Stabilizing Expansive Clay Soil
When starting a construction project, untreated expansive clay soil lacks the stability to provide excellent foundational support.
Chemically, clay has excess ions (negative molecules) that attract the cations (positive molecules) found in water. As a result, clay swell occurs when the soil absorbs water, leading to a significant increase in volume. Conversely, during the dry season, the soil dries, shrinks and cracks, which can cause significant challenges.
Challenges of Expansive Clay Soil
Clay swell causes various challenges, including:
- Variable settling: When clay absorbs water at different rates, it may expand significantly in some areas and less so in others. When the soil dries out, it shrinks, leading to uneven foundational settling as the clay dries at different rates.
- Structural pressure: When the clay around foundations, basements and other infrastructure swells, additional pressure is placed on that infrastructure. This situation can lead to cracks and flaws within the building’s structures.
- Ground heave: Heave is the counterpart of settling. When clay swells significantly under a single edge of the foundation, it heaves that part of the building upward and can cause structural damage.
How to Stabilize a Foundation on Clay Soil
One of the most common options is to inject grout into clay soil to prevent clay swell. However, a more effective option is to apply an ionic soil stabilizer.
Our ionic clay stabilizer changes the soil’s chemical composition. The application is simple: You blend this acidic product with water, which acts as a shuttle, and inject it into expansive clay soil. The acid forms an ionic bond with the clay, satisfying its affinity for water molecules and preventing future clay swell.
With one simple application, you can stabilize soil, prevent clay swell and create a solid barrier beneath your structure’s foundation.
Benefits of Ionic Soil Stabilizers
When you use an ionic soil stabilizer on expansive clay soil, it offers significant advantages and fulfills multiple purposes, including:
- Decreased soil porosity: The ionic bond of these soil stabilizers reduces the soil porosity, leading to improved stability.
- Increased water resistance: Since the product satisfies clay molecules’ affinity for water, they no longer want to absorb water and become resistant to it.
- Improved drainage: As you increase water resistance and decrease soil porosity, water flows away from your structure’s foundation, increasing drainage.
- Better cost-effectiveness: Using ionic soil stabilizers is often more cost-effective because you don’t have to pay for excavation.
- Less disruption: Because you install the product on-site through injection rather than excavation, the application process causes less disruption and takes less effort.
Why Choose HMI?
Working with HMI offers significant benefits, including:
- Tailored solutions: We don’t practice one-size-fits-all solutions and will work with you to find the optimal answer for your specific needs.
- In-depth training: While we don’t manage installations, we offer comprehensive training on how best to use our products and solutions for your application.
- Consistent service: We’ll offer consistent support from when you contact us until after you’ve started using our products and solutions.
These are just a few benefits of trusting HMI to provide solutions for expansive clay soils and other needs.
Build on a Stable Foundation With HMI
Don’t let expansive clay soil and clay swell hinder your construction project. Work with HMI to find the ideal solution. Contact us today, and one of our professional staff members will assist you.