How to Save Time & Money by using a little known Civil Engineering technique in the garden!
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Published 2023-07-02
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Thank you to Wirtgen Group for video clips of the WR series of soil stabilisers in action
All Comments (21)
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As a civil engineer in Australia we often use cement stabilisation for roads in the outback due to the distances (and cost) of transporting top quality road base material. As a rough guide we use only 2.5-3% cement. Anymore than that and you will start to get cracking appearing at roughly 10-12m centres, so if you are doing a large area eg a long driveway just make sure you don’t add too much cement. Also if you have heavy clay, lime stabilisation may be a better option, with the benefit it can be reworked.
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I've done this, being mixing a bag of cement into soil and dousing it with water, on projects around the house but never said anything to anybody because I thought I was just being super lazy and cheap. Turns out I was just doing some good economic civil engineering!
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In the USA it's called soil cement. When I was a kid we used it to make a very narrow runway in our back pasture so we could keep flying in rainy weather. It's still there, still in use, 57 years later.
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While I've no doubts that it works as a technique, and I'm equally certain that there are appropriate uses for it, I couldn't help but be reminded of a quote from Paul Harvey while watching you mix concrete into lovely black earth: “Man — despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication, and his many accomplishments — owes his existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.”
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Thank you so much for showing me this,, I've been getting very stressed about having to lay a base for my Intended shed,, now I can relax knowing it's do-able, by a 68 year old on his own,, 🤣, (Billy no mates).. Thanks again,, 👍👍
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I washed a film about rammed earth buildings many years ago and this technique is basically the same process. I used this idea to build a garden step and also a patio. I did use a fence post to compact the cement earth mix and laid the paving onto wet mortar. Everything has remained exactly level for the past 20 years...a great technique and a very good videođź‘Ť
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The technique i used about 40 years ago for a base for some light use steps up to a shed, i even laid bricks on it to create the stringers, i was given the idea from a old guy who did groundwork for a local council, only used it a couple of times since, the old fella told me he was taught properly during his apprenticeship and if he laid paving flags, he'd guarantee they'd be level and solid for 80 years, his work was 2nd to none.,đź‘Ť
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This works well, I've used it to deal with parking on clay soil and stopping the mess clay becomes after a hard rain. This is often called "dirtcrete".
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Stabilised rammed earth. I used this extensively in South Africa about 20 years ago. Achieved 20 MPa strength with 15% cement content.
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What a very good idea. I particularly like the fact that you don't have to get rid of the soil and then have to buy in Type 1. Cheers.
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the algorithm must know i love a diy diagram like the cross section you obviously made yourself. I have so much more faith in my ability to follow instructions now
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I did this with a shed I built a couple of years ago. My native soil is quite sandy to begin with so it's probably fairly close to ballast anyway. It's held up perfectly well, although I did put 60mm concrete on top of about 150mm of cement stabilised earth. If you look up cement stabilised rammed earth you will find people use this technique to make walls and houses too. It's a fairly ancient technique.
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As a 777 pilot I can say you did a great job with T5. One of the few places I've never got stuck. And this will make laying my patio a lot easier
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We've been discussing and planning for a patio extension. We're in Georgia, USA, and our soil is mostly red clay. (They make bricks from this stuff.) When the clay is dry it is very hard but during the rainy season it's a soggy, mushy mess. This method of soil stabilization will work very well on my 4m x 4m low load pad. Great information video.
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An ex army royal engineer gave me this tip, they use it for temporary roads. For a more consistent result I use a cement mixer with 1:6 mix and consolidate every 50mm of depth, gives great results.
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Wish I'd seen this video a few months ago before I started my garden project. Just completed 10 trips to the local tip to dump soil. Probably would have saved myself some time and money. Great video, I'll definitely be using that technique in the future, brilliant! Thanks.
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Amazed to see this, something I've never heard of. Wish I'd known this years ago before wasting so much time and money on my projects. Would definitely use it in the future
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Only just seen this and now so annoyed I spent loads of money and effort under my patio, now I'll be using this method a lot more for non load bearing stuff, thanks so much for showing, really useful
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Really useful method for garden projects. I've done a similar technique in the past but with subsoil hardened with lime and cement. I'd always assumed top soil would be too friable but will definitely be giving this a go when I next lay some slabs. Thanks.
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Great vid, very well explained. In NL we call this hardening the soil, usually done with coarse sand, or sand mixed in with soil, It does work very well and is a go-to solution for any outside area that needs to stay where it is :) . A small auger or a mixer attachment on your drill moves things along a bit.
