“Rus a few questions. On the 20-30k estimate for the foundation are you assuming that the pad is already built up? Also is there a settling time for the pad? Just wondering?”
Hi Adam,
That is using the assumption that the site is ready. If it can be done in native soil or with an easy scrape of the lot the price would be in that ball park also.
If the lot conditions require a civil engineer specify the grading plan and or compaction requirements and certify that work was done to those spec’s the sky is the limit. As I am sure you know some engineers get carried away. One must be careful of that and get many proposals unless they know someone that they trust.
I am not aware of any required settling time, however I could have missed this point because the one instance when I have built on an engineered pad, the site prep was not my responsibility. I don’t think there is a time requirement and believe the following takes care of compaction under most circumstances….
The engineer specifies, based on the type of soil, how compaction should be accomplished. If my recall is working properly, soil is normally mechanically compacted at six inch intervals with a specified moisture content. All fill has to be clean and properly pulverized. The goal is to achieve a certain psi as verified by the soils guy.
If you want to compact something not requiring engineering a soaker hose works well. Soak, let it settle and repeat a few times.
