL

 

[_RaT_]

Thanks guys. I have fill soil that was cut from well below the organic. My fill soil is decomposed granite and I would assume clay. It is very red/orange in color. The granite is fine. I can make a ball with it so obviously there is clay. Once dry, it is hard as a rock, when moist, it cuts very easy with my tractor. The smooth roller is a 2 ton vibrating roller. I am now off to the Multiquip site.

 

[Egon]

Clay soils compact best with a sheepsfoot type packer. It can be vibratory. The smooth roller compactors will make layers that are not bonded to each other.

Egon

 

[Taylortractornut]

Rat Im not sure about granite but In Alabama with the limestone fragments in the soilwe compact with sheeps footrollers in 8 inch lifts at about 14to 15 % moisture content. We usually run one 8 inch lift compact thenanother then do a compaction test on the entire 16 inches. The way id gauge my density is when th compactor quit leaving footprints lol. The inspector agreed that it was a bit damp but in the winter on that particular facility hetoldus that common sense told us it would be compacted enough. If your mixture was way too wet we mixed in masonary sand and other materials to the lift.
Most private job we work on we dont have an inspector or even a roller at that. We take the loaded scarper about every 2 passes and make a few loops on the fill staying out of the previous tracks. Thinner layers compact alot better to. When i doo afill insitde a house foundation with the backhoe all the tripps spreading and totiong the clay sand I run over al lthe loose soil I can to save on compaction. another good aternative is when you get you fill done if you have enough time let the elements settle it. Rain will compact the heck out of a building pad. Dad and I usually build one up a few inches high then allow i to be rained onto after comapction. THey usually settle to the right height or higher then we just run the grader over it.