Foundation

If you are from financial or other reasons, have decided to make a foundation for a house yourself, you should pay attention to a few seemingly simple details that will enable you to get exactly the result to which you aspire.

Marking the territory.

You need to treat very seriously to marking, since you are planning the basis of the structure. But you need to put both the horizontal and vertical (altitudinal) markers. Otherwise, it will be very difficult to move the developed project "in kind", because it's almost impossible to fix the already done foundation. For marking is selected flat (or previously flattened) platform and with the help of wooden or metal stakes, striping cords and levels are created the contours of the future foundation. Once again - it's not worth saving at this stage, if it is possible to hire a specialist or at least a knowledgeable assistant - do this.

Trenching.

Once the marking of territory is finished, you can start digging trenches, which are required for pouring of the foundation. It's pretty hard work, so consider the possibility of involving construction machinery. Trench are digging a depth up to 1.1 meters - in a sandy ground, and from 1,25 up to 1.5 meters in the clayey or loamy sand. This work need to be performed only before you start pouring the foundation, as the pre-dug foundation trenches have a risk of crumbling walls.

Laying of the substrate.

After forming the trenches of necessary width and depth it's carried a backfill of sandy base under the base of the foundation. Depending on the soil type and depth of its freezing, sandy base is laid to a depth of 10 to 35 centimeters. Then you need to tamp a sand, while periodically wetting it with water. If the sandy base is done correctly, it will reduce the load on the supporting structures of foundation during seasonal temperature fluctuations.

Pouring the foundation.

This is the final stage, which also has its own nuances. The main thing - to comply the technology of preparation of the solution and its pouring, since it's quite problematic to fix something after the solidification of the solution. For pouring of the foundation are used ready concrete mixes (200M and 300M), but you can make mixture yourself, which allows you to save considerable amount of money. You require only sand, cement and water for this. The main characteristic of the quality of the solution is its consistency - a homogeneous, mixed sand and cement without lumps. It must be sufficiently liquid to avoid the formation of voids (if it's necessary, dilute the solution with water). While pouring it is necessary to ram the solution (manually or with mechanical or pneumatic vibrators), in order to avoid the appearance of air bubbles in the foundation, that will have bad impact on its strength. If the level of the foundation is planned to raise above ground level, additionally you should install the formwork (wooden boards are often used for this). In this case, the concrete is poured on a par with a previously installed formwork, after which the surface is leveled by trowel. Hardening of foundation will be for 2 - 3 weeks. In hot weather, in the first days it is recommended periodically watering the foundation with water.