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!
Replies
I would do it. For $2000, you’d essentially be guaranteeing there would be no basement leaks for the life of the house. If you leave ~5ft of clay soil on top, you risk that soil eventually pushing on your wall enough during expansion that it could cause cracks.
I agree with spending the extra $2K. It's important to control costs early in the project so things stay on budget, but this is worth it. FHB has a good article on soils: https://www.finehomebuilding.com/2000/12/01/soil-the-other-half-of-the-foundation