How to Save Time & Money by using a little known Civil Engineering technique in the garden!
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- čas přidán 1. 07. 2023
- Making your own garden soil strong enough to use as a foundation saves removing material and buying sub-base in the form of hardcore or MOT Type 1. You can replicate a little know Civil Engineering technique at home to save you effort and money.
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Thank you to Wirtgen Group for video clips of the WR series of soil stabilisers in action. - Jak na to + styl
As a civil engineer in Australia we often use cement stabilisation for roads in the outback due to the distances (and cost) of transporting top quality road base material. As a rough guide we use only 2.5-3% cement. Anymore than that and you will start to get cracking appearing at roughly 10-12m centres, so if you are doing a large area eg a long driveway just make sure you don’t add too much cement. Also if you have heavy clay, lime stabilisation may be a better option, with the benefit it can be reworked.
What does lime stabilisation looks like i have heavy clay but -30degree winter +30 degree summer
@@toolsaddictionthere different earth types. Heavy clay(which refers to little to no sand in it) can form a watertight barrier. In eco friendly building this is used to get dry basements without the typical outside coatings.. so I guess he refers to removing the mushy top layer and I guess mixing it with 30-50% pure clay which if compacted will result in a nearly watertight surface. The only thing clay needs is to avoid moving water on it as this will wash it away. But since there is a road surface on top of it this is a secure construction type. Still would be curious to know how much clay is roughly needed
@@toolsaddiction I've got a driveway made of steel slag, basically straight CaO quicklime in 1/2`` size with some impurities. The finer particles solidify really well and the big stuff on top seats in nicely, easy to straighten up with the rake, -30c winters.
I imagine with clay it would be really good, trouble we have is the snow blower throws it all over the lawn, and weeds grow REALLY well in it.
I may do a quick test before winter planing a patio aera and i need to avoid digging
@@toolsaddiction Not sure about -30 but have done it in the lower bit of the Snowy Mountains NE Vic Au, probably worst is -15 upper been lower 40's (have seen it snow there in December). Holding up after a couple of years quite well, just needs doing all the way to the Princess Highway now.
In the USA it's called soil cement. When I was a kid we used it to make a very narrow runway in our back pasture so we could keep flying in rainy weather. It's still there, still in use, 57 years later.
I've done this, being mixing a bag of cement into soil and dousing it with water, on projects around the house but never said anything to anybody because I thought I was just being super lazy and cheap. Turns out I was just doing some good economic civil engineering!
😂
Lol
I washed a film about rammed earth buildings many years ago and this technique is basically the same process. I used this idea to build a garden step and also a patio. I did use a fence post to compact the cement earth mix and laid the paving onto wet mortar. Everything has remained exactly level for the past 20 years...a great technique and a very good video👍
Did you use a layer of sand between the base and mortar?
@@stav2002 I didn't, I just mixed some cement powder with some water so I could brush some onto the underside of the paving slabs as I laid them.
What is not really clear for me is how rain water will sip through such stabilised soil? It looks like water management should also be done for big sites
What film?
@@oleksandrzaslon5367yes, slope and drainage always have to be accounted for--just remember--water flows downhill. Too much slop and you could wash out your neighbors in a heavy storm. Washouts with damage-that you caused-are your responsibility.
Stabilised rammed earth. I used this extensively in South Africa about 20 years ago. Achieved 20 MPa strength with 15% cement content.
The technique i used about 40 years ago for a base for some light use steps up to a shed, i even laid bricks on it to create the stringers, i was given the idea from a old guy who did groundwork for a local council, only used it a couple of times since, the old fella told me he was taught properly during his apprenticeship and if he laid paving flags, he'd guarantee they'd be level and solid for 80 years, his work was 2nd to none.,👍
Finally, the proper use of "dry" setting cement.
the algorithm must know i love a diy diagram like the cross section you obviously made yourself. I have so much more faith in my ability to follow instructions now
This works well, I've used it to deal with parking on clay soil and stopping the mess clay becomes after a hard rain. This is often called "dirtcrete".
We have so many dirt roads here in Kenya. I'll try this. If you have a video of how to do it, I would love to watch it.
When they built the White River Amphitheater in Auburn, WA, they did soil cement in the front parking lot. About 10 acres. After construction was complete, they paved over it with asphalt.
I did this with a shed I built a couple of years ago. My native soil is quite sandy to begin with so it's probably fairly close to ballast anyway. It's held up perfectly well, although I did put 60mm concrete on top of about 150mm of cement stabilised earth. If you look up cement stabilised rammed earth you will find people use this technique to make walls and houses too. It's a fairly ancient technique.
Every day is a school day.
Didn't know you could mix soil with cement to replace Type 1 and surprised to learn that big civil engineering projects use this method. Wish I'd known about that before building a shed base and a patio. Cost a fortune in skip hire and MOT type 1.😆
Just because of this video alone I am definitely subscribing
Sir. I've been in the building game for nearly 45 years and i never knew this? You have just saved me at least £1000 on a 25sqm base for my artificial lawn! Thank you so much for this post.
I would imagine drainage may be a problem using this method compared to type one over a large area like artificial grass but I may be wrong
I agree my only concern would be drainage, I'm thinking of doing this under a paver patio that will be under a hot tub but it will be at a slope with a drain underneath
@@mick.Walkertype 1 isn’t classed as permeable if compacted correctly
Drill holes in it
Yeah in terms of drainage this would not be much difference as type one is not permeable… you would have to use type 2 for this, not sure why more people dont use type 2, maybe its costs. Wonder if the lime version of this is equivalent to type 2
As a 777 pilot I can say you did a great job with T5. One of the few places I've never got stuck. And this will make laying my patio a lot easier
Sorry, planes get stuck?! What do you do when that happens?
@@awt increase the thrust until they break free. Sometimes it takes quite a lot, especially in hot countries where the tarmac can get soft
@@jonathanwhitmore421 amazing, not heard of that before.
For 500 frequent flyer miles, you can get out and push. I actually had no idea planes get stuck on the tarmac.
@@awt Yep, that's why we shouldn't've switched everything to asphault from concrete. Tractor-trailers do as well; ever noticed the grooves in asphault roadways where the ty/ires track? That's not from "wearing away" like a lot of people think, it's because asphault is forever a (very viscous) fluid. It's also why roads have to be redone constantly. That's why factories and shipping hubs like amazon almost never have anything but concrete for the tractor-trailer areas, they can't justify the constant, repetitive cost to their shareholders. Sure it costs a tad bit more to do it properly once with concrete, but then we wouldn't have to pay to constantly redo it. All of the facilities that I've worked on/been to have had the same concrete since it was installed 50-70+ years ago, despite non-stop heavy truck traffic, except for occasional cut-throughs for utility work. I can't imagine why we don't do that with regular roadways.
Oh wait, what would we do with all of these government-dependent workers and businesses and their lobbiests and bribesmen that we contract to redo the roadways every year or three, in spite of much lower average loads.
Standard mix for rammed earth or CEB/Compressed Earth Block is 10% or 10:1 earth mix to 1 part Portland. It actually can take "years" to cure, but your finished product can have a compressive strength potentially harder than granite. You can also skip Portland cement and go old school and use chalk or lime as a binder. You can also trap moisture into the walls with burlap to harden the mix while it cures. Leaving the wood forms on for 28 days might not work the same as concrete. A 20% to 25% mix is where you can start getting closer to an earthcrete poured mix. You have to use more water for the process, and the curing time is akin to standard concrete pours. I'm not sure what the compressive strength for poured earthcrete is though. It's beneficial and economical if you are using onsite soil.
Possible to use soil in a geopolymer formulation that forgoes fly ash and sand? (to yield a more eco-friendly mix)
@@MadLadsAnonymous They have a slurry mix for poured earth, but I don't know what the mix ratios are. they are using Magnesium oxide instead of Portland cement as the binder. I have no idea what the clay to sand, to silt percentages they are using.
@@elmerkilred159 Thanks! I've recently gone down the rabbit hole. Got that classic geopolymer book to play with recipes. Would love to do a residential ICF build with fiber reinforced GPC, maybe some Xypex added to make it self-healing.
Lots of experimenting to do.
@@MadLadsAnonymous Experimenting is most of the battle to finding your mix. Good luck!
For those watching the actual runway is made of at least 12 inches of concrete plus sub base, yer man is referring to aprons and taxi ways which don't have the added load of two hundred tons of aircraft landing at speed and from height
Amazed to see this, something I've never heard of. Wish I'd known this years ago before wasting so much time and money on my projects. Would definitely use it in the future
An ex army royal engineer gave me this tip, they use it for temporary roads. For a more consistent result I use a cement mixer with 1:6 mix and consolidate every 50mm of depth, gives great results.
Thank you for this insight
Thanks for this comment-I was wondering when a Seabee from WWII would chime in. They must have used this as foundation for quickly erecting buildings and roads. Great trick explained well in this video, one which I'll definitely use.
Sorry for being thick, but what does consolidate every 50mm depth mean?
pressing on it@@TheDajoca do a 50 mm layer at a time
@@TheDajocait’s to mix in each 50mm depth for the project.
What a very good idea. I particularly like the fact that you don't have to get rid of the soil and then have to buy in Type 1. Cheers.
Lean-mix cement : soil ratio is an excellent means of consolidating soil for light to medium loading. Add a screen of geotextile beneath to increase stability and you're replicating methods used in ancient Jericho where lime was added to soil, upon which they laid the first flagstone and sett paved roadways and footpaths.
What did ancient Jericho use for geotextile?
May I ask.
@@chiaroscuro6655 Jericho the city or Jericho Builders Ltd? If you wish t be pedantic, there was a tendency to lay a stabilising layer of reed, creating an intertwined mat over which they'd lay gravel and larger stone in layers., However soil cement isn't a new invention, with slaked limestone mixed into soil and compacted in layers. In essence it's still in use wherever you find mudbrick construction with lye added to the clay:soil mix.
Did not the walls of Jericho fall down?.
@@georgeday5901 we're talking paving and not wall foundations or walling demolished by the sound of trumpets lol 🤣🤣
@@georgeday5901 Everything falls down sooner or later. If it is later... we call it stability. But everything is destined to fall. That's the nature of our impermanent world
We've been discussing and planning for a patio extension. We're in Georgia, USA, and our soil is mostly red clay. (They make bricks from this stuff.) When the clay is dry it is very hard but during the rainy season it's a soggy, mushy mess. This method of soil stabilization will work very well on my 4m x 4m low load pad. Great information video.
What are the drainage considerations you need to take into account when using this method? I’m assuming type 1 allows water to percolate through while stabilized earth will create pooling on top.
Concrete is porous and will absorb water. So will this stuff. But with the places you will typically be using this (shed foundation, garden bed walls, sidewalks, etc.) It should not affect your drainage plans at all unless you are pretty much covering your entire property with an uncovered slab of the stuff. Your normal drainage considerations are normally slightly sloping the slab to sheet water off away from the base of structure, installing french drains and the like to move water in a needed direction, and designing your roof and gutter systems to transfer water away from the foundation.
Wow!! thank you for your most inspiring advise and excellent practicle demonstration. A great help towards my list of outdoor projects.. I look forward to your on coming videos.
Now, that gives me an idea as to what to do outside my drive on an unadopted road...thank you very much for sharing 😊
Brilliant idea, was unaware of this until now and could help me out with some project around my stable block to save carting the soil away.
Wow a crushing machine! Takes me back to when I used to work in quality control for a prestressed concrete manufacturer near Heathrow years ago!!
Hi Stuart. Love this system I wish I had new about this before. Many Thanks for showing this.
Its so nice that you take the time to explain things. I personally had no idea why I even needed a foundation in the first place, so many people on youtube just assume the viewer already knows it all but being a first home owner i have no clue about most of the things im doing
Wish I'd seen this video a few months ago before I started my garden project. Just completed 10 trips to the local tip to dump soil. Probably would have saved myself some time and money. Great video, I'll definitely be using that technique in the future, brilliant! Thanks.
Really useful method for garden projects. I've done a similar technique in the past but with subsoil hardened with lime and cement. I'd always assumed top soil would be too friable but will definitely be giving this a go when I next lay some slabs. Thanks.
Just in time for my project in the garden, cheers!
Amazing, I'm replacing our crazy paving soon and this will save so much time and money 👍 you legend!
This could not have been more timely...thank you!!
Ive never seen one your videos before but this was excellent. Well explained, interesting, and useful.
Rare time a youtube suggestion panned out
Always good to see something one has come up with in theory being presented like this! (Thanks for the affirming video)
Once again, an excellent and informative video. Top notch stuff, as ever, Stuart. Cheers.
What an excellent idea. This is definitely something I will keep in mind for future reference. Thanks for another excellent & informative video. Keep up the good work.
Spot on, I live on sandy soil and need to lay a pad down for a shed. A few bags of Portland and a rotorvator looks like a good combo!
This is great stuff. I've planned to render 30ft x 30 ft brick building with bought in sand...but thanks to this vid I now plan to use garden soil which is very dark and sandy after a few test pieces.
One question: how much work is it to remove/dig up the resulting soil/concrete mix after a few years, compared to removing a conventional sand+gravel layer? I'm interested in the long term viability of this method, and I want to include removal/maintenance of such a base layer in my considerations.
Thank you in advance.
You're using it in much the same way we used to use Dry lean in Reading at the massive Courage site in 79-81. To stabilise a large working area prior to setting up the site offices and materials store. It was a simple quick way of making a temporary working area more stable. An interesting idea.
Top video, many thanks. Feel confident you do this for a living : ). I'm just about to put a base down and am glad I haven't dumped to much top soil yet!
You make it to simple an clear to understand another fantastic video
Thanks a million. You've definitely helped me save some money with my little garden project too 👍
Great content! Very practical and time-saving process.
excellent video, thanks! Educational on so many levels, please do more of these
That's a very nice explanation. You convinced me of the importance of using crushed stones and sand as the foundation of pavers. Or using the cheaper alternative of stabilizing my own soil. I'm in the middle of reseating a bunch of stepping stones in the backyard and these techniques will come in handy. Thanks!
This could be a game changer for many small airfields in the future, as the breaking strength rules are changing in November 2024. Thanks for sharing given me an idea!
This is one of those things to keep in the arsenal.
Will save me a small fortune with all the landscaping jobs ive got in the pipeline 👍
Always over the moon when I see your new uploads ❤
Ha! Brilliant video. After building my own house it’s about time I tackled the garden. Fronts tidy so didn’t want to have 5 tonne of mot1 on the drive, this method will save me £££ in bagged hardcore🙏 Plenty of rubble and dry sandy soil round the back already which would have ended up in expensive skips! 5:1 in the Belle mixer, happy days🙂😘
Your channel explains everything so clearly, thank you for effort.
i appreciate the explanation of the importance of this hardened layer.
Likewise. It's always good to know why you're doing something.
About 10 days too late for me, my bulk bag came last week. But I may not have enough for the job I'm doing so you're reassured me that the poor quality, stony soil I'm digging out for the patio will work instead if I add cement to it so thanks for the tip.
I have ZERO skill in any engineering builds, so thank you for all these videos; beside your electricity that Canada has many differences, mechanical engineering you present is a wonderful learning experience for me. Again, Thank you!
Absolutely fantastic video full of excellent information and presented professionally. Love this channel. Best wishes from Ireland 🇮🇪 to you and your family and subscriber's
Cool! Very methodical, with nothing left out. I liked it a lot!
Great vid, very well explained. In NL we call this hardening the soil, usually done with coarse sand, or sand mixed in with soil, It does work very well and is a go-to solution for any outside area that needs to stay where it is :) . A small auger or a mixer attachment on your drill moves things along a bit.
This method was used on many road jobs I delivered fuel to, it works good in some places. Permafrost is hard to overcome. Some places cooling towers are used to keep the ground frozen.
when the silverstone circuit was modifed back in the early 2000's a similar practise was used except instead of concrete, they used lime, same mixing machine you showed, and they weighed the lime per square metre, even @ minus 5 degress literally within minutes after the mixing the steam for the chemical reaction was visible, likewise the heat through steel midsole riggers and 3 pairs of socks it was -5 after all :) :)
I learned today!
First video ive seen of yours and just subscribed. Great work and thanks for sharing this info and putting in the work.
Nice to have an accent and culture other than Yank. Nicely presented, thanks from southern side of South Africa.
Brilliant idea/ money saving i will use this in my renovation project that i have just bought
Thanks- nice video. Our soil is a sandy clay which is rock hard when dry and a gooey mess when wet. Think I’ll play around with this technique on a walkway I’m renovating plus on some additional parking area I’m adding by the garage.
A good point to raise Stuart, as we all need to minimise waste and un-necessary journeys and not just for financial reasons. I would suggest the big variable is the make-up of your soil, there will surely be a considerable difference between, sandy/gravelly soils, clay soils, peaty fenland soils, chalky soil & stony soil.
I have quite a sandy/gravelly soil so I have successfully employed this method extensively since moving here 25 years ago, and have a policy of re-using all excavated material on site. It can cause a lot more work as I sort material by grading it and sometimes washing it, but I feel it is generally worth it. I would guess I've brought something like 12-15 tons of aggregates +slabs & blocks onto site over that period and as a result we are now noticeably higher than some of our neighbours, but we were at a low point so it's not ridiculously so.
Anyway, nice to have this approach validated by an engineer, so thanks for that Stuart, I just did what I thought made pragmatic sense !
Yes I’m keen to know how different soil types work with this method . I need to lay a base for a greenhouse and have been putting it off as the thought of digging out and carting in is very unappealing. The area is heavy clay soil that has a lot of stone through it so not sure whether it would work on that?
In my neck of the woods we have dry, sandy soil. So in the swimming pool industry it's standard after dropping the shell in to add cement as we backfill and pencil compact around the shell.
Otherwise it'd be weeks before the sand would settle enough that we can put concrete or paving and coping down.
A variation on what is also called "Rammed Earth" that can be applied in projects ranging from small DIY garden applications and, with more refined techniques such as grading and careful measuring of quantities and mixing of the components, right up to use in buildings and major civil engineering projects.
That was a good explanation and a very useful video
Very clever thanks for putting this together
You’re like some sort of mind reader. I’m getting ready to redo a path between my garage and fence and have been trying to find a way to produce a solid end result without breaking the bank since this isn’t an often used path. Thank you!
Yes soil is brilliant and easy to work with. I used some planks of 4x3/4 inch tanalised timber to form the edges of a path. I staked them in while bending to the shape I needed and then shored the planks up with soil inside and out. I then put some some weed cover down and filled the space between the planks with gravel. Quickest path I ever made and I blended the soil on the outer edges of the planks level with the existing lawn I had laid the path over. The soil soon grassed over and that soil is now solid and has not moved. But I have also been thinking of laying some slabs into the lawn as stepping stones and thought of mixing cement into the soil. You just don't need all this sub base material unless you're going to park a car on it. Good luck with your path.
Ive learned something today and i will put this into practice.
dirtcrete is underrated. I have used this in drain laying where I have put under strategic places under pipe to hold in place to retain fall. When the dirtcrete is wet you can tap the pipe down until the fall is just right, leave it to set, then drop in more dirtcrete or gravel to support rest of pipe length. Useful method when an accurate gradual fall is needed and is cheap and easy to do.
Brilliant, especially as our garden doesn't have easy access from outside for bulky materials.
Wow. Would never have known. Great work. Thanks.
Excellent video. I like how you've done the mock-up to explain the physics in your 'lab' with the practical demo in the garden.
Would love this guy as my neighbor! Excellent video
The channel that just keeps giving ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Im looking at digging up some of my garden and laying down paving slabs to give some hard standing for my motorbike - i figured all the digging and the type1/sand and whatnot was going to be a logistical headache for me.
This looks like a good option.
Maybe hire in a mixer - shovel in the soil as i go to give a more consistent mix
A brilliant video, will save me a small fortune in my next project. 👍👍👍
Thanks, might do this under a monoblock path I’m planning
Wow! Shoveling Type 1 into my trailer at the quarry is a job I absolutely hate! Great video, Stuart - thank you. Educational, informative and well planned - excellent content! I've got a few garden projects coming up and I'll consider this method for my designs.
- sorry, but the laughs got me, who shovels at a quarry - where I live we tend to have loaders for that.
Wow!
Thank you so much, my favourite British CZcamsr-friend!!
❤
I need to lay a base for 10-12 paving slabs outside a greenhouse and have been putting it off for the expense and hassle of carting the hardcore down the garden. Now this could be the answer! Thank you, another great episode.
Just ordered a 10x8 shed... I'm thinking this would be a good start for a base
This is brilliant, it would have never occurred to me. Thanks
Perfectly timed Stuart! This tip has saved me a lot of time and money this week. Thank you!
Glad it helped
We've been doing this for years in South Africa when laying asphalt roads. Depending on the quality of the soil and the load and volume of traffic the road will carry, it's used in combination with other stone and sand substrates
Same here in Oz just 2-3% cement.
Could this mixture help dry out the clay up against the north side of my house foundation where it never sees daylight?
Hooooo boy. I wish you released this video 2 weeks ago. We're currently halfway through putting in a gravel patio down the end of our long garden, with stepped access. Shifting the MOT has been a huge pain in the backside. This looks like an amazing shortcut - thank you for sharing.
Actually I might try digging the earth and mixing it with cement in the mixer to get an accurate mix and return it to the dug area. As I have heavy clay it is very hard to get lumps out and a smooth mix.
Breaking up the clay and sieving the soil with the addition of some sand will also ensure a more consistent strength in the final product.
I’ve used this method (hitherto unaware of it) for foundations for my shed / man cave on a very sloping site. Solid. I did some more “digging” on the method. The US Army engineering corp have a manual that’s 400+ pages on the civil engineering. UNESCO have a large publication on same for use in ‘developing countries’. Back in the day, when I was an engineering student, the civil engineers in TCD were working on using bamboo as structural reinforcement for concrete. I don’t think it ever either worked or went anywhere. Thanks Dude.
If you don't have a mixer then this seems like a great candidate for the 2-bucket method, usually for thoroughly mixing sand-cement... would ensure that you get a good mix which I assume will make the strength more consistent...
Thanks, well explained. This is going to make my life a lot easier!
Great idea, I think mixing dry in cement mixer and then pouring on the ground would have given you better results
Absolutely brilliant
I love your classroom models 👍
I'm trying this in the spring in my yard.
Great video and an amazing technique your sharing 👍👍👍
"that has got you thinking" - damn straight it has. My garden has pegs marked out for a shed base and the ground is already hard as a rock because clay soil, but it might save me one problem. I'd be slightly concerned about drainage versus type 1 depending on the use case - but for me I'm going to have a shed over the top anyway so it's not a big deal. I guess it wouldn't hurt too much to put a layer of type 1 over the top if you needed some extra height or to have the properties of type 1 in re drainage and surface either.
I'm also curious about drainage.
Properly compacted type 1 is not water permeable anyway.
That is fascinating! Immediately subscribed 👍
Brilliant video thanks
Great info for DIY guys! Thanks a lot! I'm subscribed for sure!