Steel Building Anchoring Foundation
Steel buildings, generally the organization you choose to buy from is responsible for delivering the steel building, that organization typically has nothing to do with your steel buildings foundation with the exception of providing you with the plans of where to place your anchor bolts. Typically, the anchor bolts are generally not supplied by the organization that sells the steel structures. Although the steel building companies will provide you with the steel building manual that will give you instruction and general information about your foundation.
Your metal buildings manufacturer will recommend that all steel building foundations, pier sizes, grade beams and the floor slabs be designed by an experienced local foundation engineer. This local engineer can also recommend excavation procedures, drainage practices, form work, reinforcing steel requirements and concrete proportioning. This will assure proper designs, expedite the work and reduce overall costs when constructing foundations for steel buildings.
Proven construction techniques should be adhered to in the foundation work to ensure a stable surface to erect your steel building. The bottoms of all excavations should be level and smooth, and care should be taken to prevent cave-ins when utilizing the walls of the excavations for concrete forms. Strict adherence to OSHA and other local codes or laws governing shoring of excavation to prevent accidental cave-ins is critical. Where the ground surface is not level, the bottoms of the foundations should be in steps coinciding with the piers. Fill areas should be properly compacted to prevent settling cracks. Care should be taken to obtain a good finish on the floor slab and to maintain the correct elevation throughout the slab. Shrinkage cracks can be minimized by pouring the slab in alternate sections, “checker board fashion”. The outer corners of the foundation walls and piers should be sharply formed with straight sides and level tops. This will allow neat seating and good alignment of the metal buildings base angle.
The importance of accurate foundation construction and anchor bolt settings cannot be over-emphasized. Foundation errors and mislocation of anchor bolts are among the most frequent and troublesome errors made in the construction of prefabricated steel buildings. To determine that the foundation is square, measure diagonal dimensions to be sure they are of equal length. To determine that the foundation is level, set up a transit or level and use a level rod to obtain the elevation at all columns and posts.
It is extremely important that the anchor bolts be placed accurately in accordance with the anchor bolt setting plan furnished by the manufacturer of the prefab buildings. All anchor bolts should be held in place with a template, so that they will remain plumb and in the correct location during pouring of the concrete. A final check should be made after the completion of the concrete work and prior to the steel building erection, allowing any necessary corrections to be made before the costly erection labor and equipment arrives.
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