AU2387199A - A method of forming a building foundation - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A STANDARD PATENT r r r Name of Applicant: Actual Inventors: Address for Service: SEALION PTY LTD DARCY ALEX OLDHAM STANLEY WAYNE JACKSON CULLEN CO., Patent Trade Attorneys, 240 Queen Street, Brisbane, Qld. 4000, Australia.

Mark Invention Title: A METHOD OF FORMING A BUILDING FOUNDATION Details of Associated Provisional Applications: Nos. PP3190 filed 27 April 1998 The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to us: 2 THIS INVENTION relates to a method of forming a building foundation. In particular, the invention concerns a method of forming a building foundation where the foundation is provided with a plurality of voids.

The usual practice for construction of foundations is to excavate a plurality of trenches, position reinforcing rods and reinforcing mesh in and over the trenches, and pour concrete to envelope the reinforcing rods to be contained within the trenches, and to overly the intermediate areas. Not only is this arrangement expensive, but when unstable soil is required to support the foundation there is a high degree of probability of the foundations cracking if the effective volume of soil varies S* upon variation of moisture content of the soil.

Earlier Australian patent 505760 disclosed a *method of forming a concrete foundation which in part, minimise the disadvantages referred to above.

Earlier Australian patent specification 12998/92 disclosed a method of constructing a building foundation 20 employing a plurality of cardboard boxes arranged on a level supporting surface and used spacing elements made from plastic material to maintain the boxes in a particular relative spacing to one another, and those spacing elements were employed to support reinforcing bars or mesh placed 25 between the boxes and over the boxes, and then concrete is S* poured over the reinforcing mesh to produce the foundation.

Earlier Australian patent specification 584769 also disclosed a method of forming a building foundation employing box-like hollow members and in that earlier specification, the hollow members were held spaced apart by concrete spacing elements. Reinforcing rods were then positioned to extend between the box-like hollow members and reinforcing mesh was positioned to extend over the hollow members and then concrete was poured.

The hollow box-like members employed in these earlier proposals, although relatively inexpensive, nevertheless needed to be purchased, and contributed to the total cost of the foundation.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of producing a building foundation which provides a viable alternative to the earlier proposals referred to above and which does not require the use of box-like members to produce voids.

According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of producing a building foundation, the method including locating a plurality of void formers upon a support surface, each void former consisting of a container and at least one vehicle tyre within a container and the tyre providing structural support for the container, positioning reinforcing rods between the void formers, positioning reinforcing mesh over the void formers and pouring concrete over and between the void formers to 15 form a foundation.

-0-As mentioned, each of the void formers includes at least one vehicle tyre. Where the void former has only one vehicle tyre, the container is sized and configured to receive that tyre. The container may be attached to the 20 tyre or simply placed over the tyre so that the tyre contacts an under surface of an upper wall of the container to lend structural support to the container, preferably the tyre also contacts side walls of the container to support those walls.

25 A void former may include a plurality of tyres arranged as a group inside a single container. The tyres may all contact the underside of the upper wall of the container to support that wall until the concrete has cured. The container may have partitions which define discrete zones or pockets each for receiving a single tyre.

However, such partitions need not be present. Where partitions are present, the tyres may contact the partitions and side walls of the container as well as the underside of the upper wall of the container.

The tyres which are employed to provide the voids may be anchored to the ground or support surface if desired. Any suitable anchoring means may be employed.

Where a void consists of plurality of tyres arranged as a 4 group, it may only be necessary to anchor one of the tyres of that group to the ground in order to ensure that the void which consists of a plurality of tyres is maintained in the desired location on the ground. Alternatively, all of the tyres of a group which make up a void may be anchored to the ground in any suitable way.

Where a void is formed from a plurality of tyres, within a container it is preferred that each void consist of four tyres arranged as a group. The four tyres may be positioned to form a square or rectangular pattern. Of course, more than four tyres may be employed as a group to form a void. The tyres of each group may of course form a pattern other than square or rectangular.

Where a void consists of a group of tyres, it is 15 preferred that the tyres of that group be anchored or *secured to one another. Although this may be achieved in S"any way, it is preferred that a strap or tie be used for this purpose. The strap or tie may extend between at least two adjacent tyres of a group. The strap or tie may extend into and around an edge portion of that part of the tyre o forming the tyre bead and extends over the side wall of the tyre and locates in a similar fashion relative to an adjacent tyre. It is preferred that the bridging portion of the strap extending between two tyres be downwardly directed portion of the strap may be employed for •supporting reinforcing rods or bars which extend between the voids.

The container may be formed from a blank of foldable material. Any suitable material may be used. For example fibre board material may be used. The material may for example be double faced corrugated fibre board material although solid fibre board material may also be used. The fibre board material may be treated to render it moisture resistant.

As an alternative to fibre board the container may be made from plastics material. Corrugated corex plastics material having a corrugated fluted medium faced with plastic liners is preferred.

A further alternative may consist of making the containers from polystyrene foam.

A particular preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the drawings in which: Figure 1 is a plan view of a foundation produced in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention; Figure 2 is a plan view of a void formed from a group of tyres according to an embodiment of the invention; Figure 3 is a cross-sectional view through the foundation shown in Figure 1; Figure 4 is a further sectional view through the foundation of Figure 1; Figure 5 is a sectional view through an 15 alternative foundation to that shown in Figure 3; Figure 6 is a sectional view through a void according to one embodiment of the invention; and Figure 7 is a sectional view of a void according to another embodiment of the invention.

As shown in Figure i, the foundation 10 has a plurality of voids 11 provided throughout it. The voids are separated from each other by a suitable distance. As ."shown in the figure, the spacing between the voids 11 need not be consistent throughout the foundation.

Figure 2 shows greater detail of a void 11 contained within the foundation 10 of figure i. The void S- consists of a group of tyres 12 arranged adjacent to one another within a container 30 to form a substantially square void 11. The container has partitions 31 which divide the interior of the container into four compartments. The tyres 12 contact the walls of the container and the partitions as well as the upper wall of the container to lend structural strength to the container.

Adjacent containers may be held relative to one another by a spacing member which extends between them or may be maintained at the desired spacing relative to one another by a spacing member located between adjacent voids.

These spacing members may be adapted to support reinforcing bars or rods in the spaces 14 in figure 3 and support the rods and bars above the ground As an alternative bar chairs may be used for this purpose. Reinforcing mesh 16 extends over the containers and is covered by concrete when the foundation is poured.

Figure 4 shows the containers on a prepared surface 17 and the containers may form voids 11 on this surface. In figure 5 the prepared surface is shown having two levels. In this way a step 18 may be provided in the foundation.

Figure 6 shows a void 11 provided by a container and a single tyre. Figure 6 is a sectional elevational view through figure 2.

The containers may of course have a base rather 15 than an open base wall as shown in the drawings.

The invention allows used vehicle tyres to be employed to produce voids in building foundations. Such tyres are cheaply and readily available and by using these tyres in a building foundation to provide voids, a 20 convenient solution is provided to the safe disposal of used vehicle tyres while at the same time, allowing voids to be formed in building foundations with the containers having sufficient strength to support the concrete poured over them when the foundation is formed.

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Claims (14)

1. A method of producing a building foundation, the method including locating a plurality of void formers upon a support surface, each void former consisting of at least one vehicle tyre within and the tyre providing structural support for the container, positioning reinforcing rods between the void formers, positioning reinforcing mesh over the void formers and pouring concrete over and between the void formers to form a foundation.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least some of the containers include two said tyres.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of the containers include four said tyres.

4. The method of any one of claims 1 to 3 wherein the or *15 each said tyre within a respective said container are arranged to contact side walls of the container. The method of any one of claims 1 to 4 wherein at least some of the tyres are anchored to the support surface.

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6. The method of claims 3 or 4 wherein the tyres within Sa respective said container are secured to one another.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein one said tyre of a plurality of tyres secured to one other is anchored to the support surface.

8. The method of any one of claims 1 to 7 wherein the S• containers are made from a blank of foldable material. S"

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the containers are made from fibreboard material.

The method of claim 8 wherein the containers are made of plastics material.

11. The method of any one of claims 1 to 10 including placing reinforcing mesh over the void formers prior to pouring the concrete.

12. The method of claim 11 including supporting the mesh and the reinforcing rods spaced from the support surface and the containers.

13. A method of producing a building foundation as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 12 substantially as 8 herein described with reference to the drawings.

14. A foundation produced by the method of any one of claims 1 to 13. DATED this 21s t day of April 1999 SEALION PTY LTD By their Patent Attorneys CULLEN CO. *eeie f ft *f ft ftf ft t*f f*f