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Avoid home flooding with solid piling

By Maria Diamond
25 September 2021   |   2:56 am
Would you really call it a home if every time it rains cat and dog your heart skips in fear that your interior might flood due to poor building construction?

Concrete House by Kouichi Kimura, Shiga, Japan . Photo/Deezen

Would you really call it a home if every time it rains cat and dog your heart skips in fear that your interior might flood due to poor building construction?
  
Needless to say, if your interior floods, not only will your space no longer be suitable to call home but every household item such as furniture, décor, upholsteries, appliances, accessories, interior designs etc. might get damaged.

  
So just before you put up that home structure, especially on swampy land where the soils are fragile and poor, you may want to ensure that the construction process is solid enough to make a real home with appropriate building foundation piling.
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As a matter of fact, the quality, safety, and continued existence of a building constructed on poor soil land are dependent on the piling process. Did you just wonder what piling really is? Piling is a vertical structural element of a deep foundation, drilled deep into the ground along a certain length of the area to carry and transfer loads to soil considered to be weak in structure due to the soil conditions. Piles are required where soil and earth are performing poorly. They are used to spread the load of a building and firm the ground.

How deep should pilling go?
Building Engineers usually require at least 20 to 25 feet of embedment depth to get the bearing and security you need.

How to Pile a building foundation
Structural piles are inserted deep into the ground to make the base of the building. This does not just firm up the foundation of your building but also acts as a flood resistance or proof that resist water ingress.

 
Benefits of piling
. Provides structural strength to the weak soil underneath
. Firm up building foundation depth
. Prevent floodwater from entering through the walls, floor and any apertures of your home.
. Prepare the ground to carry the weight of your home.

Types of piling
. Driven piles – Also known as displacement piles, they provide support for structures, transferring their load to layers of soil or rock that have sufficient bearing capacity and suitable settlement characteristics. Driven piles are made of preformed material to offer support and resist forces. It is installed by impact hammering, vibrating or pushing into the earth.

. Cast-in-situ concrete piles – This is constructed by digging a hole in the ground through the percussive or rotary methods with the use of casing or drilling mud; then the hole is filled with reinforced concrete.
 
. Driven and Cast-in-situ piles – They are constructed by driving a closed-ended hollow steel or concrete casing into the ground and then filling it with concrete.

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