I am filling my front steps with rubble, rocks ,dirt, etc before finishing the top with concrete. By using my old shingles for this purpose, I can save money, do a little direct recycling, and save a lot of work. Is there any reason this would be a bad idea (toxins, breakdown of shingles, etc.)?
thanks for any opinions.
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Replies
Can't give you a definitive answer, but I can relate a story...
The neighbors across the street had a sink hole in their yard, about a 6-12" depression. Every spring, after the winter thaw, they'd have a mess of what looked like an oil slick in the depression. Mostly water with a rainbow of a sort of oil slick on top.
They'd fill it in, and the next spring the mess and smell would be back.
After a few years they finally had it dug up. The hole went down to about 8' deep before they backhoe operator had all the debris out. It looked to be the tear off from a couple of roofs, shingles of two different colors.
the guess was that when their house (spec home) was built, someone, maybe the builder, used it as a dump for garbage from another job.
Personally, I wouldn't bury the shingles on my lot. Have them recycled properly.
Mongo
Yeah, I experienced the same thing with a house we bought in '86. Gwinnett county GA had two BIs in the middle of the big housing boom, and from what I saw they just pencil-whipped most reports. On top of that there was no ordinance that required builders to haul off debris, so they just buried it wherever it was convenient. Empty, unsold lots were basically landfills for these yokels. On our house they buried shingles, wood scraps, and drywall in the area under our front sidewalk and step. The builder filed Chpt. 7 in '89. By '91 the front step had settled about a foot and we had to tear it out and excavate 3 feet down to fix the mess.
I recycled a tearoff on one of my driveways, worked great, but the hours invested pulling the nails makes it maybe not worthwhile.
My septic system cover over the gravel is some old roofing, 35 YO, no problems, no oil slicks on the surface. The driveway has zero indication of surface oil.
Be sure you compact it very good with many bamn bams of a backhoe bucket or something though, otherwise you WIll get setteling.
I'm pretty sure that would be completely illegal here, basically illegal dumping or landfilling. It was done on a job I was on for a few minutes--they dug a big hole a couple of yards from the house and buried a bunch of debris from the job in it. As far as I'm concerned, it's in entirely bad taste. Why not ask your county health department or whoever governs such where you live?
I dont think its CLEAN fill so it would not be allowed from what i know
Although exact details are not given, my initial opinion is as follows: FWIW
How are you going to get compaction on the shingle rubble in order to support your concrete steps? Your rubble pile will compress/subside for years as gravity and time effect your nonhomogeneous mix of trash.
The hollowing will then allow the concrete steps to shift/sink, then crack and take on water, frost heave and need repair/replacement.
Not proper "means and methods"! Don't do it!
.........................Iron Helix
Bad idea IMO. Fill should have no voids, and it should be at least as strong as the concrete.
Shingles are reasonably inert, so they don't make terrible fill from that standpoint (though the PCA folks may have a conniption). I suspect they don't compact very well, plus they will degrade over time.
But for fill under a small porch/steps (within a previously installed foundation), where the fill is really just for "form" purposes and won't bear any weight, they'd probably be OK.
The "best use" of asphalt shingles is to recycle into paving, I suspect.
"Shingles are reasonably inert, so they don't make terrible fill from that standpoint (though the PCA folks may have a conniption). I suspect they don't compact very well, plus they will degrade over time."The same can be said for packaged hot dogs, but I wouldn't want them under my concrete.
At one time, they used them in the cement kilns in Allentown Pa area...whew, between them and used paint thinner and solvents, it got pretty nasty smelling downwind.
I thank all for their opinions, and I have heard the message loud and clear. It is not worth the risk to save a tiny bit of time and money when it could lead to my steps sinking away in a few years. When I finally finish this house, I want to be done, not fixing the results of all the shortcuts I made.
Spoilsport!!
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
I'll re-itterate my approach, beyond covers for septic drainfield.
Re-use of anything is better than a landfill, IMNSHO.
When I built my own house, left the french drains all the way around the foundation open for a year and dumped all the trash glass bottles and cans (crushed/broken of course) into the trenches. 35 year later, not a bit of setteling.
FWIW: If you bash down your asphalt shingles (wood shingles it dont work) with the bucket of your backhoe, it is pretty good compact fill.
Edit PS: My neighbor just tore out his marble flooring and replaced it with granite (His father installed the marble only 10 years ago when they was 'poor', he was a little pi$$ed I think, commented to me " wadda ya do with peoples got too much moneys") . About 1-1/2 yards of clean fill. I took it for him to avoid an $80 dump fee, dozered out 1-1/2 ft deep in front of one of the sheds that had a puddle problem, dumped in the shards and covered. Good ecologically sound drainage solution, avoids filling the landfill.
Edited 8/21/2007 9:37 pm ET by junkhound