[trees]

Okay, here's the situation.

We're building a patio up against a fairly new (1 year old) foundation. When excavating, we ran across an area of spongy soil. So... went about excavating it down to firm earth, but hit a seam of soil that weeps water! Filled the hole to about 4" with water. It did stop seeping, but... what to do now? Is it possible that it was just an area that had trapped water for a year???

Not sure how to proceed from here.

HELP!!!

[Paul]

How deep did you go?

To fix the problem, open the area up to firm subsoil, fill the hole with 3" stone to the level you would start the 3/4"- , compact and install a layer of woven fabric now add your 6+" of 3/4- gravel and compact in 2" lifts.

[trees]

Paul, are you suggesting the 3" stone as a dry well of sorts?

The problem arose when excavating against the foundation. We went down 10", ran into the spongy stuff. Went down a good 12" beyond that and hit a seam of soil that started seeping water. Dug a couple post holes down 24" below that as an exploration. These filled with water overnight.

The seeping seam starts UNDER THE HOUSE FOUNDATION... in other words, there's no digging it out (frankly, I'm amazed at how soft the soil is at and under the foundation of the house, period... that spongy stuff runs up under the slab).

[trees]

I'm thinking about having an inspector come out to look at the situation under the foundation (here, slabs are about 18", so our excavation is well under the slab at the moment). Would that be wise?

[Paul]

You can't correct the poor soils under the whole building site, so dig out enough to support the pavers. Using 3" stone gives more support to the base. Larger stone has more surface area for support, the fabric will help spread out the load.