Foundation is the important part while building the house. It provides support to the layers that will come above it, which contains rock and soil. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that the foundation part is vital to provide the strength of the multiple story building. The structural engineer does the proper foundation check-ups before and after building the house.
There are no such rules related to that discussion regarding the foundation depth. On the other hand, different types of foundations are available that depend on the various considerations that include load requiring the support, ground conditions, and availability of space, accessibility, vibration, and noise sensitivity.
Footing out the depth of a multistory building
The depth of the footing depends on several factors. It includes the soil capacity, dead and live columns of roads, and loading structures used for construction purposes. It is challenging to predict the foundation depth without knowing about the soil capacity and load, which will come on it.
Apart from that, you want the estimation of it then, you can apply the thumb rule. The footing range is from 3 feet to 9 feet from the level of the ground. Furthermore, the footing length for the residential building should not remain less than 3 feet. It should be strong to bear the soil capacity, gravel, and sand.
The width and depth of the foundation are calculated based on the safe bearing capacity of the soil. It includes the life and death load coming to it. The structural engineer does the actual calculation by measuring the soil capacity and the loads that will come to it.
We have discussed in this article that we can apply the thumb rule to measure the foundation depth of the five-story building then decide about the material requirements.
Different types of foundations
The foundations and their different types are as follows:
Shallow Foundation: The use of the shallow foundations is where the load of the structure is low at the bearing capacity of the soil. It includes the pad foundation, strip foundation, raft foundation, and many more. They are not typically shallower sites. It is normal when they are available in a shrinkable state. The clay of the foundation has been kept at a depth of around 1 meter. It happens because the soil moisture content can lead to expansion and contraction conditions at the foundation level.
Pile Foundation: The pile foundation transfers the load through the weak area to the substantial area at the foundation level. It makes it more compact, less compressible, and stiffer at the soil or rock. It is useful typically designing large structures.
Summary
Many things need to be considered while designing the foundation of the multistory building. It depends on the soil capacity and the layers that will add to the foundation level of the buildings. Therefore, the structural engineers follow the thumb rule for designing the multistory building of five floors. A shallow foundation is valuable only when the structure load is low at the foundation level. In the pile foundation, it transfers it from the weak to the vital areas.
