Filling a crawlspace with dirt?
So. I have what I'm sure is not a unique problem, but sure is an interesting one.
The people who built my house built the foundation wrong. Instead of digging a hole, then digging a deeper trench for a foundation, which insures the foundation is on compacted soil, they made a mold around the edge of the hole. Then put some sand on top.
As you can imagine, 60 years of settling has resulted in my foundation kind of sitting on tiny plateaus of compressed sand, and those plateaus are slowly eroding away. Especially in this one spot where there was water seeping in because they also did the grade wrong.
So anyhow, my understanding is that the best solution is to add a bunch of fill dirt into the 5ft "luxury crawlspace," compressor, and repeat until the dirt is at least level with the foundation footer. To the tune of approximately 60 cubic yards.
As you can imagine, this is an awful lot of dirt. And the only entrance to my crawlspace is a 10sqft hole at the back of the house, far from where dirt could be delivered.
How the hell am I supposed to do this? I feel like the most cost-effective way would be to have the exterior wall and floor of one bedroom ripped off so that the dirt can be pushed/poured directly in, and then an army of assistants spreads out the mess.
I'm sure I could ask a contractor (and will given scope of work), but I'm trying to get a rough feel for the work required so I know if I'm being completely ripped off.
(I am not an engineer; please don’t hold me liable if your house implodes)
You might consider looking into driving helical piles into the ground, then dropping your foundation on that. Otherwise, as suggested elsewhere, lifting the whole house up off the foundation and preparing the ground properly is likely the “right” solution (I don’t understand how filling the crawlspace would help, so I’m assuming compacting the ground is the correct course of action). It’s uncommon, but people will ship entire houses by truck, so just lifting it up is a fairly well understood problem.
I wish you luck with this project and would be interested in hearing how you end up addressing this.
How you described it sounded like a project my brother and I would have been tasked to do for a family member/family friend growing up. I saw that a cubic yard of dirt could take ~9-14 wheelbarrow loads and I can easily have pictured us taking ~700 wheelbarrow loads of dirt to shove in a crawl space.
Lifting a house is definitely doable, if you are looking at big expenses either way and depending on if you want the crawlspace (or a real basement) for the value it adds, either monetary or quality of life. Basically they disconnect the services, cut some holes in the walls below the house, slide big beams under the house, and then very careful jack up the house. They can lift it high enough that a bobcat can get underneath and dig out the proper hole (usually they dig a ramp down through your yard as well, so the house isn't crazy high). Then after putting in a new foundation and walls, drop the house back down. Obviously this depends on the house/location/circumstances, but if you think it's even a little bit of an option for you, i'd ask around. Basements are great (not in all locations, though).
Or, if you just want to fill, you can rent a conveyor trailer. Set the conveyor up to go through that hole you have. Then you and some buddies can shovel dirt onto that and have it pointed to the far end of the hole and slowly move it around to where it need it. That'll save you the hassle of wheelbarrows and you can do most of your work outside.
Man, I feel for you. That sounds like a pain in the ass to deal with and I'm sorry you're going through it. Unfortunately I don't have any suggestions on what to do, but I would definitely get more than a few quotes by different contractors for something as integral as your foundation. Maybe one of them will have a creative solution that could help you. Like maybe there's a way to 'pipe' some of the dirt where it needs to go or using conveyor belts or something for at least part of the way? Not sure.
I look at houses for fun and there are more than a few that are weird to downright dangerous. My advice would be to call up construction engineers and chat with them over the phone. They like to talk. Find a chatty enginee, and have them come over for a look for what would be <$500 especially if you don't need a full stamped report. They don't sell any services and they're not contactors so they have nothing to gain by upselling you anything. Just to get an idea of what you're dealing with and how to go about fixing it.
That advice will be far cheaper than that many yards of fill.
I'm not sure I'm imagining your house in its current state correctly, but could you do something with jacks?
Maybe, I've heard tales about lifting a house entirely using jacks to replace critical supports, but that sounds even more terrifying.
I hate to point to Reddit, but there's entire subs dedicated to solving problems like these and selfless professionals who just pitch great advice in these threads.
It's a wicked problem, but TBF, I've found myself with great starting points for solving wicked problems by querying an AI as well. My question is how are you supposed to fill the space with dirt, and more importantly, wouldn't it need to be impacted itself to limit further sinking?
Good luck!