Homeowners and Homebuyer

Our company can provide you unbiased guidance in any home purchase or if building a new home. All of our evaluations are backed by soils data from the United States Geological Survey. We have found from our own testing that these soil reports can provide accurate guidance in the soil characteristics that can cause foundation problems for builders and homeowners. Our expertise can assist you in your decisions for any home purchase.

We have noticed that large numbers of homebuilders in Oklahoma do not provide a foundation system adequate for the home. This was pointed out in a short newsletter published by the Oklahoma Professional Engineering Society. Foundations have been found to be inadequate in a number of areas such as non-expansive fill placement, weak pier and grade beam systems, shallow piers, etc.

Many builders seem to think that merely installing non-expansive fill such as sand, gravel, or sandy loam below the slab and to the depth of the grade beam will provide the stability they need. Since most foundations in Oklahoma have grade beams that are only 18-24" below grade to prevent frost heave, means that most, if not all, grade beams are too shallow to avoid seasonal wet to dry fluctuations in soil moisture. While unstable moisture has no impact on non-expansive fills, expansive clay soils in Oklahoma can only be guaranteed to swell or shrink during our wide swings in seasonal moisture. For a grade beam system to remain stable in Oklahoma, it would either have to be 15 feet deep or be supported on piers that penetrate to the same depth. Very few homes and many light commercial structures  use such deep grade beams or foundations. Think about how much the cost of a home or light commercial structure would rise if all of the native soil down to a depth of 15 feet was required or if commercial construction practices had to be incorporated into the design of the foundation!

This where Condor SS can solve several problems for the builder and homeowner. Condor SS can easily be injected into the soil to a depth of 10+ feet and stabilize all of the clay within the injection zone. This give you a non-expansive platform to build upon that will remain not only as stable but possibly more stable than imported fill. The injection can be made for both single building and multiple building sites. Typical costs for treating the soil for a new home are in the range of $3.50 to $4.50 per square foot of treated area. This treatment is no more costly than your floor coverings!

Condor SS can actually increase the strength of the clay soil. It does this by stabilizing the possible moisture content in the clay soil. Instead of the compressive strength of clay diminishing during wet conditions, it can retain useful strength.

There is also quite a bit of good information to homeowners in this short handbook by the American Society of Civil Engineers. We have added additional comments base on our experience and services provided by our company.