Foundation and Footing

The function of a foundation is to transfer the structural loads from a building safely into
the ground. All foundations settle to some extent as the soil around beneath them adjust
itself to these loads. uniform settlement is usually of little consequences in a building,
but a differential settlement can cause severe structural damage.
3 major parts of a building:
Superstructure – which is the above ground portion of the building.
Substructure – which is the habitable below-ground portion.
Foundation – which are the components of the building that transfer its load into the
soil. 3 types of substructures: slab on fill, crawlspace and basement
2 basic types of foundations:

1. Shallow foundations are those that transfer the load to the earth at the base
of the column or wall of the substructure.
2. Deep foundations transfer the load at a point far below the substructure. A
foundation is the portion of the structural elements that carry or support the
superstructure of the building. footing is that portion of the foundation of the
structure which directly transmit the column load to the underlying soil or
rock, footing is the lower portion of the foundation structure. Foundation Bed -
refers to the soil or rock directly beneath the footing.

Pile foundation – when a foundation bed is too weak to support a raft footing, there is
an urgent need to provide a suitable materials where to transfer the excess load to a
greater depth wherein piles is the answer.
Pile – is a structural member of small cross-sectional area with reasonable length driven
down the ground by means of hammers or vibratory generator. pile is distinguished from
a caisson by being driven into place rather than driled & poured. piles are generally
driven closely together in clusters containing from two to twenty-five piles. Each cluster
is later joined at the top by a reinforced concrete pile cap.
Pile cap – distributes the load of the column or wall equally among the piles.
Caissons – is similar to a column footing in that it spreads the load from a column over a
large enough area of soil.
Foundation Wall – that part of the building foundation which forms the permanent
retaining wall of the structure below grade.
Grade beam – that part of a foundation system w/c supports the exterior wall of the
superstructure and bears directly on the column footing.
Retaining wall – a wall or laterally braced, that bears against an earth or other fill surface
and resists lateral and other forces.
Cantilever wall – a reinforced concrete wall which resist overturning by the use of
cantilever footing.
Gravity wall – a massive concrete wall that resist overturning by virtue of it’s own
weight.
Bearing wall – a wall capable of supporting an imposed load.
Footings are classified into two types:

1. Wall footing or strip footing – is a strip of reinforced concrete wider than the
wall which distributes the load to the soil. a steel percentage equals to 0.2 to
0.3% of the cross-sectional area of concrete is said to be adequate except on
unusual cases.
2. Column footing – is classified into the following types:
1. Isolated or Independent Footing – is a kind of footing represents
the simplest and most economical type, in the form of: • square
block footing • square slope footing • square stepped footing
2. Combined Footing – is used when two or more columns are spaced
closely to each other that their footing will almost or completely
merge. it’s either :

•
o
▪ Rectangular
▪ Trapezoidal

Continuous footing – is sometimes classified as wall footing which support several

columns in a row. it’s either: Inverted slab footing or Inverted tee footing
Raft or Mat Footing – it’s occupying the entire area beneath the structure and carry the
wall and the column loads.

1.
1. Uniform slab
2. Thickened slab
3. Beam & girder