Holy Crap!!

Now, I am a worry-wort for all things structural. Ask the team. I am constantly worried about the bases of patios, about the backfill against walls, about proper drainage and anything related to sinking, falling, tipping or twisting. We go to great measures to use all the tools that we have to allow for the greatest possible structural integrity of all things compacted.

Well, not naming names, I visited a landscaper, who we have been watching remove truckload after truckload of material from a relatively small backyard. We wondered where the heck is all this material coming from?

Well, from here.

The decision, I am told, to excavate to china, was because of some flowing groundwater. well... huh... So if there is flowing ground water, digging deeper will fix that? huh. I am not sure how much deeper those teleposts holding the deck up are in the ground, but since the excavation is actually below the footing of the walkout basement, I hope for their sake that the wind doesn't blow very hard. We have seen in other peoples houses in the past where a post has failed (tipped under load) and it almost ripped the deck off the house.

I am not sure how they plan to ensure the fill now that it is all new, aside from packing, packing and layers of geo-tex, along with some positive drainage system. If they hadn't dug so far down they would have been able to get away with just some additional drainage. but now....hoo boy!