Piling or traditional foundation

[Seroj]

Hi everyone.

is it possible to have a traditional foundation on a 4 story building on a land of 30 x 60 foot or need to do piling?

I find piling very very expensive compare to foundation by digging.

 

[Russell griffiths]

That would be down to your structural engineer to decide, based on your soil survey. 

[DevilDamo]

The type of foundation system is not only dictated by the size of the structure.

[Ronan 1]

Impossible to say without looking at the soil report and a review of the building loads but it is certainly possible however if all the figures work out that it's possible without piles you are more than likely to be pushed towards a heavy duty raft type slab foundation.

Edited January 6, 2021 by Ronan 1

[Temp]

+1

 

Get a soil condition report done, give it to your SE with drawings for the house and have him do a foundation design.

 

He may also need to know about any trees that are close by or which have been removed.

 

I didn't need piled foundations but a smaller house 5 doors down did.

 

[Seroj]

Thanks everyone, you all put me in the right direction. So it’s possible.

Will test the soil and hope will do the right thing.

[Gus Potter]

On 06/01/2021 at 20:13, Seroj said:

Hi everyone.

is it possible to have a traditional foundation on a 4 story building on a land of 30 x 60 foot or need to do piling?

I find piling very very expensive compare to foundation by digging.

 

Yes, if for example you are on reasonable rock. In this case the found will not be a traditional strip, almost like a "skin" of concrete.

 

For all, if you have a taller structure on a small foot print, introduce large areas of glazing etc on the ground floor you often find that when the wind blows it wants to "topple" the structure. To deal with this you need to design your piles to not just carry the downwards load but also to resist uplift and that can add to the piling cost as the piles need to work in both directions.. up and down.

 

If you do have a site with rock close to the surface you may also find that BC still ask for the founds to have frost cover (min 450mm) and thus for the unwary you then spend a fortune on a pecker carving a hole in the rock just to fill it in with concrete. There is often a more economic way to do this than just blindly following the regs regarding foundation depth.

 

 

[markc]

To pile or not to pile - that is the question.

As above it all depends on the ground and the structure.

A heavy structure on poor ground will need support, a light structure on rock will probably need holding down to stop it rolling over.

Piling can be very cost effective over traditional founds in some situations so don`t be afraid to explore options.