packing a driveway and foundation?

[Grizzly Adams]

Originally Posted by Xbolt7mm

Poor gerby should be properly messed up by now, there's been some fairly silly things said in this thread

Seen some pretty ****ty driveways, built by "Professionals".

Grizz

[gerby]

Originally Posted by Ice Fishing Maniac

6 " loose will compact between 1-1.5". Place loose lift around 7-8" should compact to 6". Use well graded crush and add water to moisture condition as required. Water will aid in compaction if gravel moisture is looking dry. If you need a balance lift of GBC to bring to grade just place and then compact or just go with a bit thicker concrete slab.

FYI a grade beam is supported on the piles. A lot of the times you will see styrofoam placed below the bottom of the gradebeams on loose gravel prior to concrete poured. Footings are built on native undisturbed soils. The size of footings is dependant on what the soils can bear for a load.

My guess is your house is on piles if you are placing your attached garage on a pile/gradebeam foundation. Make sure your pile depth accounts for freeze/thaw conditions. Footings are the less costly foundation design.

I would verify the square footage of your garage to confirm you do not need an engineered foundation with your city/municipality bylaws. Depending on size you may need stamped foundation drawings.

ok makes sense, what's GBC?

but do you put gravel under the styrofoam?

no my house has a basement, so i don't think it has pilings, not sure though, (not much of a concrete guy)
you mean footings are cheaper than a grade beam on piles?
didn't think so, cause a footing would have to go 4 or 5 ft deep just like the pilings

i did ask ask an inspector, and no it doesn't need to be engineered

[Ice Fishing Maniac]

Originally Posted by gerby

ok makes sense, what's GBC?

but do you put gravel under the styrofoam?

no my house has a basement, so i don't think it has pilings, not sure though, (not much of a concrete guy)
you mean footings are cheaper than a grade beam on piles?
didn't think so, cause a footing would have to go 4 or 5 ft deep just like the pilings

i did ask ask an inspector, and no it doesn't need to be engineered

Gravel under Styrofoam is used below the gradebeams as there is no bearing load on the gravel as the load is distributed on the piles. Sometimes Styrofoam is used for frost protection and gravel is placed on top. Its basically just there to help hold the concrete in the bottom of the gradebeam forms.

GBC is Granular Base Coarse-an industry term. Has more fines and a higher fracture count spec which aids in compaction compared to road surface gravels that has less fines and lower fracture count spec, not that road surfacing gravel wont work. (Alberta Transportation Designation 2 Class 20 is 20mm GBC / Des 4 Class 20 is a 20mm road surfacing gravel).

Yes footings would be cheaper cost wise. Size of footing would be dependant on soils conditions at footing elevation and be deep enough to help protect from frost. Make sure to have positive drainage away from your garage. If you install a sump, hopefully you can tie it into the house sanitary line. If not install a small drain storage tank and you will need to bail the collected water out by hand or have a pumpout. That's what I had to do for my detached garage I had built back in around 2008/2009.

Pilings (driven or cast-in-place concrete) would be designed minimum 20' deep on outside perimeter walls due to uplift on the piles due to freeze/thaw. Interior piles minimum depth would be 15' if the garage / structure is heated continuously. Also all depends on soils type with depth on pile design and diametre of the pile.

Also would recommend concrete mix type "Duramix". Its an Alberta Concrete industry standard for concrete exposed to freeze/thaw and salts within the soils and help with salt off your vehicle in winter. Any concrete supplier would know this term. Typically its a HS concrete mix type, 20mm Aggregate, 30-32 MPa strength at 28 days or maybe at 56 days, with a Air Content of 5-8% and slump of around 80mm. I would recommend this concrete mix for your footings/foundation walls and your floor slab.

See the link below to ARMCA (Alberta Ready Mix Concrete Assoc.) for more info on Dura-mix concrete.
ARMCA-Duramix Concrete

With air entrained concrete you cannot do a power-trowel finish. Bowl float and fresno float finish. Be close to smooth but will still have some texture for not being slippery like a power-troweled finish.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

[Kim473]

Originally Posted by Ice Fishing Maniac

Gravel under Styrofoam is used below the gradebeams as there is no bearing load on the gravel as the load is distributed on the piles. Sometimes Styrofoam is used for frost protection and gravel is placed on top. Its basically just there to help hold the concrete in the bottom of the gradebeam forms.

GBC is Granular Base Coarse-an industry term. Has more fines and a higher fracture count spec which aids in compaction compared to road surface gravels that has less fines and lower fracture count spec, not that road surfacing gravel wont work. (Alberta Transportation Designation 2 Class 20 is 20mm GBC / Des 4 Class 20 is a 20mm road surfacing gravel).

Yes footings would be cheaper cost wise. Size of footing would be dependant on soils conditions at footing elevation and be deep enough to help protect from frost. Make sure to have positive drainage away from your garage. If you install a sump, hopefully you can tie it into the house sanitary line. If not install a small drain storage tank and you will need to bail the collected water out by hand or have a pumpout. That's what I had to do for my detached garage I had built back in around 2008/2009.

Pilings (driven or cast-in-place concrete) would be designed minimum 20' deep on outside perimeter walls due to uplift on the piles due to freeze/thaw. Interior piles minimum depth would be 15' if the garage / structure is heated continuously. Also all depends on soils type with depth on pile design and diametre of the pile.
Also would recommend concrete mix type "Duramix". Its an Alberta Concrete industry standard for concrete exposed to freeze/thaw and salts within the soils and help with salt off your vehicle in winter. Any concrete supplier would know this term. Typically its a HS concrete mix type, 20mm Aggregate, 30-32 MPa strength at 28 days or maybe at 56 days, with a Air Content of 5-8% and slump of around 80mm. I would recommend this concrete mix for your footings/foundation walls and your floor slab.

See the link below to ARMCA (Alberta Ready Mix Concrete Assoc.) for more info on Dura-mix concrete.
ARMCA-Duramix Concrete

With air entrained concrete you cannot do a power-trowel finish. Bowl float and fresno float finish. Be close to smooth but will still have some texture for not being slippery like a power-troweled finish.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

15 to 20 ft deep piles ? Wow ! House basements are only 8 ft in the ground. Some even less if it's a bylevel.

[Trochu]

Originally Posted by Kim473

15 to 20 ft deep piles ? Wow ! House basements are only 8 ft in the ground. Some even less if it's a bylevel.

They are generally on footings though, not piles. The two foundation systems are quite dis-similar.

[Albertacoyotecaller]

There is some good advice here from Ice Fishing Maniac.