I had a new 40 x 60 pole building put up a couple weeks ago and needed to bring in clay to build up the floor. I loosely spread some clay inside to keep it out of the rain and dry a little. I got a little over 2/3 leveled and ran out of clay. Of course the next day it rained, then it snowed and the temperature has dropped. The temperature warmed up a little and water was running in on the part I still need to build up. The pad is built up but I didn't have a chance to shape the outside yet because of the rain. I went out and played in the mud but did manage to get some more clay in the building but it is too wet to work with. I didn't want to wait and have a huge puddle in the building. With the weather just a few degree's above freezing nothing is going to dry out and will probably freeze at night. I have a big tarp and torpedo heater that will burn diesel. Do think putting the tarp over the clay and running the heater should dry it out so it's workable or is there a better way to make it workable? The gravel pit is bring me some screenings mixed with clay for the top coat that they say will pack better than road crush but I think they could bring that once the ground freezes a bit. I needed one more day of dry weather but such is my luck. Thanks for your wisdom in advance.
You could use lime, but if it's really soaked, that's not going to be enough. How many yards of material are we talking about? It's probably more of a PITA to try dry out the clay than to remove the wet stuff and bring in free draining fill (sand, gravel, crushed concrete, crusher run, etc.). Personally, I don't like to see clay fill under concrete slabs because of how much it moves. It's probably not the answer that you're looking for.
It's not going to have a concrete pad unless I win the lottery. The clay is wet enough that it sticks in the bucket. I just dumped it loose with a skid steer to get it in the building and stop more water from running in. There's about 8 or 9 yards spread over an area about 50' x 12'. I'll probably need a little more but I have enough to keep water from running in. It was just a muddy mess outside so I'll wait till the ground freezes a bit to smooth that out. I'd like to get the clay dry enough to level and pack so I can put the screenings on.
If you can find quick lime anymore, that will do the trick. It heats up and absorbs water to become hydrated lime. If you can't find quick lime, then hydrated lime would work, but not as cost effective, since you're paying for the manufacturer to have already added the water and cooled it. I'd probably put the screenings on part of the shed floor and work on the outside and the messed up inside when weather allows, sorry no good way to fight the weather once you get behind.
Lime, lots of lime. Then till the lime into the dirt with a tiller. It will dry it up,and, stabilize it against swelling and shrinking. We do it here in Texas all the time. On a new road grade, or building pad, they will bring in tank trucks full of lime slurry and literally drown the road in lime slurry, until it is standing in small pools. Or, they bring in dump trucks of dry lime and dump it on the grade. Next, they bring in a big tiller and till the lime into the soil. This mixture dries up within an hour or so, and they then use a grader to blade it to final grade, and rollers to get compaction. Should work for you, but you will need a lot of bagged lime if you go that route. You can also use bagged cement. however, once you get it tilled in, you need to get the surface to proper grade and compact it, before the cement/soil mixture sets up.
Warming it up under a tarp won't help?
That would get you warm wet clay. It will take time with the torpedo heater but it will probably dry it if you run it long enough. It is all about air circulation and tilling it. Try a small area and see how and what it will take to accomplish what you want. Is the clay too wet to put 2 inch crushed stone on top of it ? That would be my choice.
If you can keep more water from coming in, and you get some nice dry weather like we're having here, then it will dry out slowly. The ground is much warmer than the air temperature so it will dry in the Fall. If you get an inch of frost sometimes that will really help dry it up to work because the water migrates to that frost layer, but once the sun comes out and it gets greasy, it's REALLY greasy.
I put it inside to keep more water from running in. I was thinking maybe if it froze at night would actually help dry it up. I was thinking the torpedo heater with the tarp a foot or so off the ground and some circulating fans. I have to run the heater off a generator anyways. The clay was dumped loose with a skid steer so it's pretty loose that I'm hoping it would be easier to dry out.
put some dry lime in it you will be done in a couple of hrs it will be the cheapest or just remove it and start over . a heater doesn't work that well because you have to get rid of the moister in the air to dry it out
If you've got a heavy swelling clay with bentonite in it lime and quick lime won't do anything, calcium chloride will help stabilize it if you mix it and pack it in.
You're only looking at 100 CY of stone to cover the shop floor 1' deep. Of course I'm not familiar with your soil or weather conditions but stone would be a lot cheaper than bringing in lime or any other additive.
I was out yesterday and outside the ground was frozen a little so I used the 931B to smooth out the mess I made getting the clay to shop. The clay inside wasn't frozen and I got it spread but I couldn't pack it too much without making ruts. I did back blade it fairly level though. It was soft but not mud and seemed to have dried up as it didn't stick to the bucket like before. it was kind of like modelling clay. Later in the afternoon it was getting a little muddy where I levelled outside. I'm glad I decided to try and smooth it out and it was 100 times better than the sloppy mess with ruts. It's supposed to freezing at night pretty good later this week so I'm hoping maybe next weekend I can pack it some when it's a bit frozen and/or the frost helps dry it out. I'm not sure if it would be good to get the screenings delivered when the ground is frozen and spread them now or wait till things dry up in the spring so I can make sure the base is packed?
Some basics about working with clay: Freezing won't remove moisture, it remains in the soil until the next thaw. To allow moisture to evaporate rake or scarify the surface- moisture will wick to the surface, to retard evaporation seal the surface by rolling or smearing by back dragging with a bucket. To compact, use static compaction; a roller, wheeled machine/truck or by surcharge- piling material or something on the fill. I had a job where I had a deep clay fill in a driveway that I compacted by parking all the tracked equipment on the job in the driveway, every three days or so moving on to the next section... I could see the water being squeezed out of the side slope- it was unbelievable how well it worked! I had the equipment available and the job schedule allowed a solution like this, I understand most jobs can't tolerate a couple of weeks to have job access tied up like this.
Dave, put the screenings down now, that shed will be full by spring. OMB, that's a nice trick to squeeze the water out of clay, that could come in real handy sometimes. Freezing moves water to the surface usually. The reason you get such a mess in the spring is because the water has risen to the frozen layer and built up a layer of ice, that melts and you have quicksand type of mud. I'm not sure if I agree with the scarifying vs smoothing when your drying something in the fall when the ground is warmer than the air. Definitely agree when you're working outside in the spring or summer though.
Freezing will pull the moisture to the top. I've seen 4" ice crystals form on top of wet ground after a good night freeze. With the right procedure you can scrape the ice crystals off before they melt and seep back into the ground, this will lower the moisture content.
Pretty cool when you wake up in the middle of a patch of pebbles on their own ice stalks. Does that only happen in Carolina? never seen anything like it in many winters in the upper midwest.
It happens here in AL when we have a lot of rain and then it goes below freezing, looks like a tiny ice forest. We do the same, scrape it off when it's still frozen and you can dry clay up in the winter.