Foundation Construction Requirements and Foundation Failure Causes

Foundation Construction Requirements

For a good building foundation construction, there are some requirements to be followed in general. These helps foundation to provide stability and increase bearing capacity.

1. Foundations should be such that it can easily carry dead load and imposed load of the structure and transfer the loads to the soil.
2. Foundation base should be strong enough to reduce the unequal settlement of soil if imposed load is not distributed equally to the soil.
3. It should have a definite depth so that structure may not be damaged due to expansion or compression of soil volume beneath the foundation.
4. Foundation should be strong and designed with safety factor so that structure may not be damaged due to unexpected effects.

Foundation Failure Causes

Foundations can fail for different reasons. The causes of foundation failure can be a natural cause or can be a design mistake. Some most common foundation failure causes are listed below.

1. Unequal settlement of sub-soil.
2. Lateral movement of sub-soil.
3. Unequal settlement of masonry.
4. Sub-soil moisture movement.
5. Lateral pressure on the walls.
6. Weathering of sub-soil due to trees and shrubs.
7. Atmospheric actions.
8. Design mistake.