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Building a "pad" for a crawlspace home?

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SiteSolutions

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
I got hired to clear a lot of brush and trees, and to "Build a 'pad' " for the home. Only tonight I finally got a set of prints and the thing is a crawlspace house... anybody do these on a regular basis? The lot has a little fall across it, enough the landscaping/grading contractor should be able to run the storm water away from the house.

So, what am I doing? Do I just scrape off the loose dirt and backfill the holes from the trees I pull out, make the thing smooth and put a slight slope on it? Or do they really want a pad like a slab house gets? I have dirt lined up to start arriving tomorrow but don't know if I should get more than a couple loads now.

I can always ask the builder but don't want to be completely clueless when I discuss it with him.

What's normal?

Thanks
 
#2 ·
A crawlspace means there's dirt, then a void between the dirt and the floor of the house. The footings will obviously trace the outline of the building and provide a base for the floor joists to sit on in areas where the void exists. If they are pouring a slab, then I'd have to wonder what the plan for the crawlspace is, maybe they're only looking for a small crawlspace and the rest will be slab on grade. Without seeing the plans it's hard for me to understand what the requirements are for the crawlspace, they could be anything. I will say this, if you're removing trees and leaving holes where the root systems used to be, you will have to cut down to the bottom of the hole IF the hole lies in the path of a footing wall.
 
Discussion starter · #3 ·
Scag48 said:
A crawlspace means there's dirt, then a void between the dirt and the floor of the house. The footings will obviously trace the outline of the building and provide a base for the floor joists to sit on in areas where the void exists. If they are pouring a slab, then I'd have to wonder what the plan for the crawlspace is, maybe they're only looking for a small crawlspace and the rest will be slab on grade. Without seeing the plans it's hard for me to understand what the requirements are for the crawlspace, they could be anything. I will say this, if you're removing trees and leaving holes where the root systems used to be, you will have to cut down to the bottom of the hole IF the hole lies in the path of a footing wall.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, I'm thinking undisturbed soil can just stay undisturbed but the holes will have to be backfilled with solid clay or chert IF they're going to have a footing on them. The top soil is less then a foot thick, with good red dirt under it. What about the pillars? They're going to pour concrete and brick up with concrete block. I would just about have to clear it all off and then mark a grid with paint and make sure each load bearing location isn't a hole with soft dirt / brush in it.
 
#4 ·
They don't want a pad like a slab house gets. With a slab you build your pad up level and they typically dig footings around the perimeter. In a crawl space you would remove all of the loose dirt and vegetation as usual and level the pad but not build it up. Generally, you would then spread some gravel over the pad sometimes over plastic.
 
Discussion starter · #5 ·
Sounds like what I have typically seen. I have worked on a hundred of these foundation homes (just never got to be the first one on the site before) and they all look the same... no "pad" built up, just whatever dirt was there to begin with.

So I guess the only reason I am bringing in dirt is fill the tree holes?
I don't know which is worse, buying too much dirt to make an entire pad, or spending too much time trying to find and fill in all the holes with (less) dirt.

Anyway, here's the foundation plan, mostly crawlspace, with a ton of these pillars under it for support...

Image
 
#6 ·
Years ago my dad was involved in building and told me that the crawl space homes were all just built on existing cleared land until termites became a problem. So later on the space was cleared and filled with crushed rock and sand. That and a good DDT treatment before completing the floor... Since they are going to dig pillars anyway it is useless to bring in rock fill that is just going to get mixed. Just clear vegetation and level and you're done.
 
#7 ·
Here you have to have clean dirt in the crawl space so that when you dig the footers tehre is no roots showing.They do not want any debris mixed in the dirt due to termites and smell.

So you basically clear the area for the house and clear the loom down to hard pan.It is exactly the same as padding for a slab except you do not have to be level.
 
#8 ·
Oh I will add that you need to clarify with the builder where the corners to the house will be so that you clean the right spot out.The Builder will adjust the house to the lot when he builds the walls to the crawl space, but if there are trees on the lot that will be saved you obviously cannot dig below there level so they tend to set grade.
 
#9 ·
I got one of those yesterday as well. We don't see a lot of those here either, usually full basement. Ours is along a river (large canal actually). Tons of brush to be cleared. Too bad I did not have the Fecon, I could have paid for half of it on two lots in this sub. div. as it was it had to be subed out to a logger. The rest of the lot looks like a motto cross track. We will likely excavate about 4 feet down and in areas where the ground is lower than that, it looks like stepping the footings rather than fill and compact will be the order of the day. The house 3500 square feet on the main level. It will be a good little job.

Here we dig a crawl space out to 3 to 4 feet throughout the footprint of the house plus the overdig for concrete forming and all interior supports are done with interior linear footing, don't see a lot pier footing on the interior.

You guys obviously do things different out East.
 
#10 ·
Here a house with a crawl space the house is built on footings with a 4 foot concrete wall depending on the ground contours if its rock under the dirt its scraped off and powerwashed.

Almost 95% of the places you can't dig a full basement so you either have a half basement ect.
 
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Discussion starter · #11 ·
Scrape off 6 to 10 inches almost anywhere in North Alabama and you hit solid red dirt. A crawlspace here just means that they dig a footer (and usually pillars, too) down into that red dirt a foot or so. Then they block up a few feet and build the house on top of that.

I got all the loose dirt and almost all of the little little tiny roots scraped off. I used two loads of red dirt to fill the holes left by the bigger root balls and to bring up the back side of where the house will be. Bladed it off a couple times so it looks nice and isn't too wavy. The CM said it looked good so I must be pleased with it, too.

I still have three loads of brush to haul off, and I have to load it out with my T-190. Not looking forward to that. The 341 I had rented broke something inside the crowd cylinder today, and it ain't coming back. I also had an o-ring fail on my 4-in-1 bucket hoses, then my wife ran out of gas, and when I finally got back on site and fixed the hose, the dump truck working with me was overheating due to the fan not kicking on, so he had to leave. What a day. I am going back in the AM to load out the rest of the brush with my little loader; I'm not looking forward to it. Anybody with a big mini-ex w/ thumb in my area is welcome to stop by and make a couple bucks.

Image
 
#13 ·
Here is a typical job of ours. Clean rock, drill and epoxy #5 rebar, contour footings to rock, stack wall forms on top of raised wall footings......and pour walls.......

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Discussion starter · #14 ·
We've got houses like that on the "mountains" around here (they're just foot hills but contain lots of rocks, just like real mountains). Only comfortably well-off people can build them. The rest of us live in former pasture or cotton field.

The unlucky / uninformed buy homes from folks like Mike Friday who use red dirt to bridge-over swamp land. Those pads float on the swamp I guess. The slabs always crack.
 
Discussion starter · #17 ·
I used the 341 until it broke Tuesday. Had to take out the last few trees with the T-190 but it went quick with the "digger" attachment which is a poor man's swale cutter and tree spade all in one.

Loading the last four loads out with the loader went better after I built up about a two foot ramp right at the curb, so I was about 30"+ above the pavement where the truck was sitting.
 
#19 ·
Looks good! From what I can tell from the pics, that looks like a nice pad for the builder.

Keep the pics coming!
Andrew
 
#20 ·
The pictures Constsvc posted is just like what we deal with here scrape the dirt off and its solid rock. Its good to build on the house is solid. Just tough to build the form work.
 
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