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Foundation and Retaining Walls Retaining Walls

 

Foundation: Base of Your House

Foundation is such a part of your house on which you make the constructions. Foundation is practically the structure, which holds the whole building together.
Any problem in the foundation and your home is gone! So, you need to be very careful while deciding about the foundation of your home. As the foundation holds the complete construction, it is supposed to be strong enough. That is the reason why mostly concrete is used for building the foundation. While building the construction, you have to keep in mind various other factors such as the cost, soil composition, climate of the area and the market demand. A well-built foundation also increases the resale value of the house.

For supporting the house, there are three main types of foundation – full height basement, crawlspace and slab on grade.

Full height basement is a kind of foundation where you have some space between the bottom of the first floor and the soil. You can make use of this space for various purposes. Full height basement foundation offers more headroom space to the individuals. These foundations are primarily used in colder climatic conditions. Here, the foundation is kept below the frost level, so that it doesn’t get cracked.

Slab on grade is one of the simplest of all foundations. In such foundation, the structural concrete slab is directly put on the dirt and there is no space between them. In regions where the water table is high, these slabs are used for foundation.

Crawlspace foundation provides a space between the soil and the bottom of the first floor of the house. The space it offers is accessible. You can make use of the space for storage purpose. These foundations are used in regions where the soils contain much clay.

Retaining Walls: Holding Back Soil

Retaining wall is a kind of structure that holds the soil or the rock of any building or any area. To hold back the massive pressure of soil and rock, the retaining walls have to be really strong. In order to maintain the strength of the walls, the walls are supposed to have a well-built drainage system. The base of the all retaining walls should be below the frost line in cold regions to prevent the walls from getting cracked.

Stonewalls are mostly used as the retaining wall. There are mainly two types of structures that are used for stonewall constructions – the dry wall, acting as the fillers between two stones and the mortar type where cement is used as the bonding agent. The top of the walls, no matter how strong it is, needs protection. Generally, the top of the stone walls are covered with flat broad stone. Depending on the building techniques, materials and usage, there are different types of retaining walls. Some of them are gravity, sheet piling, cantilevered, soil nailing, gabion meshes and mechanical stabilization etc


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