OT, ground compactor and house foundation advice.

[A.K. Boomer]

I just spent the better part of the last couple months raising an old house, its 1920's vintage and has an updated foundation that was sunk about 3 inches in some places, anyhoo, iv raised her back up to level and "cold welded" some concrete patches between the new wood that I replaced and the old foundation that has sunk into the ground, the house had no gutters and will have a french drain system with four feet of slanted sidewalk alll the way around so this will not happen again -- the original foundation is aprox. three feet into the ground, This ground is rock stable,,, Till it gets wet, then it turns into baby poop,,,, anyways, im confident that I will get this place to drain and it did take apox. 90 years to create the mess it was in -------
Now for the paradox, I want to use a Tamper (ground compactor) around the parimeter of the house to get the ground good for the sidewalk, I already have a fair layer of roadbase there but am concerned about all the vibes sinking the foundation further, If I loose a quarter inch its no big whoop, if I loose a half that would suck,,,,,,,,, I couldnt tamp it while I had it on Jacks cause where I had to lift was sketchy enough,,,,,,,,

Anyone who has any compacting experience (I do have some) will tell you that it can be a double edge sword, anotherwords, you get a few good hits in and it will actually go down far enough to keep the house from sinking further, In fact, its actually possible to raise a light house this way, Iv raised sidewalk using one, But, by the time I got this house up to where i wanted it it was under extreme load due to the lumber being in its old position for quite sometime (even though I wetted the floor joyces dailey while jacking) So, all the vibes on the outer parimeter could cause the foundation to sink, weve had a ton of rain here lately and this is givng me some major concerns.

So forget the math, this is kinda a fly by the seat of your pants one as I only mentiond a fraction of the variables involved, Question, what do you guys think the outcome is going to be and Why?, and do you think its worth it to drive some deep ass stakes close to the foundation ,,, maybe put "pins" out of them and to the foundation for measurement, do a few hits and see what happens?

I had to do allot of work on the outer parimeters, compacting is a must as I want to keep a precise drain angle to the concrete sidewalk, If I dont compact the walk can eventually change slant and funnel water into the foundation....

[Carld]

I would not use a compactor around that foundation. It is old and unstable and packing the soil could cause the foundatiion to bulge out and fail. You would be better off to put drainage pipe around the foundation and drain it away from the home. Putting the concrete walk around the foundation will help but the drain pipe at the foundation would do more. you could even put another set of pipes at the outer edge of the walk but don't tie them to the inner set. The drain pipes have to be as close to the bottom of the foundation as posible to work best.

It is never a good idea to use a compactor at or near foundations and is best to use loose soil for fill and allow it to naturally settle. I speak from experience on this. Don't pack it.

[Scishopguy]

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It is never a good idea to use a compactor at or near foundations and is best to use loose soil for fill and allow it to naturally settle. I speak from experience on this. Don't pack it.

This is the gods honest truth! Compactors can do damage to things that you wouldn't even have thought of. My brother, who lives in Jacksonville beach Fl. has a highway two doors away from his home. When they brought out the ground pounder to compact the earth for the roadway it turned the soil to jello, which carried the full force of the vibration to all the homes in the immediate area. Most of the homes were concrete block construction. The morter in the joints liquified and the houses instantly cracked. They called the project engineers and they found that the machine was set too high and the road department paid for the damages. I have never seen anything like it. My brother was home, washing dishes in the sink when it happened. He said the water in the sink started jumping up about a foot high. Vibrations can travel through wet soil and transmit energy to other stuff you may not want damaged.

[A.K. Boomer]

Hmmmm, thanks for the info, you catz make allot of sense, I just got back from there and was thinking while I was there that I could use plastic slanted away from the house and then put those little stones on top but you know future owners are going to want to plant crap and stuff so I dont like the idea for that,

This is just a little hand operated compactor but it sounds like its still too much, Thank you for taking the time to reply and now im leaning to an alternative because of you guys...