Types of Foundation

Finding the appropriate foundation can be just as essential to finding your favorite blush, lipstick or eye shadow shade. A poorly chosen foundation may cling to fine lines, accentuate peach fuzz or catch onto skin flakes – rendering these options useless.

Foundations play a pivotal role in supporting buildings and their inhabitants, transferring weight directly from them onto the soil beneath. A successful foundation should function without shifting, cracking or leaking over the lifetime of its structure. Know more about Underpinning Melbourne services.

Isolated Simple Footing

Flat isolated footing is the go-to choice in most construction applications. It effectively transfers loads from single columns onto soil without exceeding its bearing capacity, prevents excessive settlement, and provides sufficient safety against sliding and overturning. Commonly built under each column separately under each square, rectangular, or circular column; its constant thickness helps lessen bending moments and shear forces at critical points while its minimal excavation needs require only plain concrete or reinforced concrete construction materials for construction.

Sloped footing requires more intricate planning. Constructed carefully to achieve an angle of 45 degrees on all sides, sloping footing involves more concrete and reinforcement bars than pad footing and is ideal when column loads are light with relatively distant columns; additionally it utilizes dowel bars that help transfer loads efficiently from column to footing and soil stratum.

Strip Footing

Strip footings are shallow foundations used in low to mid rise domestic buildings with load-bearing walls, typically two times wider than their wall to distribute the load more evenly across an expanded surface area. They’re an economical choice.

A strip footing’s width will depend on the soil condition; your structural engineer can provide guidance based on test results from your plot’s soil test. In areas of poor bearing capacity, wider strip footing may be necessary.

Strip foundations, typically constructed using concrete, tend to be less costly and simpler to build on site than other deep foundation types. Reinforcing bars provide additional tensile strength that allows structures to withstand stress and compression more effectively.

Pile Foundation

Pile foundations are long, narrow columns or cylinders used to transfer loads from structures onto the soil beneath. Used when shallow foundations can’t support enough weight or when building near water or expansive soils.

Construction techniques vary, from timber structures dating back centuries, to precast concrete piles reinforced to withstand driving stresses, steel piles are another popular choice, often seen in tubular or rolled H-section forms, while grouted square shaft piles add skin friction while increasing both lateral capacity and bending moment strength.

These types of piles are installed using a machine known as a pile driver and driven until their refusal point, or maximum depth, has been reached. This installation method produces minimal vibration and headroom restrictions while being cost-effective and environmentally sustainable, making it popular choice for marine projects, sea defences and jetties.

Caisson Foundation

Caisson foundations are watertight boxes sunk into both land and water surfaces to a specified depth, typically round or rectangular in shape, that provide adequate bearing strength when constructed as bridge piers or river/lake dock structures. Caissons are an excellent solution when there is insufficient bearing strength above weak materials such as peat or clay layers and when load configuration involves flow forces.

Piling is an economical method of transferring axial and lateral loads to firm strata, eliminating the need for pile caps while simultaneously minimizing noise and vibration during construction. Additionally, piling is suitable for sites contaminated with hazardous waste material and allows easy transition to different site conditions. When necessary, caissons may be combined with piling to form a Composite Caisson-Pile Foundation (CCPF) for added load requirements – providing superior performance over long span bridges, deep alluvial deposits, as well as sufficient vessel collision resistance.