Masonry porch adjacent to house - worried about settling
 

With a home that has a basement foundation the area directly outside the perimeter of the basement is filled back in and I suspect that settling will be an issue when it comes time to build a masonry porch directly on top of this fill.

My questions:

Are there methods to compact the fill after the basement is poured without bringing in gravel so that settling is either minimized or eliminated?

Would it help to backfill against the foundation in stages to allow for mechanical compaction and settling and spread this process over a number of weeks?

Once the area is backfilled would there be any benefit to waiting 6 months before I began work on a masonry porch and if so, is there anything I can do to make the ground more stable.

Would it help to pour some sonotubes full of concrete down at the footing level and a few feet out from the foundation so that these columns, in conjunction with latticework tied into the home foundation, to can carry some load from the masonry porch?

What I really want to avoid is unsightly settling of a very heavy mass and the resultant repair work a few years down the road. Anyone have any wisdom that they feel like sharing?

Just like the garage, the porch should be set on a foundation on virgin, stable soil. The overdig/backfill area is simply spanned over with the poured wall just like in the garage, which you asked about earlier. Putting the masonry porch on anything other than a foundation, and then attaching it to the house, is only asking for problems, compacted fill or not.....