Hardness
of the Soil to Bear the Building Load
A
building imposes a load on the ground, and therefore the soil
must be hard enough to bear that load. Foundation is the building
component that transfers the load onto the ground. Hence, the
foundation type depends on the building load and the hardness
of the soil. There could be many types of soils;
| (1) |
Peat
Peat is not a good type of soil for buildings. You have
to use pile foundation to transfer the load onto a harder
soil stratum, although this may not be practical for a house.
If the peat layer is too thick you may dig it out and fill
the land with a harder type of soil.
|
| (2) |
Muddy
Mud is not a good type of soil for construction of houses.
You have to use concrete piles and ground beams which in
turn will double the cost of construction. Therefore it
is favorable not to select land with muddy soil.
|
| (3)
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Sandy
Sand also is not a hard soil. You will have to use piles
to transfer the load into a firm soil stratum. It is advisable,
not to select a land that is too sandy.
|
| (4)
|
Kabook
Kabook is a hard type of soil in which case a shallow foundation
will do. It is favorable to choose a land with kabook soil,
where Kabook could even be used as a building material.
|
| (5) |
Rock
Rock is suitable for bearing the loads of a building. But
rocks on the ground surface may cause practical difficulties
when it comes to breaking. A rock few feet below ground
surface is ideal for a foundation, which makes the foundation
strong minimizing the cost.
|
| (6) |
Filled
Land
Filled land will make the foundation cost go higher. This
happens because you will need a deeper foundation in a filled
land or else you have to compact the filled soil and make
it a hard soil stratum. There are four standard methods
of filling a land.
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