foundation terminology
Click the question to reveal the answer, click the question once more to hide.
| Q | piles |
| A | These are the 'stilts' that buildings are constructed on when there is poor ground on the site. The piles may be driven (ie hammered into the ground by dropping a heavy weight repeatedly on the pile) or bored. The piles may be precast reinforced concrete, insitu reinforced concrete, steel or concrete filled steel tubes. Pile are installed by specialist contractors who all have there own preferred systems. The piling contractor invariably designs as well as installs the piles. close |
| Q | trench fill foundations |
| A | These are foundations which are normally dug with a mechanical excavator and then filled with concrete to just below ground level. They can be excavated to a depth of around 3m with little difficulty. This is a quick and easy way of constructing foundations and most foundations are built this way. close |
| Q | strip footings |
| A | Strip footings are relatively thin (normally around 150mm thick) concrete foundations cast in the bottom of an excavation trench. The walls are then built on the foundations. Strip footings were in widespread use before JCB's appeared, but they tend to only be used now when access doesn't allow a mechanical digger to be used. With the mini diggers that are now available this is quite rare. They need to be wider than trench fill foundations, so that workmen can work inside the trench to build the walls, and they are not suitable when deep foundations are needed. close |
| Q | wells and soft water stores |
| A | These occasionally get referred to, normally during foundation work when they are discovered in exactly the wrong place. In the past, houses had wells or soft water stores for their main source of water. This was before mains water was widely available. A well is a shaft normally constructed from brickwork (although there are a few concrete ones dating back to the early part of the last century). The shaft was typically around a metre diameter and anything up to 10 metres deep. It was sunk deep enough to enable natural ground water to be pumped out for use in the house. Soft water stores were normally much shallower, typically around 2 metres deep, and these were larger in diameter. The rainwater from the roof was piped into the store and this was then pumped out for use in the house. close |