Simi Valley, California – January 2006
Due to last year’s heavy winter rains, JPI., one of the nation’s largest multi-family developers out of Irving, Texas, was “stuck in the mud: so to speak. JPI had encountered delays on their 500-unit luxury condominium project in Simi Valley, California, putting them nearly 90 days behind schedule, potentially costing the company as much as $7,000 per day.
Compounding the problem were further delays pouring the concrete footings and pads because of the soil’s failure to pass moisture “perc” tests due to heavy clay content and the inherent lack of moisture penetration. The soil has to be able to hold a specific amount of moisture to minimize damage to the concrete over time, caused by natural expansion & contraction of the soil.
“The soil engineer was unable to pass us because we kept failing the perc test,” declared Ken Wenger, Superintendent for JPI. “We kept watering, but we couldn’t get the water to penetrate this type of soil. That’s when I remembered a soil conditioner that I used to use back in the eighties, that worked great, but I couldn’t find it anymore,” he said.
Wenger called his contact at White Cap Construction Supply, part of the Home Depot Supply Division, which caters to large and medium-sized construction contractors, and asked if they carried a product called Firm-All. “They said they had never even heard of it’ Wenger said, “but they called around and found a product that had replaced it called PastureDRY™. We ordered a 55/gallon drum to run some tests.
After following the manufacturer’s application instructions and trying a few of his own, Wenger had his soil engineer come back out and test only two days after the initial application. “He couldn’t believe how fast this stuff worked,” Wenger said, “and we passed the percolation test with flying color. This is saving JPI a ton of money every day and I expect to use this on future sites as well.
PastureDRY™ is an agricultural mineral approved by the State of California and is environmentally safe and ecologically friendly. In addition to dramatically and rapidly improving the soil percolation, PastureDRY™ breaks up the clay and hardpan soil, making excavation and landscaping projects faster and easier. It is also effective for dust control. PastureDRY™ can be purchased from TRC & Associates, Inc.