Opening A New Business? Why You Should Stabilize The Soil For Your Parking Lot

If you are having a new business built you need to ensure the parking lot is safe for your customers. One thing you should do is to stabilize the soil. Below is information about what this is and how soil stabilization is done.

Soil Stabilization

Soil stabilization should be done by a professional as you need proper equipment and the right knowledge to do the job right. The company will first check to see how stable the soil is. This is important as unstable soil will cause your parking lot to break down and would result in you having to install a brand new parking lot. For example, the freeze-thaw cycle during the winter months will damage concrete or pavement. This is when there is ice on the parking lot and then the ice melts. When the temperature drops the water will return to ice again. This freezing and thawing causes the parking lot to expand over and over, resulting in cracks.

Soil stabilization can prevent this from happening. The contractor will strengthen the soil which can make the soil bear much more weight. When the stabilization is completed a contractor will test the soil to ensure it is stabilized correctly.

How Soil Stabilization Is Done

Samples of the soil will be taken and sent to a lab where the soil is then tested to determine how unstable the soil is. This lets the contractor know the materials, such as ash, bitumen, lime, and/or cement, that they need to add to the soil to make it stable.  

The soil will be delivered by a dump truck or pneumatic tanker. This tanker is a very large truck in most cases. The contractor will then spread the soil by using a mechanical excavator or a spreader truck. The materials used will then be mixed with the soil. Once this is done the soil will have to sit for a certain amount of time in order for the materials to react with the soil to complete the stabilization process. How long this is depends on how much soil you have. The company will then compact and smooth the soil using a roller.

You can then start the process of placing the concrete or pavement for your new parking lot. 

The company that you hire can give you much more detailed information about soil stabilization to help you understand this process much better. 

Contact a local soil stabilization service to learn more.

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