Nothing is simple about this project. Because our site was once a lake bed, the soil is peat. The people who built the tennis court did a lot of work for us, though, as we found loads and loads of gravel under it (at least 7 ft...probably more like 10-12!). Matt had an engineer and soil expert from Planning (his office) out with Tim Wood, who brought his bobcat for the event. Sam was in heaven. (and Gus was also moderately entertained!) The results were about what we expected as far as what we need to do for the foundation and there is absolutetly no chance of a basement - the test holes rapidly filled with water up to just a few feet below the surface! Our next step will be to submit a soil erosion plan for our constuction, remove the court, and get a driveway started. We then need to surcharge, or "compress" the footprint of our home for a month or two with 2 feet of sand or soil - this will hopefully prevent settling of the house at a later time. Wells (drinking and for geothermal heating/cooling) and septic will follow soon after.
2 comments:
You may want to check into the reality of doing geothermal. I am in a very similar project right now and blogging about for the Mpls. Star Tribune newspaper
http://www.startribune.com/blogs/newhouse
I've done a fair amount of research and one thing that is concerning on your site is that you have peat for soil. Although your lot is wet which is ideal of geothermal the peat works as an insulator and can create huge issues with your system.
P.S. My wife is Madison and we were married there about 7 years, I love that city!
Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending how you look at it....) our water table is about 2 feet below the surface...so it's as if we are living over a lake. Great for geothermal! (bad for a basement...) Also, the peat has all been removed where the tennis court sits - our house site. It's now 9 feet of gravel on clay.
Post a Comment