How to Save Time & Money by using a little known Civil Engineering technique in the garden!

Making your own garden soil strong enough to use as a foundation saves removing material and buying sub-base in the form of hardcore or MOT Type 1. You can replicate a little know Civil Engineering technique at home to save you effort and money.

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Thank you to Wirtgen Group for video clips of the WR series of soil stabilisers in action.

[carlbillingham]

As a civil engineer in Australia we often use cement stabilisation for roads in the outback due to the distances (and cost) of transporting top quality road base material. As a rough guide we use only 2.5-3% cement. Anymore than that and you will start to get cracking appearing at roughly 10-12m centres, so if you are doing a large area eg a long driveway just make sure you don’t add too much cement. Also if you have heavy clay, lime stabilisation may be a better option, with the benefit it can be reworked.

[mdharrisuiuc]

I've done this, being mixing a bag of cement into soil and dousing it with water, on projects around the house but never said anything to anybody because I thought I was just being super lazy and cheap. Turns out I was just doing some good economic civil engineering!

[robertcringely]

In the USA it's called soil cement. When I was a kid we used it to make a very narrow runway in our back pasture so we could keep flying in rainy weather. It's still there, still in use, 57 years later.

[cliffcarlo]

My good friend and neighbour used this method in his garden to create a large patio area. He used a rotavator to mix the cement and soil and then used a hand tamper to compact it. The patio is still in great condition after nearly 5 years. This method was much more cost-effective than the alternatives. Thank you for sharing this brilliant idea, Stuart. It will save people a lot of money.

[DH-ukpx]

While I've no doubts that it works as a technique, and I'm equally certain that there are appropriate uses for it, I couldn't help but be reminded of a quote from Paul Harvey while watching you mix concrete into lovely black earth: “Man — despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication, and his many accomplishments — owes his existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.”

[markrobinson]

The technique i used about 40 years ago for a base for some light use steps up to a shed, i even laid bricks on it to create the stringers, i was given the idea from a old guy who did groundwork for a local council, only used it a couple of times since, the old fella told me he was taught properly during his apprenticeship and if he laid paving flags, he'd guarantee they'd be level and solid for 80 years, his work was 2nd to none., 👍

[classicalguitar]

I washed a film about rammed earth buildings many years ago and this technique is basically the same process. I used this idea to build a garden step and also a patio. I did use a fence post to compact the cement earth mix and laid the paving onto wet mortar. Everything has remained exactly level for the past 20 years...a great technique and a very good video👍

[John..]

Thank you so much for showing me this, , I've been getting very stressed about having to lay a base for my Intended shed, , now I can relax knowing it's do-able, by a 68 year old on his own, , 🤣,
(Billy no mates)..
Thanks again, , 👍👍

[mjc]

Stabilised rammed earth. I used this extensively in South Africa about 20 years ago. Achieved 20 MPa strength with 15% cement content.

[tonyguest]

Sir. I've been in the building game for nearly 45 years and i never knew this? You have just saved me at least £1000 on a 25sqm base for my artificial lawn! Thank you so much for this post.

[michaelfink]

This works well, I've used it to deal with parking on clay soil and stopping the mess clay becomes after a hard rain. This is often called "dirtcrete".

[ResearchersOfTheTruth]

Just because of this video alone I am definitely subscribing

[TheDajoca]

Fantastic information. Thank you.
As someone who has to do all home improvement work myself (and on a tight budget), you have given me exactly the information I needed, to do things in the garden that were previously out of our price range.
Thank you.

[Quaker]

What a very good idea. I particularly like the fact that you don't have to get rid of the soil and then have to buy in Type 1. Cheers.

[paperheartzz]

the algorithm must know i love a diy diagram like the cross section you obviously made yourself. I have so much more faith in my ability to follow instructions now

[YipeeKiYayJB]

I did this with a shed I built a couple of years ago. My native soil is quite sandy to begin with so it's probably fairly close to ballast anyway. It's held up perfectly well, although I did put 60mm concrete on top of about 150mm of cement stabilised earth. If you look up cement stabilised rammed earth you will find people use this technique to make walls and houses too. It's a fairly ancient technique.

[peterconnolly]

Love this concept; it's turned a week-long project to build a hard-standing for my bins into something that I can do over two separated days. Thank you!

[Ps]

dirtcrete is underrated. I have used this in drain laying where I have put under strategic places under pipe to hold in place to retain fall. When the dirtcrete is wet you can tap the pipe down until the fall is just right, leave it to set, then drop in more dirtcrete or gravel to support rest of pipe length. Useful method when an accurate gradual fall is needed and is cheap and easy to do.

[seankelly]

Finally, the proper use of "dry" setting cement.

[jonathanwhitmore]

As a 777 pilot I can say you did a great job with T5. One of the few places I've never got stuck. And this will make laying my patio a lot easier