How Soil Destroys Buildings

Okay this is the last video on the hazards of soil mechanics for a while :)

Expansive soils cause more property damage per year than earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes combined. Expansive soils are a slow-moving geologic phenomenon, which makes them not very news-worthy. However, they still cause a tremendous amount of damage to buildings and the public infrastructure we rely on every day.

Marxist Arrow by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License

Tonic and Energy by Elexive is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License

This video is sponsored by Brilliant.

[HydraulicPressChannel]

I think it's time to build orbeez press to show their full destruction potential :D

[trulyinfamous]

I truly adore your content. I don't think I'll ever specialize in civil engineering, but that doesn't mean it's not cool. Please never stop making videos, they're just so good.

[QuilloManar]

“The wise man built his house on rock, but some civil engineer had to build a road to that guys house.”

I love the deconstruction of the meaning of that quote right there.

[trevorh]

The wise man built his house upon a rock, and made his road with compacted dirt,
thus sparing himself the difficulty of painstaking concrete engineering, and expensive maintenance.

[cadenorris]

"don't tell my wife" wait who's holding the camera if not his wife- "just kidding, she knows who she married"

[gasa]

"I got a bag of... Instant viral video" lmao

[PozesD]

I'm a civil engineer here in South-Africa and do consulting work for banks regarding insurance claims. Most of the cracks caused in the houses I inspect are as a result of poor workmanship (narrow foundations, improper joint detail). With most insurance claims where there are cracks in the walls I will ask the lab to do a test pit investigation to determine the size of the foundation and properties of the founding soil (Atterberg limits and grading). Various buildings I investigated are built on active soil (shrinks upon drying and heaves upon wetting). This poses a big problem for many house owners as insurance brokers do not cover for damage caused as a result of active soils. It is therefor important to know what you are building on and how to mitigate any future problems. Many property developers skip the process of doing material investigations. It is a cheap and important part of construction work and can save a ton of money and hassle in the future.

P.s. Thanks for the video, very well done. :P keep up the good work

[kevcraft]

"Remember kids, 'Ya gotta have dirt under your concrete!'"

[slashsnemesis]

This is one of the best educational channels on Youtube. Your presentation is professional and your explanations are easy to understand. Your visuals and models are very well made. You deserve many more subs. That's what I think :)

[EnraEnerato]

Autum 2007, in Germany the city of "Staufen" thought it was a good idea to to restore a historical building and go geothermic with it. An austrian company put seven heatprobes(?) in the ground down to a depth to -140m. Problem most buildings are hundresds of years old and most of them have no or just minor levels of foundations, somewhere below the city is a layer of plater/gypsum and with these holes a connection between groundwaterand this layer was made -> catastrophic for the city.
The layer contains anhydrite, anhydrite + H2O-> gypsum the volume expands the soil rises and the city literarily breaks appart over this (not just because of people pointing at the responsible parties).
2017 the ground was still rising, estimates point out the possibility of the ground rising about 2m in total, it was found, that the city as well as the boring company hadn't informed themselves about the geological structures beneath otherwise no one would have attemptet this in first place.
(unfortunate only in German but the pictures of the devastation are of "good" quality)

[adammadison]

I am an inspector of civil infrastructure and deal with geotechnical technicians daily (Alabama). I observe soil/stone compaction testing all the time, and this is the first I have heard about expansive soils. Very informative. Thanks for the video!

[PracticalEngineeringChannel]

Best expansive-soil-based free energy device idea gets a shoutout in the next video...

[entropicgirl]

And this is why I was surprised that geology isn’t required for a undergrad in architecture.

[macharmon]

I'm studying Mechanical Engineering currently and it's people like you that make me want to continue my studies even though it seems very arduous and time consuming at the moment. Your channel makes me see the potential of engineering. Thanks!

[boneheadd]

Thanks for the video! In Colorado we have plenty of expansive soils. In residential construction most soils engineers that I see choose remove a portion of the expansive soils and replace with select fill. Select fill is usually just better dirt but sometimes includes a stabilizing layer of rock or fabric. Grading is always used in conjunction with drain systems around foundations to prevent water from ever touching the expansive or potentially expansive soils. Fun!

[KHouli]

Nice job. This is one of the best pop-sci videos I've seen on youtube. The material was fresh and the pacing was excellent.

[MajBlood]

I work in a district lab for roadway infrastructure and u did a great job explaining what alot of people dont understand and automatically blame the designers and contractors for failing roads and structures.. and some other major tests we do on soils are testing the P.I of the material, moisture density relationships to determine the optimum moisture, dry and wet density. Atterberg tests and many more.

[yangrichardd]

Next on the wife's shopping list, "Dirt from outside the lawn, expandable dinosaurs, Orbies, and 20lb dumb bell." ... Yup, another day of experimenting.

[josephdestaubin]

But you don't make videos about dirt in your garage, you make videos in your garage about dirt. Yours is the best channel ever, cheers!

[CybranM]

your videos are all great, love it when i see one in my subscription feed