Two Storied House on 20 inch Peaty Clay
Two Storied House on 20 inch Peaty Clay
(OP)
Hello Engineers,
I have done a Bore Hole Test, for my proposed house site, summary of the same is as follows,
Layers = Position ====Layer Description============SPT #
1=====0.0-1.5 m ==Uncontrolled Filling including Debris ==n/a
2=====1.5-2.0 m ==Soft organic Peat clay ===========2
3=====2.0-7.5 m ==Soft lateritic soils ==============3
4=====7.5-10 m ==Completely weathered rock ========5-18
5=== more than 10.0 m ==Basement rock ============n/a
Ground water level is at .6 meters.
Due to the the flooding during rainy season, we are planning to fill the ground for a further 1.5 m from the current ground level, to lift the floor level of the house. House will be a two storied building of roughly 5000 sq feet (460 m2) floor area.
Considering the above factors and information,
My Questions to the specialists are:
1) What would be the most appropriate/recommended & cost effective method to improve the land for the foundation?
2) And any specific methods to use for the foundation?
Thank you very much in advance for your contribution to clear up my doubts.
I have done a Bore Hole Test, for my proposed house site, summary of the same is as follows,
Layers = Position ====Layer Description============SPT #
1=====0.0-1.5 m ==Uncontrolled Filling including Debris ==n/a
2=====1.5-2.0 m ==Soft organic Peat clay ===========2
3=====2.0-7.5 m ==Soft lateritic soils ==============3
4=====7.5-10 m ==Completely weathered rock ========5-18
5=== more than 10.0 m ==Basement rock ============n/a
Ground water level is at .6 meters.
Due to the the flooding during rainy season, we are planning to fill the ground for a further 1.5 m from the current ground level, to lift the floor level of the house. House will be a two storied building of roughly 5000 sq feet (460 m2) floor area.
Considering the above factors and information,
My Questions to the specialists are:
1) What would be the most appropriate/recommended & cost effective method to improve the land for the foundation?
2) And any specific methods to use for the foundation?
Thank you very much in advance for your contribution to clear up my doubts.





RE: Two Storied House on 20 inch Peaty Clay
RE: Two Storied House on 20 inch Peaty Clay
The alternative is to learn soil mechanics the hard way- about 15% of your house cost. This will be used to hire the foundation engineer, structural engineer and a contractor to underpin the foundation. Ron and I should be getting a cut of that 14% right now!
RE: Two Storied House on 20 inch Peaty Clay
RE: Two Storied House on 20 inch Peaty Clay
What's my cut?
Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
http://mmcengineering.tripod.com
RE: Two Storied House on 20 inch Peaty Clay
If using a shallow foundation for poor soils of similar type, I've excavated the poor stuff and replaced with large rock/aggregate... placed using two types of equipment at the same time... one excavating and a front loader dumping the coarse material... and packin' the begeezus out of it... stiffened slab foundation or possibly a raft... talk to a geotekkie and a contractor...
Dik
RE: Two Storied House on 20 inch Peaty Clay
When doing construction on peat or true organic soils, it's usually piles, 'cause folks don't want to take the time to deal with surcharges and the engineering analyses required to determine the duration of the surcharge required to mitigate secondary compression. There's also a lot of risk in using spread footings even on surcharged soil.
You could also consider a soil raft, which is like saying, I don't care whether it settles or not, it'll all settle together and I can deal with the utilities and walkways as I need to. Not how I'd spend my money, but folks do. . .
From sketchy information alone, I'd agree it's piles and grade beams. Likely have to consider ventilation of the crawl space too. No idea whether changing water table drives up methane or other swamp gas.
f-d
¡papá gordo ain’t no madre flaca!