6 Types of Foundations And Their Uses

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 Foundation is one of the essential parts of a building structure. It is always advisable to know the sustainability of each type of foundation before their selection on any construction project. Here are the 6 types of foundation for buildings and their uses.

• Individual/Isolated footing is the most common type of foundation used for building construction. This foundation is constructed for a single column and also called a pad foundation. The shape of individual footing is square or rectangle and is used when loads from the structure is carried by the columns.

• Combined footing is constructed when two or more columns are close enough and their isolated footings overlap each other. It is a combination of isolated footings, but their structural design differs, but their structural design differs. The shape of this footing is a rectangle and is used when loads from the structure is carried by columns.

• Spread/Strip/Wall Footings: Spread footings are those whose base is wider than a typical load-bearing wall foundations. The wider base of this footing type spreads the weight from the building structure over more area and provides better stability. They are especially used for individual columns, walls, and bridge piers where the bearing soil layer is within 30 Meters (10 feet) from the ground surface.

• Raft/Mat Foundation foundations are the types of foundation which are spread across the entire area of the building to support heavy structural loads from columns and walls. The use of mat foundation is for columns and walls foundations where the loads from the structure on columns and walls are very high.

• Pile Foundations Pile Foundation is a type of deep foundation which is used to transfer heavy loads from the structure to a hard rock  strata much deep below the ground level, where shallow foundations such as spread footings and mat footings can not be used. Pile foundation resists the loads from the structure by skin friction and by end bearing.

• Drilled Shafts/Caisson Foundation Drilled shafts, also called caisson, is a type of deep foundation and has been an action similar to pile foundation discussed above, but are high capacity cast-in-sity foundations. It resists loads from structure through shaft resistance, toe resistance and/or combination of both of these. The construction of drilled shafts or caissons are done using an auger