How deep do ground compactors penitrate ?

[Aklogcabin]

Hello all. Building our retirement home. I have 3' of gravel on one corner of the pad that I will pour the monolithic floor cement over. I will be using a 170 pound huskavarna plate compactor. It has a 24x24 pad under it. For the ground engineers or knowledge folks who do concrete.
How far down do they compact and any tips ? Keep it wet

 

[Caribou]

I'd lay down 3" to 6" at a time. Hashbrown will be your best source.

 

[zoomzoom]

Shouldn't you be starting with a concrete vibrator?
Haven't done concrete in many years but as I recall, the compactor is primarily used to pound the aggregate deeper into the concrete so it's not near the surface.

 

[Spikedriver]

I'd lay down 3" to 6" at a time. Hashbrown will be your best source.

I second this.

 

[Caribou]

Shouldn't you be starting with a concrete vibrator?
Haven't done concrete in many years but as I recall, the compactor is primarily used to pound the aggregate deeper into the concrete so it's not near the surface.

The compactor is used to prepare the ground prior to pouring the concrete. This gives you a solid base for your concrete and less settling.

 

[Wingnut]

Don't rush the job, you wanna do it right so you're not looking at a cracked slab later... I'm with those above who went with Hashbrown, he can help ya. This is your retirement home, so it's even more important that it's done right. Just my $.02, my vote goes to Hashbrown. Some pics of the site might help too...

 

[Aklogcabin]

Yeeeeah. So I picked up a jumping jack compactor. I found out I'm not as young n tough as I was. Going to load that baby right back up n bring it back.
I had a rubber tired backhoe and built a pad. The NW corner has 30" of fill. Glacier silt with rocks mostly some sand. The SE corner is excavated in 6" or so. Sand base, undisturbed compaction. SW corner has 12" fill, NE corner has 12" fill.
I have 10 yards of D1 on site. Plan on using it to level everything out. 2" deep minimum cap. I can use the plate compactor for a D1. And going to rent a ride on wheeled compactor. Smaller sized but should compact everything pretty good. I've compacted roads before. Turn the vibrator off just before you change directions so you don't dig a hole. You can move a little dirt around too.
I'm too torn up for the beat your body jumping jack compactor. And need the compaction capabilities of a heavier machine. I'll run a sprinkler on it for a couple days to make sure I have a base that will set up. The glacial silt will bind up tight.
Eventually it will be 28x40. Outer perimeter of slab will be 20" deep x24" wide. 3" in the field. Need to be 4" above grade n 14" below grade minimum 18". I'm adding another 2" to the thickness for additional strength. 4 bars of 5/8" rebar. Under the 3" thick slab will be 2ea 2" blueboard for 4" total making it R-20. Then 2" D1. Outer perimeter has 2" blueboard on it. 4" thick on the corners. Then a 2" blueboard laying flat, 1/4 bubble actually, from the edge of the cement 4' out.
In floor heating tubing will be stapled to the blueboard. Concrete reinforcement wire sheets will be in the center of the 3" of cement.
I usually don't have my compactor on site but will try n take some pictures today.
Hey,,Thanks again, really appreciate it. I'll, we'll, work it through.
Forward man always moving forward

 

[Aklogcabin]

So I ended up renting a 10,000 pound roller compactor. Beat that glacier silt n sand mixture to cement. Yeppers it compacted real well

 

[Biggkidd]

Anytime we had to build up an area we built it up a little at a time. IE: Push 4-6 inches of loose dirt in compact it to an inch or two and repeat until you get where you need to be. If you push in a foot or more what USUALLY happened is the top got nice and hard but in short order under it started crumbling and settling. Then everything goes to crap. YMMV

 

[Alaskajohn]

So I ended up renting a 10,000 pound roller compactor. Beat that glacier silt n sand mixture to cement. Yeppers it compacted real well

Called in the big guns, didn’t you!

 

[joel]

I used a compactor, the plate type, that looks like a lawn mower handle.
I did not pout crete, just put down blocks after packing the soil.
Have no ideal how much packing it did, but the field has not been turned for sixteen years.

 

[Aklogcabin]

Called in the big guns, didn’t you!

Yeppers. Just sit back n drive around on a little pad on a big vibrator. Then get off n feels like your body is still vibrating. The fellow helping me build was not happy about having to dig through cement while we were putting the sewer lines in.