 Basement can be defined as a “hollow

structure constructed below the ground

level”.
 Basement are common in tall building as
carparks, storage of services and underground
shopping centres.
 The term “basement” has been regarded as
synonymous to the term “deep pit”, which
applies to excavation over 4.5m deep.
 The main purpose of constructing basement are:-
1. To provide additional space
2. As a form of buoyancy raft
 There are essentially four general methods
of constructing a basement:-
1. Open cut method
2. Cut and cover method
3. Top down method
4. Composite method
 Open cut technique is the simplest method of
providing an excavation to the required depth.
 The sides of the excavations are sloped in some
cases with possible slope protection to ensure
the stability of the solid mass.
 Upon excavating to the required level, the
basement is then constructed from bottom
upwards, in the conventional way.
 After the completion of the basement, the
remaining excavation areas i.e. between the
basement and the side slopes are subsequently
backfilled.
 The cut and cover technique is used when the
site is tight, e.g. located within a heavily built-
up urban area, where ground movement to the
adjacent surrounding must be kept to a
minimum.
 Soil retaining structures are firstly erected to
prevent the surrounding earth from sliding out
whereas stuttering and bracing are also provided
according to design so that excavation works can
be proceed safely and at reasonable pace until
reaching the deepest basement level.
 The basement is then constructed in the
conventional way, bottom upwards in sequence
with removal of the temporary struts.
 The top down technique is an extension of the cut
and cover technique.
 In order to optimise the cut and cover technique,
permanent basement structural walls (i.e. Diaphragm
walling, contiguous bored pile wall) are employed to
support the excavation face with the basement floor
slabs acting as struts for external walls.
 The slabs depend on the prefounded columns as
supports for the vertical loads on the floor.
 These columns are known as ‘profounded’ because
they are constructed prior to bulk excavation. In this
technique, the basement floor slabs are cast before
excavation to the next level and construction
proceeds from the top downwards for the basement
structure
 The unique characteristic of the prefounded
column is that it can be installed either for
temporary use (for construction of basement
only) or it can be designed as part of the
permanent load carrying member for the
completed structures.
 As obvious advantage of this form of construction
is that the superstructure can proceed upwards
from ground level simultaneously with the
excavation downwards.
 The overall development may be completed
months earlier than the conventional bottom-up
approach in view of this overlapping of
substructure and superstructure construction
time schedule.
 Composite technique is a mixture of top down and
bottom-up construction techniques.
 The main objective of this technique is to optimise
the top down technique by solving the problem of
excavation in limited headroom condition.
 As in top down technique, perimeter structural walls
are installed to support the excavation face.
 Pre-founded columns are then installed. The
perimeter portion of the storey 1 slab is cast off the
ground, using the pre-founded columns to support the
floor slab.
 Excavation to the middle portion proceeds to
basement 1 formation level, where the slab is also
cast off the ground.
 After completing the basement 1 slab, the
middle portion of storey 1 slab is then
constructed in a bottom-up upwards scheme.
 Since this form of construction utilises both
bottom-up and top down technique
 The superstructure can then proceed upwards
while simultaneously, the substructure proceeds
downwards.
 Access openings are provided in the floor slabs
for the removal of excavated material in the
lower basements.
 The obvious merit of this technique is that
excavation is facilitated with no headroom
limitation except for the portion underneath
the cast slab.
 This scheme will obviously speed the
construction process considerably.
1. Site constrain which includes accessibility to
the site and the proximity of existing building.
2. The soil condition, whether is consists of sand,
clay, or silt. This is especially vital for the open
cut technique.
3. The space for soil slopes within the perimeter
of the site.
4. Speed of construction.
5. Whether the depth of basement is deep
enough to justify the use of the technique that
would have economies of scale.
6. Whether the site area is extensive enough for
operations associated with the technique.
7. The cost of construction in terms of economy.
1. Retaining wall
2. Excavation
3. Dewatering
4. Basement wall
5. Basement floor
6. Waterproofing
 Some of the retaining wall which are
commonly used in Malaysia for deep
basement construction are as follows:-
1. Soldier pile walls
2. Steel sheet pile walls
3. Diaphragm walls
4. Contiguous bored pile walls (CBP)
5. Secant pile walls
 Consist of a vertical wide flange steel
members with horizontal timber lagging.
 Often used as temporary retaining structures
for construction and excavation.
ELEVATION: Soldier Pile

PLAN: Soldier Pile

 This is suitable method for site where the
space around the excavation is insufficient
for sloping back the sides.
 It’s usually necessary to provide lateral support
at 1 or more levels above the ground that can be
done using 2 ways that is internal braces or
tieback anchor
 Tieback Anchors are tension members drilled
into the ground behind the wall
 The most common type is a grouted anchor with
a steel tendon
 The technique of building slurry walls involves the
casting of concrete walls, from 450 mm to 1.5 m in
thickness and up to 122 m in depth below grade
around one or more sides of an excavation.
 Guide walls are normally constructed to improve
trench stability and to serve as guides for excavation.
 The cast-in-place, reinforced concrete wall is placed
in sections or panels, usually not exceeding 7 m in
length and the full depth required.
 The completed wall may serve a dual purpose by
acting as a retaining wall during the excavating phase
and while the interior foundations are being built and
later being used as the permanent exterior
foundation walls for the building.
 The wall may be built in consecutive or alter­
nating panels, and the procedure will vary,
depending on which system is used.
 Under the consecutive method after the first
panel is complete, others are constructed next
to it, on either side, and, except for the first
one, all the panels will be the same, with regard
to reinforcing and end forming.
Diaphragm wall excavation

Basement top-down construction using diaphragm walls

Diaphragm wall reinforcement & concreting

 Contiguous bored pile wall is a line of bored piles
installed close together or touching.
 Smaller diameter micro piles may be installed in
between each adjacent pile to close the gaps
between the main piles.
 Grouting may be pumped in through performed
pipes inserted into holes drilled between the
piles.
 The typical sequence of construction is such that
the next pile is to be constructed more that 3 m
away from the previous one.
 Contiguous piling may be covered with mesh
reinforcement or fabric faced with rendering or
sprayed concrete/shotcreting/guniting.
Contiguous Bored pile wall construction
 Secant piles are similar to contiguous bored piles
except that they are constructed with two
adjacent piles.
 Primary (soft) and secondary (hard) piles are
interlocked into each other.
 The primary are not reinforced while the
secondary pile are.
 The primary piles are first constructed in an
alternate manner to leave a clear space for the
construction of secondary piles later, the space
being a little under the diameter of the
secondary piles to ensure the interlocking.
 The primary piles are cast with the specified
strength of mass concrete (usually lower strength
concrete) without reinforcement.
 Before the concrete of the primary piles are fully
set, the soil between two adjacent primary piles
is drilled and/or cut along a parallel but slightly
offset line, such that the holes cut into the sides
of the two adjacent primary piles, using
appropriate coring tools.
 Reinforcement cage is then lowered into the
bored holes and concreted (usually with higher
strength concrete) to form the secondary piles.
 In this manner, each secondary piles is
positioned in between, and ‘secant’ with,
two adjacent primary piles to form an
interlocking joint.
 Excavation of soil for large basement may
involve the support of the ground around it.
 Even if the soil appears to be self-supporting,
precautions against collapse should be taken.
 The simplest solution is to cut back the slides of
the excavation to the angle of repose of the soil,
thus avoiding the need for temporary support.
 This requires access to a much larger area than
the basement itself, and the removal and
replacement of a large volume of soil.
 After the lowering of the water table, some form
of retaining wall must be erected around the
basement perimeter before the soil is excavated.
 Dewatering systems are divided into two,
which are:-
i. Sump pumping
ii. Well point system
 A sump is constructed to collect the ground
water, providing a suitable depth for pump
to work in.
 The depth of the sump may exceed 7.5m.
 The water pumped out must be directed
away from site.
 A more effective method of ensuring that water
is removed from area of an excavation during the
period of the work is de-watering by the well
point system.
 This system requires a small device called a well-
point to be forced into the ground using water
jet. This is called jetting.
 The well-points are jetted into the ground
around the proposed excavation down to a depth
of five to six meters, which is the maximum for
single well point system.
 The well-points are placed about every 1.5m and
are link together by a ring main connected to a
pump.
 As the well-point is jetted in, lengths of pipe
are attached to it until the required depth is
reached.
 When the suction pump is started, water is
drawn through the well-point, which also
screens out fine material.
 The pump must kept running continuously to
keep water out of the excavation throughout
the work.
 To increase the depth of the de-watering, a
two stage installation can be employed.
 Basement structures can be waterproofed by
one of three basics methods:
i. Membrane system
ii. Integral system
iii.Cavity/ drainage system
 It provides a physical barrier forming a tanking
system using either sheet membranes or liquid
membranes or both.
 Sheet membranes are preformed, factory-made
in rolls, which are bonded or cast against the
substrate to form a continuous membrane by
lapping.
 The common lapping for side laps are 100mm
and end laps are 150mm.
 Lapping may be achieved by torching/faming,
use of bonding compound or self-adhesive
membranes.
 Liquid membranes come in either one or two-
component in liquid or gel form.
 They are applied either by brush, rollers or
spray.
 Liquid membranes give the flexibility for
works on uneven surface and complicated
details.
 It provides protection against water penetration
based on the use of admixtures with
waterproofing properties in the concrete mix to
form concrete with surfaces that are repellent to
water, and/or to fill the capillary pores hence
reduces the permeability of the concrete.
 There are two main types of integral
waterproofing systems:-
1. The hydrophilic - typically uses a crystallization
technology that replaces the water in the
concrete with insoluble crystals.
2. Hydrophobic system - uses reactive hydrophobic
pre-blocking ingredients, fatty acids, silica fume
etc to block pores within the concrete,
preventing water passage.
 This method provides an excellent barrier to
moisture penetration by allowing moisture
that has passed through the structural wall
to drain down within a cavity formed
between the inner face of the structural wall
and an inner non-load bearing wall.
 This inner wall is built of a floor covering of
special triangular precast concrete tiles,
which allows the moisture from the cavity to
flow away under the tiles to a sump, where
it is discharged into a drainage system either
by gravity or by pumping.