If you have unstable soil on your land, you need to get it stabilized. This is especially important if you plan to build anything on the land, such as a home or other structure. If you do not, you would have structural problems with the home or structure, such as cracks in the foundation, cracks in walls, and more. Below are two methods that can be used to get your soil stabilized to prevent any of these problems from happening.
Use a Cement Mixture
One way soil can be stabilized is by using a cement mixture. The mixture contains clays, silts, sands, and gravels. The contractor will determine what percentage of each mixture needs to be used. This will depend on how unstable your soil is. Once the mixture is complete, additives may need to be added, which include things like fly ash, sodium, chloride, calcium, sodium carbonate, and more. The additives are used to speed up the process of the cement mixture and stabilize the soil.
The contractor will use a special tool to determine the proper depth they need to mix the cement with the soil. For example, the soil may be unstable six feet deep, or it may only be unstable a couple of feet deep.
Use Grouting
Another type of soil stabilization is using grouting. There are different types of grout that are used, including chemical grouting, clay grouting, polymer grouting, and bitumen grouting. The contractor you hire will inspect your soil to determine what type of soil you have. This is important as certain types of soil will not work with grouting. For example, if you have clay soil, the grouting material will not be able to permeate the soil well. This will result in the soil becoming even more unstable, which will result in you spending much more money.
If grouting is chosen for your soil, the contractor may mix one or more types of grouts together, or they may only use one type of grout. This depends on the type of soil you have, as well as how unstable it is. As with using cement, the contractor will determine how deep the soil is unstable before they start mixing the grout.
The contractor you hire can give you information about other materials that are used to help stabilize soil. The contractor can also give you information about different soil stabilization methods, such as wet mixing or deep mixing.
Contact a supplier of soil stabilizers for more information.
