Quite a common type of foundation in private and industrial construction is the pile. With its simplicity, economy and speed of erection, this foundation is one of the most reliable, capable of withstanding a sufficiently high load. It is used on weak or, conversely, too dense soils, as well as in areas where there is a threat of flooding. Piles not only allow you to transfer the main load to the lower layers of the soil, more durable and stable, but also to lift the building above the ground.
Advantages of pile foundation
If you build a house with your own hands, the choice of pile foundation will be optimal. Its advantages:
- speed and ease of erection;
- economy - this foundation is much cheaper than a belt or columnar;
- possibility to cope with construction without assistance and use of special equipment( excavators, cranes);
- year-round operation mode makes this method of erecting a building support the most accessible for areas with a harsh climate, on permafrost;
- significant reduction in the volume of excavation, which is very important when building on dense soils.
The lack of a pile foundation can be considered the impossibility of a device under the house of the basement.
Types of pile foundations
Depending on the type of piles and the way they are submerged in the ground, several types of pile foundations are distinguished:
- driven - the piles are submerged in the ground with various hammers, immersers, pushers, often with a vibration effect;Usually, solid piles with a square cross-section are used;
- shell - hollow construction is buried with a vibrator and then filled with a concrete mix;
- printed - a concrete solution is poured into the well created in the ground;thus piles are created directly on the spot;can be either unarmored or reinforced;
- screw - metal piles are screwed into the ground, since they have blades on the surface.
The location of piles under the future structure can also be different:
- in the form of single elements located in important design nodes;
- in the form of tapes - under the walls of the building;
- bushes - if you need support for massive structures, for example, columns;
- field - to support grillage.
The piles themselves differ in material according to the material of manufacture( wooden, metal, reinforced concrete, concrete), by the presence-absence of emptiness inside the structure( hollow and solid), in section( round, square, with a more complex shape, for example, screw), by the nature of the support( supporting, hanging).
For private construction, reinforced concrete solid, concrete ramming, steel screw piles are best suited. The most accessible types of foundations for the production of their own hands - bored and pile-screw.
Boring foundation
It is not necessary to use special equipment to build a bored basement. It is enough to have an ordinary garden drill with which, in certain pre-planned locations, boreholes are drilled to a depth of about a meter, with a diameter of 20 cm.
To increase the bearing area, and hence the bearing capacity of the pile, at the bottom of the well,shovels make an extension. The ground is removed with the same drill. The resulting cavity with a diameter of 45 cm will increase the footprint by 5 times. At the bottom of the wells, gravel or crushed stone is slaughtered and tamped.
Further piles can simply be poured with concrete mortar, but to increase strength, it is desirable to reinforce them with metal rods. Three pins with a diameter of 12 mm can be applied to one pile, which should protrude 10 cm above the foundation level. These protruding ends of the rods will then enter the beam that connects the piles in the foundation.
Then the well with the reinforcement is poured with concrete solution. You can buy a ready-made dry mix or make a solution yourself, as described here, but its quality must be high, because the strength of the pile, foundation and the whole building depends on this. When pouring concrete must be tampered, so that the necessary strength of the structure is achieved.
To produce a pile foundation on a pile foundation, a formwork is installed on the piles inside which the reinforcement cage is fixed, the reinforcement is connected to the ends of the pile reinforcement, the grout is poured with concrete mortar to a height of 30 cm and a width slightly larger than the thickness of the walls of the future house.
Installation of a pile-screw foundation with their own hands
It is even easier to build a screw foundation independently than a boring base. With this work can handle two or three people, even without construction skills.
The screw pile is a hollow metal pipe with blades and a sharp tip. It is simply screwed into the ground, and after burial is cut to the desired level. The internal space of the pile can be poured with concrete to increase its strength.
As you can see, the pile foundation does not present any special difficulties, and it is quite possible to build it yourself. The main thing is that this kind of foundation really fit the type of soil and the design of the future building so that high-quality materials are used and that all works are done correctly, with the right technology.