Professional Documents
Culture Documents
SHALLOW FOUNDATIONS
Shallow foundations are also called spread footings or open footings. The 'open' refers to the
fact that the foundations are made by first excavating all the earth till the bottom of the footing,
and then constructing the footing. During the early stages of work, the entire footing is visible
to the eye, and is therefore called an open foundation. The idea is that each footing takes the
concentrated load of the column and spreads it out over a large area, so that the actual weight
on the soil does not exceed the safe bearing capacity of the soil.
INDIVIDUAL FOOTINGS
Individual footings are one of the most simple and common types of foundations.
These are used when the load of the building is carried by columns. Usually,
each column will have its own footing. The footing is just a square or rectangular
pad of concrete on which the column sits. To get a very rough idea of the size of
the footing, the engineer will take the total load on the column and divide it by
the safe bearing capacity (SBC) of the soil. For example, if a column has a
vertical load of 10T, and the SBC of the soil is 10T/m2, then the area of the
footing will be 1m2. In practice, the designer will look at many other factors
before preparing a construction design for the footing.
STRIP FOOTINGS
Strip footings are commonly found in load-bearing masonry construction, and act
as a long strip that supports the weight of an entire wall. These are used where
the building loads are carried by entire walls rather than isolated columns, such
as in older buildings made of masonry.
RAFT OR MAT FOUNDATIONS
Raft Foundations, also called Mat Foundations, are most often used when
basements are to be constructed. In a raft, the entire basement floor slab acts as
the foundation; the weight of the building is spread evenly over the entire
footprint of the building. It is called a raft because the building is like a vessel
that 'floats' in a sea of soil.
Mat Foundations are used where the soil is week, and therefore building loads
have to be spread over a large area, or where columns are closely spaced, which
means that if individual footings were used, they would touch each other.
DEEP FOUNDATIONS
PILE FOUNDATIONS
Friction Piles
Friction piles work on a different principle. The pile transfers the
load of the building to the soil across the full height of the pile, by
friction. In other words, the entire surface of the pile, which is
cylindrical in shape, works to transfer the forces to the soil.
In practice, however, each pile resists load by a combination of end bearing and
friction.
Mat/Raft footings
Wall Footings
Isolated footing
These are most economical. They are usually in square or rectangle size with the
column sitting in the middle of the square. It's a kind of pad footing.
Combined footing
A footing, either rectangular or trapezoidal, that supports two columns. It's also a
pad footing.
Mat/Raft footings
Consist of one footing usually placed under the entire building area. They are used
when soil bearing capacity is low, column loads are heavy, single footing cant be
used, piles are not used and differential settlement must be reduced.
Wall Footings
Wall footings are used to distribute the loads of structural load-bearing walls to the
soil.
2- Deep Foundations
Deep foundations are those founding too deeply below the finished ground surface
for their base bearing capacity to be affected by surface conditions, this is usually at
depths of 3 meter below finished ground level. Deep foundations can be used to
transfer the load to a deeper, more competent strata at depth if unsuitable soils are
present near the surface.
PILE FOUNDATIONS
A pile is basically a long cylinder of a strong material such as concrete that is pushed into the
ground to act as a steady support for structures built on top of it.
Pile foundations are used in the following situations:
1. When there is a layer of weak soil at the surface. This layer cannot support the
weight of the building, so the loads of the building have to bypass this layer and be
transferred to the layer of stronger soil or rock that is below the weak layer.
2. When a building has very heavy, concentrated loads, such as in a high rise structure,
Pile foundations are capable of taking higher loads than spread footings.
There are two types of pile foundations, each of which works in its own way.
Friction Piles
Friction piles work on a different principle. The pile transfers the load of the
building to the soil across the full height of the pile, by friction. In other
words, the entire surface of the pile, which is cylindrical in shape, works to
transfer the forces to the soil.
To visualise how this works, imagine you are pushing a solid metal rod
of say 4mm diameter into a tub of frozen ice cream. Once you have pushed it in, it is strong
enough to support some load. The greater the embedment depth in the ice cream, the more
load it can support. This is very similar to how a friction pile works. In a friction pile, the
amount of load a pile can support is directly proportionate to its length.
Concrete piles are precast, that is, made at ground level, and
then driven into the ground by hammering - more on that
later. Steel H-piles can also be driven into the ground. These
can take very heavy loads, and save time during construction,
as the pile casting process is eliminated. No protective
coating is given to the steel, as during driving, this would be
scraped away by the soil. In areas with corrosive soil,
concrete piles should be used.
The load pattern of the piles on the soil surrounding them. This is also called a zone of influence.
Engineers will usually group a few piles together, and top them with a pile cap. A pile cap is a
very thick cap of concrete that extends over a small group of piles, and serves as a base on
which a column can be constructed. The load of this column is then distributed to all the piles
in the group.
Piles are first cast at ground level and then hammered or driven into the ground using a pile
driver. This is a machine that holds the pile perfectly vertical, and then hammers it into the
ground blow by blow. Each blow is is struck by lifting a heavy weight and dropping it on the
top of the pile - the pile is temporarily covered with a steel cap to prevent it from
disintegrating. The pile driver thus performs two functions - first, it acts as a crane, and lifts
the pile from a horizontal position on the ground and rotates it into the correct vertical
position, and second, it hammers the pile down into the ground.
Piles should be hammered into the ground till refusal, at which point they cannot be driven
any further into the soil.
SPECIAL PILES
Pile driving is very noisy and causes massive vibrations through the soil. For this reason, it is
sometimes difficult to use them in sensitive locations. For example, if an operational hospital
or science lab is to be extended, driving piles would cause unwanted disturbance. Their use
is also restricted in residential areas in many countries. The vibrations could also cause
structural damage to older buildings that are close by. In such situations it is possible to
use micro piling or helical piling, neither of which rely on hammering.
Micro piles or minipiles are small piles that are constructed in the following way:
Step 1: a hole a little larger than the pile diameter and the full length of the pile is dug into
the ground using an apparatus like a soil boring machine.
Step 2: a precast concrete pile is lowered or pushed into the hole.
Step 3: a concrete grout is poured into the gap between the pile and the earth.
Helical piles are steel tubes that have helical (spiral) blades attached to them. These can be
drilled into the ground, meaning that the pile acts as a giant drill bit, and is rotated and
pushed into the ground from above, much like a screw drills into wood. Once the steel pile is
driven into the ground, a pile cap is poured on top of the pile to prepare it for the construction
above.
The waterproofing of buildings to prevent the ingress of water is an activity, which, perhaps is
practiced in one form or the other, ever since the first building was built on earth. The
methodology has been changing with the changes in architectural designs and availability of
different building materials for construction. In the initial stages when stone was the main building
construction material placed in position with mud or lime mortar, the emphasis used was to make
the construction in such a way that the rainwater does not collect on the roofs. Hence old
architecture relied mainly on dome structures or slanting/slopy roofs. The slow speed of such
construction and unaffordability by common man to build such structures for their own dwelling,
made constant evolution and development in the construction material technology. With new
developments, the concepts of waterproofing have also changed. Now in the present day
construction with ordinary portland cement and its blends (with puzzolonic and slag materials) a
lot of compatible alternatives, are available to a builder to choose from various waterproofing
systems. Some systems are old and conventional but still practiced successfully and some are
modern systems designed taking the material and structural behavior into consideration.
There are some compounds, which are used as aaditive in plastic concrete to make it less
permeable to water. These compounds are known as integral waterproofing compounds. They are
based on plasticising and air-entrainment or water repellence principles. These are used as a good
waterproofing precautions when other factors such as good mix-design, proper mixing/placing,
compacting/curing etc are taken care of. This subject of using integral waterproofing compounds
requires an in depth discussion hence will not be taken up here. Similarly, there are many
waterproofing techniques for vertical surfaces. These techniques used are also used for preserving
heritage buildings by stopping/minimising the aging process of these buildings. This subject also
will not be discussed here.
First of all let us review some of the old and conventional waterproofing systems and then we
would discuss the modern waterproofing techniques.
Review of Conventional Waterproofing Systems
Some of the conventional water- proofing systems are as follows:
Bituminous Treatment
Bituminous Treatment
Discovery of petroleum and its products and by-products has given the construction industry an
indispensable product in the form of bitumen. Bitumen is more commonly used in the form of felt
or flexible membrane formed by sandwiching jute fabric or fibreglass/polypropylene mats with
chemically modified bitumen. These membranes are laid on the roofing system over a bitumen
primer. There are two types of membranes one is cold applied and the other is hot applied which
means one needs to heat the edges of the felt with a torch so that they melt and stick to the
second layer in the overlap area. On the RCC flat roofs, the bitumen felts have not been successful
because of the unacceptable black appearance and inaccessibility of the terrace for other social
uses. Technically, it is not preferred because bitumen layer or felt on the terrace not only makes it
watertight but also airtight. Concrete has the breathing property. It takes water/moisture and
breathes out water vapour. Hindrance of this breathing property of concrete develops pore
pressure which causes blisters in the felt. After a few seasons, the blisters multiply and eventually
delaminate the felt from the concrete surface. Hindrance of breathing property of concrete, makes
the concrete weak. But on the asbestos cement sheets and zinc sheets in factory roofs, this
bitumen felt is the only dependable waterproofing system. Hence most of the factory roofs in India
adopt this waterproofing system.
Bitumen is very effective in waterproofing of basements from outside. Bitumen primers have very
successfully been used as damp-proof course in earlier days. This practice is slowly discontinued
for whatever reasons now very few engineers believe that this was in practice once. As
consequence of this absent DPC, we have a lot of cases of rising dampness, which we tend to
attribute to wrong reasons such as the quality or salinity of sand etc. Bitumen is still the product of
first choice where it is commonly recommended, in areas such as industrial roof waterproofing,
basement water- proofing, and damp-proof course. Moreover, bitumen is the most economical
product presently available for waterproofing. But black top over roof can absorb heat and this
need to be kept in mind while deciding waterproofing system for exposed roofs.
Because of the non-existence of suitable expansion joint filling compounds before the discovery of
poly-sulphides, a complex procedure used to be adopted to treat expansion joints in concrete
dams and such huge structures utilising thick copper sheets. An extension of this practice was to
try thin foils of copper and aluminium for wrapping the concrete surfaces with nagging leakage
problems. Unavailability of common joining material for these metal foils and the concrete and
mortar created weakness in the system at the joints. This discouraged the system in its infancy
only. But thereafter, the metal manufacturers have been trying to market this type of
waterproofing system with improved adhesives and when the metal market slumped.
industries.
Modern technique aims to understand the functional behaviour of the structure, understand the
properties of the available materials to arrive at a system, which is best suited for the structure
and incorporate the system at the design stage itself.
A single product or technique is not usually enough, involvement of various bodies and techniques
in coordination is essential for making structures waterproof. For success of any system, the
building structure should have sufficient and efficient control joints if the slabs dimensions are
more than twenty meter in any direction. Control joints are structural engineering design features.
These joints are supposed to be designed and their configuration marked on the drawings and
their detailing needs to be given with respect to waterproofing system proposed in large buildings.
Different types of control joints are Construction joints or day joint, crack inducer joint, contraction
joint and expansion joint. Coefficient of thermal expansion of concrete is between 6 to 10 X 10-6
mm/mm/oC. If proper control joints are not provided in large slabs, no waterproofing system will
work. Modern technique relies basically on two main waterproofing systems, which are fool proof
and simple.
They are as follows:
i.
Clean the surface to remove all loose particles, grease shuttering oil and such deleterious
materials to get a sound concrete surface.
ii.
Cracks if any should be cut into V shaped grooves one inch wide and proper size width &
depth Cut honey combed areas back to sound concrete.
iii.
Repair these areas first by priming with crystalline waterproofing slurry and then by filling
them with crystalline modified mortar produced by mixing crystalline waterproofing powder
OPC and zone II sand in the proportion of 1:1:4 and water enough to produce a stiff
consistence paste. Allow the repair mortar to dry.
iv.
Thoroughly sprinkle water on the area to be treated till the surface becomes saturated. Some
recommend overnight ponding for effective results
v.
Prepare crystalline waterproofing slurry by mixing the powder and water in the proportion of
two and half volume of powder to one volume of water to form a hot slurry. Brush apply this
slurry on the water saturated surface in two coats.
vi.
When the second coat is still wet plaster the surface with 1 : 4 cement sand mortar admixed
with an integral waterproofing compound and cure properly.
i.
Clean the surface to remove all loose particles, grease shuttering oil and such deleterious
materials to get a sound concrete surface.
ii.
Cracks if any should be cut into V shaped grooves of a proper size in depth. Cut honey
combed areas back to sound concrete.
iii.
Repair these areas with a stiff paste of fibre reinforced polymer repair mortar generally sold in
the name of crack fill.
iv.
Mix the powder and the liquid components of the product to form an uniform slurry and brush
apply this slurry on the surface to be waterproofed.
v.
When the waterproofing coating is still tacky apply 1 : 4 cement sand screed and cure
normally.
Especially in large buildings, waterproofing systems fail if the control joints are not in
position or not properly executed and maintained. This failure occurs even after one complete
year when the structure has passed through one complete summer and the winter cycle. One
cant repair this type of failures. It needs a different type of approach involving provision of
crack inducer joints and then tackling the waterproofing in movement restricted bays.
Stretching the coverage of the products beyond the specified limits by the manufacturer
results in inefficiency of the product and hence a failure.
Selection of an effective waterproofing system for a structure taking all the performance
criteria of the structure into account and also taking into the consideration, the performance of
the materials in the system is of prime importance for any success of the waterproofing job.
It is better to avoid bargaining for the job value out of contractors margins. This could
result in stretching the product beyond the coverage specified by the manufacturer or
substitution of cheaper material in the system to cover the cost.
Always supervise the job and the incoming materials for the intact tamperproof seals and
quantities.
Use the services of an engineer or architect in selection of materials. That too only
procured from well know manufacturing firm.
Conclusion
Generally, architects in India, do not specify in depth waterproofing details and leave this
aspect generally to ignorant client to chose whatever system he likes, and many structural
designers give least importance to the control joints. As a result of this, many systems have
failed in several prestigious buildings and the blame went to waterproofing contractors or the
product manufacturer.
There is a need for the architects and the structural designers to understand the various
systems available and specify them clearly and in sufficient detail, taking into consideration
the in-service conditions of the structure.
The client should also insist on the architect to provide waterproofing design details in
advance so that no ambiguity remains till the end. This would give enough time in selecting
the specified material.
mortar layer.