How much sand?

[DigitalFusion]

Hey all,

I am building a garage at our first place. The soil out here seems to be loam and clay. I am doing a heavy edged fiber slab with rebar around the perimeter. I used to do concrete work on back in the day, but I dont remember ever pouring a slab over this type of soil. How much compacted sand should I use? I talked to a buddy of mine who poured a parking pad about 4 miles from me. He has the same type of soil and he said he put nearly 2 feet of sand down! That seems insane to me. Anyone have any suggestions for fill in this type of soil?

 

[Junkman]

scrape off the loam, and put down a layer of geotex cloth. Then use a layer of compacted stone dust and stone. I would think that the more you use, the better it will be, but don't break the bank. If you want to make sure that there is never any moisture problems, put a drain of crushed stone and a drain pipe all around the perimeter, and have it go to daylight. Heaving will be your biggest worry, so try to keep it elevated around the surrounding area, so pooling water will not be a problem.

 

[DigitalFusion]

I was doin some googling, and came across "Frost Protected Shallow Foundations" I guess its the norm in Scandinavian countries. Pretty cool stuff. I only need to go down 16" to have the equiv of the normal 48" for foundations around here.