Soil or Dirt

[snickerd3]

reading a fact sheet for the public and they use both in the same sentence only a couple words apart.

...dug in the soil and the dirt will be...

so it is soil until it is out of the ground then it is dirt by this account?

its all dirt to me, unless you buy it from the store then its soil cuz it's in a fancy bag.

 

[jase]

I've always thought the proper term was soil, but everyone says dirt.

Never heard of the in-ground/dug up distinction.

 

[Supe]

It's dirt.

Moving dirt, pushing dirt, dirty clothes. Nobody in construction says we're moving soil, pushing soil, or have soiled clothes.

 

[maryannette]

Are there dirt engineers?

 

[jv21]

It's dirt.
Moving dirt, pushing dirt, dirty clothes. Nobody in construction says we're moving soil, pushing soil, or have soiled clothes.

yes we do.... topsoil and sodding.

dirt is often used to describe sandy mixtures that are non-orgainic.

Soil on the otherhand tends to have organic materials. you do not want to use organic materials in fill / backfill

VERY DIFFERENT!!!!

 

[MA_PE]

It's dirt.
Moving dirt, pushing dirt, dirty clothes. Nobody in construction says we're moving soil, pushing soil, or have soiled clothes.

yes we do.... topsoil and sodding.

dirt is often used to describe sandy mixtures that are non-orgainic.

Soil on the otherhand tends to have organic materials. you do not want to use organic materials in fill / backfill

VERY DIFFERENT!!!!

So you only use dirt to backfill? I have never heard of dirt-structure interaction realated to buried structures. It is always soil-structure interaction.

 

[FLBuff PE]

As a geotech/enviro engineer, I say soil. Whether it has organic material in it (generally we refer to this as "topsoil") or not.

 

[jv21]

It's dirt.
Moving dirt, pushing dirt, dirty clothes. Nobody in construction says we're moving soil, pushing soil, or have soiled clothes.

yes we do.... topsoil and sodding.

dirt is often used to describe sandy mixtures that are non-orgainic.

Soil on the otherhand tends to have organic materials. you do not want to use organic materials in fill / backfill

VERY DIFFERENT!!!!

So you only use dirt to backfill? I have never heard of dirt-structure interaction realated to buried structures. It is always soil-structure interaction.

we use clean non-orgainc fill

 

[Capt Worley PE]

They'd never make a movie called Joe Soil.

 

[FLBuff PE]

It's dirt.
Moving dirt, pushing dirt, dirty clothes. Nobody in construction says we're moving soil, pushing soil, or have soiled clothes.

yes we do.... topsoil and sodding.

dirt is often used to describe sandy mixtures that are non-orgainic.

Soil on the otherhand tends to have organic materials. you do not want to use organic materials in fill / backfill

VERY DIFFERENT!!!!

So you only use dirt to backfill? I have never heard of dirt-structure interaction realated to buried structures. It is always soil-structure interaction.

we use clean non-orgainc fill

aka soil

 

[Dexman PE]

It depends...

 

[jv21]

It's dirt.
Moving dirt, pushing dirt, dirty clothes. Nobody in construction says we're moving soil, pushing soil, or have soiled clothes.

yes we do.... topsoil and sodding.

dirt is often used to describe sandy mixtures that are non-orgainic.

Soil on the otherhand tends to have organic materials. you do not want to use organic materials in fill / backfill

VERY DIFFERENT!!!!

So you only use dirt to backfill? I have never heard of dirt-structure interaction realated to buried structures. It is always soil-structure interaction.

we use clean non-orgainc fill

aka soil

No

 

[MA_PE]

It's dirt.
Moving dirt, pushing dirt, dirty clothes. Nobody in construction says we're moving soil, pushing soil, or have soiled clothes.

yes we do.... topsoil and sodding.

dirt is often used to describe sandy mixtures that are non-orgainic.

Soil on the otherhand tends to have organic materials. you do not want to use organic materials in fill / backfill

VERY DIFFERENT!!!!

So you only use dirt to backfill? I have never heard of dirt-structure interaction realated to buried structures. It is always soil-structure interaction.

we use clean non-orgainc fill

aka soil

No

Is it true when you say "No" you really mean "Yes"?

All the backfill specifications I have seen/reviewed and/or written reference standard "Soil Classifications" such as AASHTO,

 

[jv21]

It's dirt.
Moving dirt, pushing dirt, dirty clothes. Nobody in construction says we're moving soil, pushing soil, or have soiled clothes.

yes we do.... topsoil and sodding.

dirt is often used to describe sandy mixtures that are non-orgainic.

Soil on the otherhand tends to have organic materials. you do not want to use organic materials in fill / backfill

VERY DIFFERENT!!!!

So you only use dirt to backfill? I have never heard of dirt-structure interaction realated to buried structures. It is always soil-structure interaction.

we use clean non-orgainc fill

aka soil

No

Is it true when you say "No" you really mean "Yes"?

All the backfill specifications I have seen/reviewed and/or written reference standard "Soil Classifications" such as AASHTO,

no mean no... (huff!)

but true, we do say soil classification... bugger

 

[jfkid]

It is soil. Stuff grows in soil, we build things on soil. Dirt is what you sweep off the shop floor or wash out of your jeans!

The word dirt comes from the Norse word "drit" which means to defecate. This was pounded into me in "Soils" class.

 

[mrt406]

Yeah, I'd say soil, too.......... unless you're talking about a lot of it. Then it's "earth".

 

[Dleg]

Dirt is what gets on your hands when you're working with soil. Or so says the PhD NRCS Soils Scientist who taught me everything I know about dirt. I mean, soil.

 

[Exengineer]

Soil is what you find in the ground. Dirt is what you find on politicians' hands.

 

[St_Kentucky]

My dirt professor insisted that we say "soils"

 

[PowermanX590]

The main difference from what Ive found is that soil is dirt that contains organic material (dirt would just be minerals).

Though I have a conundrum:

If Soil is dirty, is Dirt Soily?

:dunno: