House Pad Grading in Sherman, TX: Compacted Select Fill Pad Ready for Foundation

The project

The Job

A customer in Sherman called for house pad grading on a new home site. The lot had grass over native soil, and the foundation needed a level, compacted pad built from material that would not swell and shrink with moisture the way the native clay does.

Low-PI select fill was the answer. PI is plasticity index, the measure of how much a soil moves with water. High-PI clay under a house heaves the foundation. Low-PI material stays put.

What We Did

We set grade stakes from the plan and checked benchmarks so the pad landed where the plan said, at the elevation it called for. The grass was stripped off the pad footprint so the fill sat on firm ground, then the site was rough graded.

Low-PI select fill was brought in and placed in lifts, with each lift compacted by a padfoot compactor before the next one went on. The top of the pad was finish graded for the foundation.

Equipment on Site

• Tracked skid steer for moving and placing select fill
• Padfoot compactor for compacting each lift
• Grade stakes and benchmarks for layout

The Result

A level, dense house pad built from the bottom up, finish graded and ready for the foundation crew. Everything on the house sits on this pad, and a pad that settles or heaves takes the foundation with it, so this is the step where the money was well spent once instead of twice.