You want to add storeys to your building, but the original foundation becomes unstable or unable to support the weight of the building. Sometimes, factors such as soil movement, increased load due to renovations, or natural wear and tear also affect your building’s foundation. To strengthen your existing foundations, a method called underpinning is used.
Underpinning helps to stabilise, strengthen, and deepen the existing foundations, restoring their stability. It is crucial to ensure the foundation is strong enough to transfer the building’s load to more supportive soil, thereby preventing settlement and structural damage. This technique restores weak or failing foundations, ensuring the structural integrity and safety of a building.
In this article, you will explore what underpinning is, when it is needed, and its benefits in detail.
What Is Underpinning?
Underpinning is the process of strengthening the foundation of an existing building. This process reinforces the existing foundation by introducing an expanding filler or extending the foundation, thereby distributing the load over a greater surface area.
Natural composition and external factors can affect the integrity of the soil, leading to structural damage in the building. Underpinning is a technique that enables future renovations, enhances property value, or facilitates the construction of new structures nearby. It enhances the foundation’s depth and load-bearing capacity, counteracting issues such as soil erosion, settlement, or structural modifications that compromise stability.
When Is Underpinning Needed?
Underpinning is required when the original foundation is insufficient to support the building. Here are some reasons why you need this technique to strengthen your foundation, as listed below.
- Sometimes, the soil supporting the foundation has changed, for example, due to expansion or contraction caused by moisture, subsidence, large trees nearby, or damaged plumbing left unrepaired, which weakens the existing foundation’s strength.
- When the properties of the soil were not adequately understood during the original design of the foundation, it means that the foundation was not properly checked and is therefore inadequate for the conditions.
- Underpinning is required because the way the structure was constructed has changed due to renovation or other reasons.
- Nearby new construction has altered the ground’s stability, resulting in the excavation of soil that supports existing foundations.
- The original foundation becomes unstable due to natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, or drought.
- For adding another storey to the building, Underpinning London is needed to increase the capability of the existing foundation.
What Are The Benefits Of Underpinning?
Underpinning is a method of repairing and strengthening a building’s foundation. It helps to preserve the structural integrity of any building by providing additional support that is laid below ground level to enhance the existing foundation. Let’s examine the benefits of underpinning.
Increase Structural Integrity:
Due to lots of different factors, the structure of your property may be weak. It could have been damaged due to general wear and tear, or it may have lost its strength due to repairs and renovations. Additionally, other factors contributed to the loss of integrity in your building, including extreme climate changes and improper construction. Underpinning will strengthen the foundation of your property, enhancing its structural integrity and ensuring that it remains strong and protected.
Boost The Value Of The Property:
If you plan to sell your property or want to add value to your home, underpinning helps boost the property’s value while also strengthening it. A properly structured building, finished with a strong and stable foundation, will be worth more and have a higher value.
Enhance Ceiling Height:
When you strengthen your foundation through the underpinning process, it provides you with the freedom to add new rooms to your structure, along with extra windows and doors that can enhance the amount of natural light that enters your property. In this way, you can also add the new story to your existing building structure.
Update Plumbing And Electrical Fixtures:
Underpinning can be very beneficial if you want to update the plumbing and electrical fixtures in your home that were previously inaccessible. Through this process, you have the opportunity to update outdated plumbing and wiring, as well as install proper insulation. This will help you ensure that you can check to see if they require any repairs or updates as needed.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, underpinning provides a stable and reinforced foundation, ensuring the building’s long-term structural integrity, safety, and longevity. By using the underpinning technique, you can strengthen the base of a structure, making it resilient against settlement, increased loads, and environmental factors, which are all common issues addressed in the concluding stages of a repair or new construction. Piling Contractors London provides solutions for your building’s foundation.