Quote:
According to the American Society of Civil Engineers about half of the homes in the United States are built on expansive soils. (Soils prone to large volume changes, i.e., shrinking and swelling, resulting from changes in water content.) And of these homes, nearly half suffer some damage because of the soil. Each year in the U.S., expansive soils are responsible for more damage to homes than are floods, tornadoes, and hurricanes combined!
The geology and semi-arid climate of the arid Southwest provide near ideal conditions for the formation of expansive and collapsing soils. And, unfortunately, problem soils are found throughout Arizona, from Yuma in the southwest to the northeast corner of the Colorado Plateau.
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https://azgs.arizona.edu/center-natu.../problem-soils
So, Arizona soil is garbage.
This is known.
I was able to look at Mom's house here:
https://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/...oilSurvey.aspx
It did not have any soil data, though.
The King of Random had an amazingly lame video about making his own clay. It was a ridiculous amount of work. The best part was a clip he showed of Primitive Technology. Unfortunately, the Casper ad was far longer.
1. He dug some mud from under a bridge.
2. He mixed it with water in a bucket, allowed it to settle, and poured off the dirty water into a second bucket, and discarded the gravel, etc.
3. He poured the dirty water through a strainer, cleaned the strainer, and poured it through again.
4. He poured it back and forth between two glasses to collect the fine sand, which clung to the sides.
5. He allowed it to sit and collected the dirty water from the top, discarding it.
6. He doubled up a towel and poured the mud into it, tied it into a ball, and allowed it to drain for an hour. He also squeezed the towel for a while, sacrificing some clay.
7. He squeezed it between paper towels and finally got clay.
So, if my soil is garbage, it is the fault of the clay, right? Well, any King of Random can separate the undesirable clay, and then replace it with good clay?
Where would I purchase good clay? I can find pottery clay on-line, but I do not have any idea what type I would want, but what difference would it make?
Compressed earth blocks are a labor-intensive process and so is separating the clay from dirt. I then buy clay and work it in to make bricks?
Let me get right on that...