Can you build on shale

Check the Yellow Pages under "engineer. If you're investing a huge amount of money in a home, you don't want to take anything for granted, notes Harry Al-len-der, a geotechnical civil engineer in Iowa.

Geotechnical civil engineers offer many commercial development building services. The most common residential service is soil boring: taking samples from several spots on the proposed building site. The engineer extracts a sample that runs at least 5 to 20 feet below the house footings. A rule of thumb is to sample at least twice as deep below the footing as the footing is wide to ensure that the soil can support the foundation. Analyzing the type of soil from 20 feet deep helps predict possible settling and water problems.

It takes someone who knows what to expect from local geology to accurately access the sample and provide a useful report, advises professor Richard Handy, author of "The Day The House Fell," a guide to site selection and home building published this spring by the a guide American Society of Civil Engineers.

That may seem expensive, but sinking homes and backed-up septic tanks cost much more to repair. Geotechnical engineers also offer a "phase one environmental assessment" that developers often use to satisfy their loan requirements.

This report researches the land's environmental history by studying previous owners and previous uses. Any hint that your site once housed a chemical-related or toxin-handling commercial business, or the neighborhood dump, should prompt an environmental study.

Targeting and studying the problem before you build helps avoid an unexpected crisis and unnecessary financial burden once it's too late to halt construction. It also shifts your role from victim of the problem to manager of the solution. If you're considering buying a lot for a new home, an important, but often forgotten consideration is the soil. The perfect soil probably doesn't exist. Each type has flaws, but some have fewer flaws than others.

Be aware of the basic soil types and how they can affect your foundation. Sand: This is often considered the most desirable soil type, but avoid it if a survey or report indicates dune sand. This type of sand is softer than most and can compact, allowing the house to settle. Silt: Finer than sand, silt is very susceptible to frost heave.

Wet silt loses its structure and compresses. As the soil becomes more compact, lt foundations sink. Shale: Another expansive soil, shale is also susceptible to landslide lt problems when horizontal slabs separate and slide off each other. Limestone: Sinkholes are part of limestone formations. Philbrick, S. Foundation problems of sedimentary rocks, in P.

Trask ed. New York: Wiley, — Reidenouer, D. Shale Suitability. Sherard, J. Earth and Rock Dams. New York: Wiley, p. Underwood, L. Machine tunneling on Missouri River dams, Am. Building Embankments With Shale M.

Oakland ; M. This Site. Google Scholar. Lovell C. Paper presented at the The 26th U. Published: June 26 Balkema, Rotterdam. You can access this article if you purchase or spend a download. Sign in Don't already have an account? Personal Account. You could not be signed in. Please check your username and password and try again. Sign In Reset password. Sign in via OpenAthens. Pay-Per-View Access. First, the shale is relatively easy to scrape away without the use of an expensive hoe ram , at least as far down as we need to excavate.

Second, it was determined that the shale uncovered was not of the Billings formation. Bottom line: we have solid bedrock to build on.