Advanced Construction Technology By Professor Chris Gorse – licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution – Non-Commercial – Share Alike License

Strip foundations These slides should be read in conjunction with Emmitt, S. and Gorse, C. (2010) Barry’s Advanced Construction of Buildings. Oxford, Blackwell Publishing

Trench or strip foundations a. Strip foundations. These are used to transfer long continuous loads (such as walls). The width and depth of the foundation will depend on the nature of ground and building loads. Trench or Strip

Strip foundation

Ensure that trees are not planted close to shallow foundations as they will reduce moisture content in the soil causing clays to contract and the foundation to settle as the soil shrinks Strip foundations, at a shallow depth, are suitable for good load bearing strata where the moisture content of the soil is stable. Strip foundations are suitable for continuous loads – long loads such as walls For cavity wall construction, the building loads are transferred down the inner skin of the cavity. The cavity ties the inner wall to the external skin providing additional stability

Strip foundations

Strip foundation with internal walls and inner leaf of cavity wall constructed.

Deep strip

Wide strip

Reinforced wide strip foundation Steel reinforcement is placed in the bottom of the foundation where tensile forces are experienced The tensile reinforcement that is cast within the concrete base allows the width of the foundation to be increased and the loads to be distributed over a greater area Load are distributed over a greater area reducing the load per unit area

Further information supporting these slides can be found in the following publication and websites. Emmitt, S. and Gorse, C. (2010) Barry’s Introduction to Construction of Buildings. Oxford, Blackwell Publishing Emmitt, S. and Gorse, C. (2010) Barry’s Advanced Construction of Buildings. Oxford, Blackwell Publishing Virtual Site (2010) Virtual Site at Leeds Met University Virtual Site Gallery (2010) Virtual Site Gallery at Leeds Met University