How to Deal with Expansive (Clay) Soil in Torrance, CA

[Music] hey guys alex rodriguez here with bay cities construction today i want to talk to you about expansive soil we're here at our project in torrance in the south bay north torrance for those of you that may or may not know is full of expansive soil pretty much all of torrance is on expansive soil [Music] which means it's clay soil it's probably some of the worst stuff you can build on these houses were built in the 50s through the 70s a lot of them are experiencing a tremendous amount of foundation damage so i want to share with you share with you a little bit about what the soil looks like and what are the properties and some of the things you can do to prevent damage to a foundation if you're going to do an addition or if you're going to build an adu like we're doing here [Music] so let's talk a little bit about what expansive soil is and what are the properties so here i poured a little bit of water you can see this section here is wet and you notice that the the cracking words where the soil is dry is pretty severe there's tons of cracking in all directions and here where i filled in with water literally as the soil expanded the cracks got smaller for a structure when you have something your foundation which is concrete right stiff when this soil swells it puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the foundation in some cases it actually lifts the foundation and takes it out of level many garage slabs here in this neighborhood have either severe cracks or actually have some type of buckling or a corp or even a partial collapse and it's mostly caused by the expanse of soil during the time that these houses were built building codes weren't as strict as they are now and engineers have found ways to use rebar and concrete and particular psi strength concrete to help fight the forces that this type of clay expansive soil produces so if you're here in the south bay and you're considering doing an addition or an adu you need a soils engineer they're going to come out here they're going to take a test of the soil they're going to give you an analysis of the soil that analysis is used by the structural engineer to design the correct foundation for the site you have one of the ways you can find expansive soil pressures on the foundation is to use rebar a lot of rebar this is very specific high strength rebar number five it's thick and this is going to be the footing the verticals have number five rebar on the horizontal and the number four holding it together on the vertical but this is a really good example of the type of rebar architecture that you're going to need to make sure your foundation can withstand the forces of expansive soil [Music] no single person is an expert at everything you need a team of people with expertise in their particular skill sets to come up with a solution that'll work so if you want to learn more about building adus building home additions here in the south bay please go to our website baycitiesconstruction.com and also if you have any questions about your site specifically give our offices a call my name is alex with bay cities construction reminding you you don't need a contractor you need a team of pros [Music] [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: Bay Cities Construction

Views: 5,046

Rating: 4.5999999 out of 5

Keywords: bay cities construction, torrance california, expansive soil, torrance adu, foundation

Id: wzTxFrY0j0I

Length: 4min 20sec (260 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 15 2020