Lmao right?? Like girl what kind of mad scientist experiment are we running in our bathrooms?? I swear if I see one more person mixing activated charcoal with yogurt and calling it a "detox mask" I'm gonna lose it. My sister tried that bentonite clay + apple cider vinegar thing and her face turned red for two days. Just stick with a $5 sheet mask from the drugstore and call it a day, no chemistry degree required.

Read an article from Texas A&M's extension service about this exact problem, and they basically said what @tara345 is getting at: clay soil laughs at precision engineering. The gravel pad works because it's more of a "squishy" system that moves with the ground instead of fighting it with rigid posts. I remember they tested a bunch of different foundations on clay and the adjustable piers actually caused more structural stress because they locked the container in place while the ground under it swelled up. Your buddy's setup is just letting the whole thing float a tiny bit and that's way better in the long run.