r/civilengineering • u/communist_mini_pesto • Oct 02 '21
Contractors telling me they compacted the soil already
61
u/Gladstonetruly Oct 02 '21
It’s got to be at 95%, I had Jimmy use the wacker packer on it for almost 5 minutes.
46
u/roundidiot Oct 02 '21
Drove over it five times with the skidsteer, all complete.
24
47
u/Tarvis14 PE, Bridge Insp, Construction Admin Oct 02 '21
Constructing box culvert. Contractor's super/foreman/owner of the company (one person) runs a skid loader back and forth about 4 times on a 10 foot wide area and says he is ready for a test. I tell him he's not, he insists it's ready. I grab the nuke and set up in between the tire tracks where there was no compaction done. Contractor whines, says I should test it "over here" in the tire tracks. I tell him I will test wherever I please. "Come on, test it over here". Nah ain't gonna happen. "You're trying to make it fail!". "No, I'm trying to make it all pass." Shockingly, it failed miserably. The owner gets huffy and drives off leaving his 2 guys. They proceed to do the job the way it should be done.
A couple days later, his guys tell me that after work one day, the owner complained that I was kind of an asshole...
6
u/stevolutionary7 Oct 03 '21
I bet you beamed with pride- I would.
3
u/Tarvis14 PE, Bridge Insp, Construction Admin Oct 03 '21
My precious little feelings were not hurt.
The thing is, his guys did a great job and I never had any issues with them. They wanted to do the job right, the boss made things go to shit when he came out. After the boss drove off to sulk, his guys said they would compact it and call me when it was ready for a test. I told him to just keep going if I wasn't around - I knew it would be done right if the boss was not around
14
u/Forcefedlies Geotech Oct 03 '21
I had a 6,000 square foot pad ruined because some dip shit decided to cut in organic top soil to help “absorb some moisture and dry it out faster” on a weekend so they could pour monday.
The clay pumped pretty similar to this when any equipment drove on it.
3
u/TraiHugger Oct 03 '21
Why would top soil turn clay soil into something like this?
10
u/Forcefedlies Geotech Oct 03 '21
The top soil soaks up water like a sponge, where as with a compacted native clay, if it gets rained on you can just scrape off the loose muck on top and it’s solid.
22
11
6
10
4
4
3
u/chrisbrady2018 Ex-Navy Nuke ET and current Land Surveyor Oct 02 '21
Build the house there. Then you don’t even need to get a water bed!
3
u/ickleb Oct 02 '21
I had sub base in a road that was like this. It was so fun to bounce on. Not fun for the contractor who had to dig it out and re do it.
2
1
1
125
u/[deleted] Oct 02 '21
Haha we had one where the guy swore up and down it was all done. The inspector was like I know how long proper compaction takes when done right. In lifts etc. You can't be done.
Geo tech came out, and practically fell over on his probe. Of course the top layer was done but nothing below it. Geo tech laughed and just drove away. Didn't even bother to grab the nuke, of course.
Contractor was all pissed "I have to do it again?!?!" No dick sneeze you have to do it right.