Goldsboro, Rains, Johnston and Lynchburg: reading Stedman's wet ground
Soil survey spots read at 30 places inside the town lines came back Goldsboro loamy sand at 11, Rains sandy loam at 7, Norfolk loamy sand at 6, Johnston loam at 4 and Lynchburg sandy loam at 2. Only the Norfolk spots are well drained. Goldsboro is moderately well drained, Lynchburg somewhat poorly, Rains poorly and Johnston very poorly. That puts 24 of 30 spots on ground that holds water for a while, unlike the well-drained sands around the Town of Hope Mills and Spring Lake, where rain leaves quickly.
NRCS describes Goldsboro as a fine-loamy Aquic Paleudult, and aquic means seasonal wetness, per the Goldsboro series description. That's the whole story. The ground under your slab may be damp one season and dry the next, so the base we build and the day we pour count for more here than on sandy, fast-draining ground.
Draining a slab where the water table rises
Wet ground changes the plan in four ways. We probe after a rain, not before, because a base that looks fine in a dry week can pump under foot after a storm. We cut the grade so water leaves toward the street or the yard and never toward the garage door. We keep roof water away from the slab edge, since soft, wet soil under an edge lets it settle. And we pick a pour day when the base will compact.
Fayetteville Regional Airport records 117.7 days a year with at least 0.01 inch of rain, and the wettest months run June through September at roughly 4.9 to 5.4 inches, according to NOAA's normals. Winter adds 46.9 mornings a year at or below freezing, and a wet subgrade that freezes makes a poor base. Under ACI 306, cold-weather practice kicks in when the air is below 40 degrees or expected to drop below it, and the service hub explains what that means for a pour.
Pours in Stedman are priced by the square foot, $7 to $12 per sq ft, and tear-out of an old pad adds $1.50 to $4 per sq ft. Soft ground can add base and drainage work, which we put in writing at the estimate.
| Job | Size | Per sq ft | What it comes to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single-car strip | 12x40 (480 sq ft) | $7 to $12 | $3,360 to $5,760 |
| Two-car pad | 600 to 720 sq ft | $7 to $12 | $4,500 to $8,500 |
| Long run to the back of a deep lot | 12x100 (1,200 sq ft) | $7 to $12 | $8,400 to $14,400 |
| Tear-out and haul-off of a 20x30 pad | 600 sq ft | $1.50 to $4 | $900 to $2,400 |
That's square-foot math and nothing more. Base depth on soft ground, slope, truck access and who owns the road all move the number. We give a free written estimate after we see the site.
