Robert Gammon wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
Robert Gammon wrote:

Adam Preble wrote:

Robert Gammon wrote:

Adding drip irrigation to the perimeter of the home helps restore the
moisture to the sand under the first several inches from the edge of
the slab, in theory, reducing the stress on the slab. Slabs will
crack, windows won't open, doors won't close, cracks develop in the
sheetrock inside and I have seen cracks in the exterior masonry walls.


Do you mean by this that it's a bad idea?

Nope, folks swear by them. The edges of the sand pad that the slab
rests on dry out, even wash away from under the slab, creating a void.
The unsupported weight puts stress on the slab that will eventually
cause the cracks that I mention above.

In the new house I will begin construction of soon, the source water for
drip irrigation of the slab will be RO waste water.


Won't RO waste water create a buildup of minerals and whatnot that could
eventually cause problems since RO waste water is a concentrated
solution of everything it filtered out?

Pete C.

Take 10 grains of hardness and increase that hardness by 15%-20% and you
are only talking about 11-12 grains of hardness. Nope this is NOT a
problem, RO waste is NOT that concentrated in residential
installations. Commercial installations YES, they have systems to
recirculate the effluent so that the amount of effluent is reduced, but
at a price of a MUCH higher mineral concentration.

I'll also use the effluent to water the shrubbery with bubble soakers.

The quantity of water we are talking about is minimal, less than a
couple of pints per day even in 4000-5000 linear feet of soaker. The
pipe fills up with water and has no where to go until the soil
surrounding the pipe can absorb it. These are HEAVY clay soils, often
called GUMBO. A shovel full of this stuff when wet weighs in excess of
30 pounds!!!

I've noticed the nastiness of this clay soil (I'm now north of Dallas
myself) when I just cut 80' of trench for conduit. Even with a trencher
it was a bear and the last part I had to had dig nearly killed me. I
actually did some of the "hand" digging with a chisel in an air hammer
carving out big hunks of clay.

Pete C.