A floating slab, a concrete type with no support, is built in two stages. The first stage involves individually casting footings, then pouring the slab’s center floor. This type of slab, a monolithic slab, reduces ground preparation and is ideal for structures with low bearing capacity.
Applications and Suitability:
Floating slabs find use in small structures like workshops, sheds, and garages. Their cost-effectiveness makes them suitable for structures where a deeper foundation is unnecessary, and they are employed when additional infrastructure is not required.
Why Choose Floating Slab?
Floating slabs are economically advantageous compared to traditional foundations. The absence of a strip footing and frost wall reduces costs related to excavation, concrete, and labor.
Construction Process:
- Site Preparation: Clear the site, plan excavation, and remove debris.
- Excavation: Excavate the site per the level, creating drainage channels for water to drain through the gravel base.
- Laying Gravel Base: Spread gravel to facilitate water drainage.
- Reinforcement: Prepare reinforcement according to structural design, avoiding lapping in a single location.
- Shuttering: Formwork must have a smooth surface, proper alignment, and good quality work.
- Concreting: Mix concrete on-site or use ready-mixed concrete, ensuring proper compaction.
- Curing: Cure the slab for seven days by spraying water.
Advantages:
- Keeps moisture out, separating the ground and superstructure.
- Spreading property distributes vertical loads over a larger area.
- Ideal for home extensions in cold weather construction.
- No need for a wood flooring system and an 8′-0″ basement wall.
- Requires less concrete and formwork for economical construction.
- No footer trenches are needed, causing minimal disturbance to the earth beneath.
- Suitable for radiant floor heat, providing comfortable and balanced heating.
Disadvantages:
- Uses outdated technology.
- Less design resonance in foundations with floating slabs.
- Loss of storage space.
- Requires digging a trench for a sewage line.
- Ineffective for overloaded bearing structures.
- Costly repairs.
- May lower the resale value of a house due to the absence of a basement.
Applications:
Floating slabs are commonly used for accessory buildings, garages, drive sheds, houses, cottages, and barns. They serve as a cost-effective and practical foundation solution for various structures.