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| Over Digging Creates Foundation Problems |
| By Greg Vanden Berge |
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If you're planning on building a new home, make sure that you or your contractor does not over dig the foundations. This can create big problems in the future and many homes today suffer from these types of problems. Thousands if not millions of homes have been built in the past and suffer from poor soil compaction. Dirt that was moved from one area to another, often wasn't compacted like it should have been and this creates problems for building foundations. Worse than this is a building contractor or someone working for the contractor who is digging the foundations for the house, without any worries about over digging. If they over dig the foundation, they simply put some dirt back into the bottom of the foundation footings and then walk over at a couple of times with their feet until it's compacted or looks good. |
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| Here's what happens, the loose soil that will now be
directly under the structural foundation footings will be compacted only
after the foundation is poured by the weight of the home. This is
something that most building inspectors can't really check and soon the
home will be approved by the building inspector and ready to pour
without the homeowner's knowledge of the problems lurking. What can you do if the contractor over digs the foundation footings before they pour the concrete? Instead of refilling the footings with loose dirt, have made few yards of fill dirt sent out to the project and then use this to correct your mistakes. Fill dirt will compact better than regular soil and might even improve the base of your foundation. Remember, never to refill any footings with loose soil unless it gets re-compacted somehow.
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