How to prepare the foundation for building houses

How to prepare the foundation for building houses. The construction of houses takes time and a lot of planning so that no detail escapes from your hands. For your work to come to fruition you always need to be advised by an architect. You also need to know about the types of columns that can carry a construction (I recommend you read our post on types of construction columns), and how to prepare foundations. And just today you will learn about the preparation of foundations.

Foundations for the construction of a house

For you to have an excellent foundation it is important that both you and the architect who is advising you know the type of soil and the weight of the house you want to build.

For this reason you must carry out the corresponding soil study. This study will also provide you with the information to determine the depth and thus make the correct foundation.

Once you know the type of soil of your land, you will know if the foundation will be shallow or deep.

How to prepare the foundation for building houses: Shallow foundation

This type is used when the construction is light or because the soil has a high bearing capacity. Some types of foundations are centered, median, combined, floating beams, and continuous slabs.

How to prepare the foundation for building houses: Deep foundation

They must be deep when a large area is required to support the load of a large construction. Some types are piles, cast-in-place concrete, precast, diaphragm elements, mixed screens, metal sheet piles.

Steps to prepare concrete foundations for house construction

The construction of houses requires a proper foundation, which has as its fundamental mission to transmit the loads of the elements supported on this soil distributing them in such a way that they do not exceed their admissible pressure.

With all this you are ready to know the steps to prepare the best foundation.

• Select the type of foundation according to the characteristics of the soil. Either shallow foundations (measuring no more than 91.44 cm) or deep foundations (measuring more than 91.44 cm).

• Mark the footings. Remember that in this space you will make the formwork, giving you the necessary place to make the foundations.

• Align the boards. Planks ideally 2 inches wide and 10 inches long for the construction of the formwork.

• Level and frame. This stage is very important, because after pouring the cement you will not be able to make any type of adjustment, besides you must make sure that the formwork is well fixed.

• Prepare the concrete.

• Build the foundation. Now it is time to pour the concrete into the formwork.

• Finish the foundation. Once your concrete floor has dried, remove the formwork and keep the concrete damp to prevent cracks from appearing.

Before starting any type of construction, it is essential that the base on which this structure is going to be located is well constituted and solidly established, for this reason, we will leave this basic illustrated guide for you to prepare the ground where you will start your construction from scratch.

If you want to start building your house yourself, you must keep in mind that the most important thing is the ground, since this will give all the support to the house, that is why today we will talk about the types of materials with which you can make the ground and the step by step to make it firm.

Materials for the construction of the floor

There are different types of materials for the construction of the soil for the foundation of the house, these are as follows:

Sand: There is coarse-grained sand and fine-grained sand. Coarse-grained sand is extremely stable when mixed with gravel, while fine-grained sand becomes unstable with increasing humidity. Therefore, it is advisable to adopt deep foundations with previous compaction.

Gravel: It is a soil of round stones or compact pieces of rocks. Very stable and suitable for backfilling.

Clay: This type of material provides us with a soil of very small particles, which helps us to form masses or hard grounds. The advantage of this material is that we do not need to mix it with other material to make it hard.

Preparation of the land

To start building you must clean the ground of organic matter, roots, weeds, garbage, large stones, etc.

Once this is done move the hose filled with water and covered at both ends to the references and uncover it when you level the floor.

Procedure for leveling the ground:

To start the leveling you must fill with water a transparent hose of ½” and 10 meters long at least. It is recommended that you do it with a bucket to prevent bubbles from entering the hose, if so, you must eliminate them.

Place stakes 1.50m high in the corners and sides of the ground, with the help of a stake measure 1 meter high from the ground over the stake.

Then extend the hose between two stakes that are close to each other, so that at one end the water level of the hose is equal to the meter of the first stake. The other end is placed on the second stake, where the level is marked when the water has stabilized.

Measure the distance between the ground and this last mark. The difference in level is known by the difference with the meter marked on the reference stake.

Cut and fill step by step:

To begin you must set the levels of drainage, access, tracks, ditches and others, so that the house is well above these levels. When you have already determined the base level or the ground level, you can choose the floor level of the house so that the volume to be filled is compensated as much as possible with the volume to be cut.

With this you will avoid bringing more material and reuse the existing material to optimize the work.  As for the backfill, you must compact the soil (with water and a rammer) forming layers of 10 cm app until you reach the desired level of soil.

If the soil is not well compacted, it is in danger of undermining, cracking the structures of the construction. In case the terrain has many slopes, it is better to make several levels creating a sublevel to accommodate the natural terrain.

Step by step:

To trace the terrain you will need stakes, string and chalk.

First you must determine the right angles that form the boundaries of the land by placing stakes in its corners. To do this, with a string, form a right triangle with a base of 3m on one of its known sides, 4m in height on the other known side, while the third side of the triangle is marked when it measures 5m.

How to prepare the foundation for building houses: Plotting the terrain

Once the angles have been verified, place beacons (2 stakes crossed by a crossbar) on both sides of the terrain to be traced.

Measuring from a known side, extend two parallel cords that are tied to the beacons and that will allow the alignment of the axes of walls and columns.

With a plumb down the alignment of the cords to the ground, marking them in two or more points.

Place the string, sprinkled with chalk, joining the marked points and temper it. By means of a chalking (movement) the traced line is left.