MORE LOCATIONSAssure the strength of your building by knowing the types of commercial building foundations
Commercial foundations are designed by keeping in mind the estimated external load. This ensures the security and stability of the building. Depending on the soil conditions, the size of the building, and budget commercial foundations can vary. Knowledge about the common types of foundations for commercial buildings can help you choose the best fit for your building.
Commercial Foundation Types
- Based on soil’s depth there are two broad categories of commercial foundations these include, shallow foundations and deep foundations.
Individual footing, wall footing, combined footing, and raft or mat foundation are categorized as shallow foundations. Whereas, pile footing is a deep foundation.
Individual Footing
- Individual footing foundations are standard for ordinary buildings that are up to five stories tall. For supporting and spreading concentrated columns directly to the soil, this type of foundation is ideal. In individual foundations, single columns are used for transferring the loads to a spread footing.
In this way, loads are uniformly distributed to the ground. Depending on the load-bearing capacity of the soil and the weight of the building, the number of individual footing is determined.
Wall Footing
- A Wall footing foundation seems like an enlarged bottom of a wall that is sufficient for transferring and spreading the building’s load to the soil. This type of foundation is like a continuous strip footing along the whole length of the wall.
A Wall footing foundation is used by architects around the perimeter of a building. However, this foundation can also be used for interior walls depending on the load requirements.
Combined Footing
- Sometimes the contractors combine strip footing or wall footing and individual base foundation. This type of foundation is known as combined footing. By combining both the foundations, ideal support is built that is strong enough to bear the weight of the building. A combined footing foundation can also compensate for the insufficient load-bearing capacity of the soil.
Separate combined footings are designed by contractors for supporting two or more column loads. This type of foundation is preferred by engineers for the construction of buildings in restricted dimensions. These foundations can also work well near a sewer line or property line.
Raft or Mat Foundation
- In mat foundation, a concrete slab is reinforced over a large area used to bear several columns and walls. It is also known as a raft foundation. Raft foundation has the capacity to manage oversized loads.
In areas where soil load capacity is inferior and column loads are immense, this type of foundation proves ideal. The entire load of the structure is spread evenly over the area of the foundation. The basement in this case acts as a concrete slab foundation.
Pile Foundation
It is a deep foundation in which drilled piers are used to transfer a large number of loads to the soil strata. Piles or drilled piers are built-in groups and clusters that receive column loads. Drilled piers are deep foundation systems in which concrete cylinders of large diameters are used. These concrete cylinders are buried on the ground.
For the construction of drilled pier foundation, a large diameter hole is excavated between 5-50 meters from the surface to reach the hard rock below. This increases cast bearing capacity. It takes about 28 days for the concrete drilled piers to cure.
Applications Of Pile Foundation
- A pile foundation transfers the weight of the structure to a hard rock beneath the ground where shallow foundations cannot be used. Therefore pile foundations can be ideally used when the load of the building is massive and concentrated. It is also best for areas with compressible soil conditions and wetland.
Crack-X is a structural repair company located in Maine and New Hampshire. Contact us today at 877-727-2259 if you are dealing with foundation issues. Our experienced contractors will assess the problem and provide necessary repairs.