Pile foundation with your own hands - the foundation on piles

If you started digging a foundation pit for the future home and, as you dig, you found out that the soil is not suitable for strip foundations, then you will have to change tactics. Why? Because the low density of the earth or the presence of groundwater will not allow the ordinary foundation to maintain its strength and integrity of the house built on it. In this case, the best solution would be the manufacture of pile foundation, which will allow to achieve the desired result. There are several solutions to this problem. In this article we will look at how you can make a pile foundation with your own hands.

Pile foundation construction

Foundation from inside

Pile driving technology in places of frequent Flooding is particularly relevant, and has found wide application in the construction of houses. Previously, logs that were manually driven into the ground were used as piles. This made it possible to build a house raised above the ground to two meters, which protected the structure during the next flood. Although this method is painstaking, it is effective, so this technology has found use in our time. It is especially relevant when the future construction is being built on relatively weak ground.

Pile foundation

The pile foundation has several advantages that allow it to be the most popular among builders. The use of piles allows you to do without trenches, formwork, in this case, do not have to fall asleep sinuses. Moreover, the piles are driven into the ground with special equipment, which greatly facilitates the work.

For a bored pile, a hole can be cut with a manual drill. This technology, which consists in the manufacture of pile foundation without the use of technology, will allow you to equip the foundation with your own hands.

Benefits

Foundation Layout

Often when building a house it is found that the top soil layer is quite weak. These types of soil include:

• saturated with humus,
• peat,
• loesslike,
• with groundwater close to the surface.

If the soil on your plot fits one of these descriptions, and building a house is necessary, then in this case the pile foundation will be the ideal solution. Also, due to the use of this technology, the volume of land works is significantly reduced.

For a pile three meters long and 300 mm in diameter, 0.2 m³ of land must be dug. If a strip foundation is used, then the volume of ground works will increase several times.

It is also possible to add the fact that large mountains of the earth, left over from digging trenches for the strip foundation, will have to be removed, which will lead to additional costs.

Main characteristics and types

The device of the pile foundation may differ depending on the choice of piles, as well as the method of their production. Such a foundation may have differences in the depth of the piles, their placement and types of development. What are the piles? They resemble a long rod that sinks directly into the ground. Mainly, the immersion of the finished pile is carried out. To protect it from splitting when it hits it, a steel ring is mounted on the upper end. There is also a technology for producing piles in the well itself. For this, a well is drilled, which is then reinforced and concreted.

Let us consider in more detail what are the differences of piles.

And so, the process of piling is different. For example, screw piles, resembling a drill bit, are dipped by a twisting method.

Screw piles

Printed concrete or reinforced concrete piles also exist. Their production is carried out in the soil itself in a pre-prepared well. At the end of the preparatory work, reinforcement of the metal frame and concreting are performed. There is a variant of drilling reinforced concrete piles, which are already immersed in the finished well. Well, driven piles, which are placed in the soil with the help of special equipment, for example, a vibratory pile driver.

Piles are distinguished by the method of impact on two types, namely racks and trailing. With regard to the latter option, the load is carried out by friction of the earth against the walls of the pile. Well, stand up all the resulting load is transferred to a dense soil, which is located under a layer of weak soil. The advantage of this type is that it has no precipitation. The method of pile location can also be performed by different methods:

• Single. They serve as a free-standing support.
• Combined into pile tapes. Their distribution is performed uniformly around the entire perimeter of the foundation, respectively, and the load will be uniform.
• Combined into pile bushes. In this case, the piles are placed under the column bearing the foundation of the house.

Piles can be made of wood, steel and reinforced concrete. A feature of reinforced concrete piles is to manufacture them on site using concrete brand M200. The lifetime of such a product may exceed 100 years. As for steel piles, they have several disadvantages. For example, to work with them, you need to use a special technique, and the metal must be carefully treated with an anti-corrosion liquid. This method is the most expensive.

As wooden piles, a species of coniferous trees is used, with a diameter of up to 340 mm and a length of 8500 mm. The pillars are thoroughly cleaned. Although this method is considered one of the cheapest and simplest, it is used extremely rarely.

Directly in the soil piles can be placed exclusively vertically. However, in some cases they are driven in and under the slope. This is usually done in a soil with a horizontal force. For example, in an area that is regularly exposed to a large amount of precipitation and melting snow, which in turn causes movement of the soil. For suburban construction are most often used reinforced concrete piles, ramming and screw.

Construction technology

Reinforcement of the pile foundation

To manufacture the foundation, you must drill a well required diameter. After in the finished well fittings are placed and everything is poured with concrete. Such a pile foundation can be made by hand. Now consider the sequence of works.

Well drilling

How to determine the number of piles for each structure? To a large extent, this will depend on the total weight of the house, as well as the possible operational loads. This includes loads of the floor, partitions, roofs, etc. When calculating, it is important to take into account the diameter of the manual drill. In a specialty store you can buy a drill with a diameter of 300 mm. To drill a well five meters deep and deeper, the length of the rod can be adjusted independently. An important point in drilling is that the drill blades are positioned so that this process takes place more easily. You can buy a drill that will expand the bottom of the well, so that at the bottom of the heel is formed for the pile. This technology can significantly reduce the number of piles, respectively, there is a big savings in the preparation of concrete mix. In that case, if there is a need to drill a well in 600 mm, then it is best to use electric and motorized drills, for example, an electric pit-drill.

Concreting and reinforcement of piles

Concrete piles

After the completion of drilling a well, it is necessary to make special pipes of roofing material, made according to the diameter of the well. Their length should be greater than the depth of the pit by 30 cm. The upper protruding part should be pulled off with wire, because it will be formwork. After this pipe gently insert into the well.

In some cases, ground water may appear at the bottom. When it is a little, then there is nothing terrible in it, but if it filled the pit by a quarter, then it is best to pump it out a little.

Why is the so-called "pipe" necessary? In fact, its use will prevent negative consequences. At that moment, when the concrete is set, sufficient presence of the “milk” in the concrete mix will be of key importance. If not to use pipes from roofing material, then this "cement milk" will be absorbed into the soil, and the manufactured construction will not have the necessary strength.

To further strengthen the structure, a reinforcement cage can be made. To do this, it will be enough to take three rods of reinforcement Ø 6 mm, and fasten them together with transverse rods, at a distance of 50 - 60 cm from each other. To connect the pillars and the grillage, the vertical rods should extend above the item being poured. Once the frame is placed in the well, you can concrete. Bay 50 cm, it is desirable to compact the concrete with a vibrator, as this will help prevent the occurrence of voids in the pile foundation.

The device of the grillage

What is a grillage? This is a special design that ensures uniform distribution of the load on the soil transferred from the piles. It also combines several piles into one whole structure. Rostverka can be of several types, for example, precast-monolithic, monolithic, precast, low and high.

If you use a low grillage, then it is placed on the bottom in the ground, respectively, the vertical part of the load is completely transferred to the soil, and using the upper grillage, the piles will take over the load. If the future home is relatively light, then it is important to adhere to the following parameters: the height of the pile is not less than 30 cm, and if they are placed single-row, then the entire width of the base. In the absence of a base, the height must be at least 40 cm.In no case can not carry out the intersection and cutting grillage for all sorts of pipelines. Moreover, the total deviation from the center of the pile after concreting should be no more than five centimeters.

If you do the assembly of prefabricated elements with your own hands, then it is extremely important to carefully fix the pile to the top of the pile, having laid a horizontal rebar on it. Its height must be sufficient so that it can be connected to the grillage during installation. After that, without fail, the assembly joint is concreted, and the vertical rod is welded to the loop of the grillage. After the complete installation of the grillage, it is recommended to fill each joint and seam with fine-grained concrete. Before the construction of the house itself, namely the construction of the walls, it is necessary to make sure that the grillage is in the plane and, if necessary, level it with cement mortar.

Restrictions on use

Incorrectly selected foundation

So, as you can see this The technology has many advantages. However, in some cases, the use of pile foundations is not recommended. Here are two main reasons:

1. If the available soil has horizontal movement, namely, it has the characteristic as swelling soil or subsiding soil, then the use of pile foundations is limited. To determine this, you can use the services of the laboratory. After studying the specificity of the land, appropriate conclusions are made.
2. In the process of arranging the pile foundation, certain difficulties appear during the construction of the basement. Costs increase due to the complete filling of the space between the piles, just as with a columnar foundation.

So now you understand more how to make pile foundation with your own hands. Despite the fact that this process is quite time-consuming, to make a pile foundation with your own hands is quite realistic. Moreover, pay special attention to the nature of the soil, because having a large number of advantages, it is impossible to make such a foundation under certain conditions. When making a final decision on the choice of the foundation, consider all its pros and cons.

If you already have experience in building a pile foundation with your own hands, we will be happy if you share your experience. Leave your comments that will be objective. Most likely, your knowledge will be useful to many!

Video

This video shows how to make a columnar reinforced concrete foundation.

This video shows how screw piles are screwed in and further construction of such a foundation.