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This is in the Pacific NorthWest, USA. Almost on the beach so very sandy soils.

So that answers the question of whether I need to get a geotechnical report. Sounds like yes.

There is a stem-wall but no footing under it. It's either 6" or 8" thick.

Hi, Some friends purchased an older home(1940's) with a poured concrete perimeter foundation. They would like to tear the roof off and build a second story. The problem is it has no footing. As far as we can tell the soil is mostly sand and small rocks. My question is whether an engineer will...

Seems pretty mixed up. Clay mixed with rocks and likely some sand. Clay varies from light to dark grey/blue. Without being trained, its hard to describe the exact soil structure to you. Could there be a little "spring" nearby? thanks for all the interesting responses!

I always believed the water came form the hillside above. I even had an intercepter drain dug on the "wetter" side of the building. This drain is still just barely dripping right now(mid July). The water in the soil is just very perplexing to me, how could it be present or not present just 15...

Follow up from the OP. I hired an excavator to install my septic tank. He dug a 10 foot deep hole about 8-10 feet away from my foundation on the downhill side to drop the tank into. The hole has been open for about 4 days now and NO water is present in the hole. Meanwhile, in my crawlspace...

I also should mention that the clay appears to be very dense. It has a mix of rocks and sand and the occasional glacially deposited boulder. But.....It drains very very poorly. What sorts of problems can water cause? I am less and less concerned for my own site after reading the comments here...

The foundation was backfilled on the wet side entirely with drain rock. I doubt there is any hydrostatic pressure on the walls of the foundation. My question and concern is in regards to the water beneath the footers.

Thanks for the replies. GeoEnvGuy you said foundations are supposed to be dry, I am in no way arguing but I wonder if you could expand on that? My drain was put in like every other drain around here, at the base of the footer. Unfortunately that only works to drain away water right to the soil...

Hello All, I have posted and discussed on this topic here before but would like further input, thanks in advance. I started building a single family home in western Washington state the Spring before last. During the dig for the crawlspace we encountered clay to my surprise. I was expecting...

Of course having a GEOtech report would be optimal. But it's rarely done for residential around here, and where it's worked once, it will work again, right? I'm not so much worried as have just got much more curious about how the calcs are done and what it's all based on. There are so many...

So is the total PSF just all those things added up? So your example would have a total PSF of about 250?

My engineer designed my foundation for 1500 psf soils because there was no geotech report and it's my understanding that it's standard practice to design down to a conservative number. My question is what kind of force does a typical two story, wood framed house exert on the soil? How much does...

OG- Do you mean to say the problem will stay the same unless addressed or that things will likely not get any worse?

I started digging a little sump pit in the crawl space today and noticed I was carving through layers of pretty dry, dense, hard, clay. As I dug the moister only seemed to enter from the top where there is a bit of standing water. Tried to attach images but not sure if it worked.

The soil around the wet area is certainly softer than the soil around the more dry portion. But I suppose that is to be expected with clay? I am guessing the problems associated with these sorts of situations are over the long term? Years of wetting and drying cycles could shift things a bit.

Thank you for the drawing. What exists currently is essentially what you've drawn, but without the berm. So most of the water coming toward the ditch(6 inches lower than footer)gets taken away, but with heavy rain there is quite a bite still making it into the crawl. What I do not know if...

I have not encountered sand in this particular area. Sandy/rocky clay, and that is part of the problem. I mentioned sand because basically above and below my house area footprint is mostly sand. I seem to have built on a clay island in a sea of sand.

I didn't mention that I assumed it to be buried under gravel, so not sunlight exposed