New Build - Backfill Question

5 years ago

My wife and I are building a house. The house is being built in clay soil. The builders include 3 ft. stone backfill in the building cost. They said we can upgrade to 6ft. backfill for $2000. I know clay is not as good as sandy soil.

We’re already doing a lot of upgrades, so I

wanted to ask if this is worth it the cost? Obviously I know that 6ft. would be better than 3ft. I just didnt know how realistic it would be that we would encounter issues if we only did 3ft?

I have attached a picture of the foundation. Its smaller congrete blocks, not large cinder blocks, I dodnt know if that would make a difference.

any insight is appreciated!

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Comments (3)

krissie55
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Can't help with the backfill but houses built on clay soil needs to have the ground around the house watered on a regular basis in order to keep house from shifting. Putting a drip hose 2 ft. away from house foundation and let drip off and on will work well or be sure there are sprinklers all around the house. A shifting house will cause sheet rock to crack in ceiling and walls.
3onthetree
5 years ago
You are probably into rough electrical and plumbing by now. The footing depth looks only a couple feet deep, so don't know where the additional 3' depth would have went. You have poured concrete foundation walls, where the forms had a stamp pattern to resemble brick.

There are different types of clay soil, and clayey soil as well. So running constant water around the house may be futile unless you are in a certain part of Texas.
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res2architect
5 years ago
Confusing question. Are you asking about crushed stone backfill? What does 3 ft and 6 ft refer to; cubic, vertical or horizontal feet? Is the view of the front of a 3 car garage? Will a slab be poured for the garage on fill? Why does the top of the foundation appear so high above the original grade?