7 Steps for building Strong Foundation of your Home
Constructing a strong Foundation of your building ensures the durability of the building. For building the strong foundation of your home 7 important steps are involved as given below.
Step 1
Site selection is the first important step to build a strong foundation. At first, finalize the plot area based on your requirement, location of the plot, ground condition of the plot (not prone to frequent water logging). Make sure to investigate soil condition of your land parcel. Many times it requires special foundation/treatment as the soil may not have desired load carrying capacity or may have some adverse properties that can weaken the building foundation in the long term.
In this scenario, you need to consult with a Geo-technical Consultant / Structural Engineer for the right solution to your building foundation.
Step 2
Excavation work is the next important step to build the foundation of your home. You need to carry out proper surveying of your land to obtain a layout plan on the ground based on the approved drawing. Mark all pillars, trench excavation lines with respect to the center lines of walls. Ensure that excavation is done by the Contractor as much as it needed and true to levels, alignment, shape and size.
In this context, you may appoint a Contractor for carrying out the excavation of Foundation of your building after checking his credential of the similar works.
Step 3
Anti-termite treatment is an important step to protect your building and foundation from the termite attack. The soil around the foundation needs to be treated up to the plinth level with appropriate chemicals.
The anti-termite treatment being a specialized job should be executed through a specialized agency only. The specialized agency should be a member of Indian Pest Control Association.
Step 4
The next important step of your building foundation is compaction of the excavated soil top layer and providing a layer of Brick flat soling on top of it. Thereafter, laying a thin layer (50 to 75 mm thickness) of lean concrete of size at least 6 inches more than the footing size.
This step will provide your building foundation on a firm and flat level base for laying RCC (Reinforced Cement Concrete) work of the Footing and hold the moisture content of footing concrete without any soil soaking.
Step 5
The next step of your building foundation is the Wooden Formwork. The Formwork should be made as per the size of the Footing and sufficiently rigid so that there should not be any displacement while placing reinforcement bars and laying & compacting of the concrete. The gap between the Formwork to be sealed properly to prevent any loss of slurry from the concrete.
Step 6
The next important step of your building foundation is the Reinforcement Steel (Rebar) work. An entire part of West Bengal comes under Earthquake Zone 3 and above, use 500D TMT Rebar (preferably from Integrated Steel Plant) for your building foundation.
Cutting & bending of rebar to be done as per the bar bending schedule of the Footing to avoid wastage of steel materials. The placing and fixing of Rebar to be done properly with adequate concrete cover blocks to avoid any displacement of Rebar while pouring the concrete.
Step 7
The final important step of your Building Foundation is the pouring of concrete into the Footing. The concrete should be as per the approved design grade. For the quality check, workability of the concrete to be checked periodically during the process of concreting work and take concrete test cubes of required numbers to check the crushing strength of the test cubes at 7 days and 28 days respectively. The concrete should be compacted well into place and cured adequately. Curing should start early and should be continued for sufficient period to ensure that it develops the desired strength and does not crack.
All these 7 steps are essential for building a strong foundation of your home. Getting the foundation of your home right is incredibly important. Any mistakes you make in the foundation can’t be changed in an entire lifespan of your home.
For more detailed and customized advice you may consult with our Experts here.