The purpose of a pad is to give your slab a good, solid compacted area that will not shift, is level and is raised above the surrounding area to keep water from collecting around or entering your home.
Some contractors take short cuts and won’t use enough loads of dirt for the pad. If you want to take short cuts on your house, don’t do it on the pad. You can’t redo your pad later.
It is important for all the stumps and vegetation to be removed. You don’t want these root balls to be under your pad.
The area is deep raked to remove organics.
Then, we scrape off 4–6 inches of topsoil from the pad area, plus an additional 5–8 feet beyond the pad area. Scraping off the topsoil eliminates the highest percentage of vegetation and organics.
Select fill is imported and compacted where your house pad will be built. The select fill is spread and compacted in 4–6 inch lifts to maximize the efficiency of compaction.
We shaped the topsoil up to the pad to give it a nice even taper on all four sides. Usually we recommend building the pad at least 10–12 inches higher than the highest natural grade elevation that meets the pad. So, when you’re ready to place a 12-inch form board for your slab, it will have 20–24 inches to taper and shape the dirt around your structure. This taper will redirect water around your structure.
During
After (taper corrected)
This pad—built by someone else—originally didn’t have enough taper on the side of the house. Daniel Dean imported dirt to give it a nice gradual slope away from the house add to the integrity of the pad.
A good site pad gives your slab a solid compacted area that will not shift, is level, and is higher than the surrounding area to prevent flooding.
