GB2557869A

GB2557869A - Instant foundation slab for building(s)

Info

Publication number: GB2557869A
Application number: GB1601032.4A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Spencer Edney Guy
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2016-01-20
Filing date: 2016-01-20
Publication date: 2018-07-04
Also published as: GB201601032D0

Abstract

An instant composite foundation slab for residential and commercial buildings which can be installed with eight hours and in all weathers, in which no form of excavation or ground work is needed. The supporting piles will preferably comprise of recycled steel and be placed at designated points for support of said slab. An RSJ ring beam will preferably placed on top of said screw piles and may be positioned below the ground, level or above the ground wherein the advantage of above ground positioning of the slab resolves existing flood issues allowing water to flow under and through the airspace under the slab. The slab will preferably be modular and allow for the construction of square, oblong and irregular floor shapes. The slab will also preferably comprise of a insulation section which will have a vapour barrier. The slab will also preferably provide the option of having under floor heating, electric and or water to be installed prior to concrete being poured.

Description

PATENT APPLICATION

Instant Foundation Slab for Buildings

Background

As a generalisation all the current methods and systems employed in installing residential and commercial building foundations usually have some or all of the following disadvantages and problems:-

Preparing, excavating and concreting foundations can take up to 3 weeks.

Installing foundations is dependent on the weather

There are any methods of creating foundations, most of which require soil excavation.

The majority of soil digging and excavating soil is undertaken by mechanised machinery

In wet weather these excavation methods, take more time to complete

Excavation of damp soil creates a mud quagmire when machinery and footwear transfer mud to clean areas around the site, which has to be cleaned up on completion.

Many foundations require the subsequent removal of large quantities of top soil from site

Foundations and sub-bases often require the delivery of quantities of supporting aggregates for the foundations

Trench-fill and other digging areas are restricted by tree roots and other underground services and obstacles, which can limit and restrict the size of the foundation area

The usual ground based foundations make no allowance for flooding or future floods.

Site surveys and marking out is required to facilitate correct digging alignment.

On completion of the dig, the site measurements need to be verified again.

On completion of the dig all residual water must be removed from areas to be concreted.

On completion foundations need to be inspected / approved by Official Building Inspectors

The majority of foundations involve pouring large quantities of concrete.

Concrete produces high levels of CO 2e leaving a large carbon footprint.

Final foundations, the concrete levels need to be checked and approved by Official Building Inspectors.

Whilst in some instances insulation is put on the ground to help insulate the slab, no foundations use PUR, PIR or other insulation, to create a rigid pressurised load bearing structural capacity that becomes part of the composite supporting components in the slab.

Concrete foundations do not include underfloor heating in the foundation mix.

PATENT APPLICATION

Instant Foundation Slab for Buildings

Statement of Invention

The instant composite foundation for residential and commercial properties overcomes all the disadvantages and problems highlighted in the Background introduction.

The invention relates to a composite foundation floor slab that can be immediately installed in all weathers, usually in less than 8 hours.

This instant composite flooring slab comprises a foundation slab that is designed to be quickly assembled on site within an 8 hour period, from components that can be assembled into a ready-made foundation slab, without the necessity of any excavation or digging or any ground works, or the requirement to removing any soil from the ground or from the site before or after completion of the foundation.

No delivery requirement for any rock, hard-core shingle, gravel, sharp sand or building sand to enable the foundation to be completed or any other ground support materials.

The slab sits on a grid of foundation galvanised, hot-dipped to a CSA minimum 610 g/m2, structural steel, screw piles placed in the ground at designated positions and which are capable of supporting residential and commercial buildings, with larger deeper screw piles being used to support the dead and live loads associated with residential blocks of flats and multi-level commercial buildings, such as offices.

The manufacturer of the galvanised screw piles, uses high quality recycled structural steel, ASTM A500 grade C, tensile 425Mpa, in their fabrication which conserves natural resources and energy, which further reduces the overall carbon footprint of the instant composite slab. Using the latest cathodic technology the pile lifespan can be further extended to over 100 years through the use of magnesium ring anodes.

The components are manufactured, produced and modified to create pre-prepared components which are assembled on site. At the start an RSJ ring beam is placed on top of, and fixed to, the screw pile support plates located below the ground level, level with the ground, or above-ground level.

The above-ground construction provides a suspended slab which not only acts as the supporting foundation but also provides absolute flood protection by placing the slab above the height of any projected height of flood waters.

When the foundation slab is suspended above the ground, the airspace between the ground and the underside of the suspended slab allows air and any flood water to freely circulate.

The positioning of the instant slab at ground-level, or above, completely removes the need for any soil excavation on the site. If the ground is uneven the slab can be positioned above the highest point of the uneven ground. No commercial excavators, diggers, or other earth moving equipment is required, which in addition also avoids any need to remove soil from site.

The invention represents a major change in slab technology which provides huge savings and improved carbon foot print, as the technology eliminates most of the usual associated costs of installing foundations.

The speed of installation of the instant slab technology provides huge savings in time and maintains a clean ground area at all times, avoiding the more usual muddy site created by earth moving equipment such as excavators and other mechanised equipment..

To provide the maximum weight loading capacity hot rolled steel joists are used to form the perimeter ring beam which are attached to, and supported by, the horizontal pile plates welded to the supporting columns of the steel piles. To increase the weight loading capacity larger RSJ’s and larger screw piles are used.

The RSJ’s create and provide the main supporting perimeter ring beam for all modular square and oblong foundation shapes, and which can also accommodate unusual foundation shapes and layouts, as maybe required.

Inside the ring beam further rolled joists are installed. These steel joists are then fitted inside the perimeter ring beam, placed in parallel between two hot rolled joists that form the ring beam either side or perpendicular to the other two parallel hot rolled steel joists at either end.

All joists are loosely hung on the perimeter beam at each end. The joists are then permanently fixed and locked in parallel by the GE Tech equal compression and tension locking mechanisms, which not only provide the parallel integrity for the joists but also ensure that all loads are transferred equally along the length of the joists and throughout and across the floor slab.

Building regulations require that floors are insulated. To meet this requirement a specially designed structural insulation is included, which has been designed to accept a complete range of composite insulation of varying thicknesses, to meet any required ‘IT value, (all available ‘U’-values down to 13 W/m2K) The insulation forms a structural part of the slab, and is installed prior to the placing of steel reinforcement to reinforce the slab, and prior to pouring the concrete.

This composite insulation system also provides additional structural loading capacity, as the structural insulation has been designed to strengthen the slab. The insulation is pressurised by being permanently ‘locked fast’ in position within the slab, which works in tandem with the other joists through equally applied compression and tensile loads, applied by the GE Tech compression and tension locking mechanisms.

The composite insulation also contains a vapour barrier to prevent the ingress of moisture into the slab, and as a precaution the exposed under-surface allows for a ventilation and drying air space between the ground and the underside of which is treated with an exterior weather proof 25pm coating of polyester providing a further vapour barrier and providing the foundation slab with long term protection.

The slab design includes the option of underfloor heating. Accordingly this option provides for the installation of underfloor heating, electric or water, being installed within the slab prior to the concrete being poured.

The slab design allows for the provision of ‘through the slab’ access points to allow for drainage, water and other incoming services, prior to the application of any concrete to seal the slab.

Further reinforcement of the floor slab is achieved through the installation of either the combination of steel mesh and rebar, or with a concrete fibre additive, prior to the 75mm thick layer of concrete being poured and levelled.

The 75mm of concrete dramatically reduces costs and the amount of concrete needed, typically less than 9% of the concrete volume and costs needed to fill a trench.

An option to increase the load capacity of the slab is achieved by increasing the concrete thickness to 90mm or more.

Foundation slab provides a substantial increase in CO 2e savings and is the greenest Eco foundation solution available.

The load carrying capacities of the floor slab can be significantly increased by using larger cold rolled joists in thicker rolled steel.

Standard steel joists within the ring beam are formed in 350mpa steel, and for an uprated performance, the joists maybe formed in 550mpa high tensile steel, which significantly increases the weight loading capabilities of the slab.

Claims

PATENT APPLICATION - CLAIMS 1: An instant composite foundation for residential and commercial properties 2: An instant composite foundation that can be installed in less than 8 hours 3: that can be immediately installed in all weathers, 4: An instant composite flooring slab assembled from components that can form a ready-made foundation slab. 5: An installation of a composite foundation floor slab without the necessity of any excavation, digging or any ground works, 6 No requirement to remove any ground soil from the site before or after completion of the foundation. 7: No delivery requirement for any rock, hard-core shingle, gravel for the foundation. 8: A grid of Screw piles placed in the ground at designated positions and which are capable of supporting residential and commercial buildings 9: The screw piles, use high quality recycled steel which conserves natural resources and energy, and further reduces the overall carbon footprint of the slab. 10: Pre-prepared components are assembled on site to create the slab. 11: An RSJ ring beam is placed on top of, and fixed to, the screw pile support plates located below the ground level, level with the ground, or above-ground level. 12: Placing the slab above ground provides absolute flood protection by placing the slab above the potential height of any projected height of flood waters. 13: The positioning of the instant slab at ground-level, or above, completely removes the need for any soil excavation on the site. 14: No commercial excavators, diggers, or other earth moving equipment is required,. 15: The invention represents a major change in slab technology which provides huge savings over traditional methods with an improved carbon foot print, as the technology eliminates most of the usual associated costs of installing foundations 16: The speed of installation of the instant slab provides huge time savings in time and maintains a clean ground area at all times, avoiding the more usual muddy site. 17: To increase weight loading capacity of the slab the size of the RSJ ring beam, the steel and the pile’s steel columns can be increased as necessary to allow for the construction of large multi-floor buildings. 18: The modular foundation system allows for all modular, square and oblong floor shapes along with any irregular shape. 19: Inside the ring beam further steel joists are installed in parallel to the RSJ’s. 20: All joists are loosely hung on the perimeter RSJ beam at either end.. 21: The joists are then permanently fixed and locked in parallel by the equal compression and tension locking mechanisms to provide the parallel integrity and increased strength for the joists. 22: Specially designed internal structural insulation is included, which will accept a complete range of composite insulation of varying thicknesses, to meet any required ‘U’ value, (all available ‘U’-values down to 13 W/m2K) The insulation forms a structural part of the slab, 23: This composite and structural insulation system provides additional structural strength and loading capacity to the slab, when the insulation is permanently ‘locked fast’ by the compression and tension locking mechanisms, which exert equal pressures and loads when in compression and tension while working in tandem with the other adjacent joists. 24: The composite insulation contains a vapour barrier to prevent the ingress of moisture into the slab.
25. The exposed under-surface of the slab provides an air gap for ventilation and drying in the air space between the ground and the underside of the slab. 26: The underside of the slab is treated with an exterior weather proof 25pm coating of polyester as a further vapour barrier and to provide long term protection. 27: The slab design includes the option of underfloor heating, electric or water, being installed within the slab prior to the concrete being poured. 28: The slab design allows for the provision of ‘through the slab’ access points to allow for drainage and other services, prior to the application of concrete. 29: Further reinforcement of the floor slab is achieved through the installation of either the combination of steel mesh and rebar, or with a concrete steel fibre additive 30: A 75mm thick layer of concrete is poured and levelled all over the slab. 31: A 90mm or thicker layer of concrete increases the load bearing capacity of the slab. 32: Dramatically reduced concrete costs as the 75mm layer of concrete dramatically reduces costs and the amount of concrete needed, typically less than 6% of the concrete volume and costs needed for trench-fill, which dramatically reduces the carbon footprint in and is the greenest Eco foundation solution available 33 The slab is never in direct contact with water or moistures whereas concrete cancer is found in foundations subjected to differential water and moisture levels in the soil. 34 Long term protection and lifespan of slab design, with more than 100 years for the galvanised, hot-dipped to a CSA minimum 610 g/m2, screw piles using the latest cathodic technology with magnesium anode rings
35. Generally screw pile installation is very quick, (average time under 5 mins per pile) which is reflected in the speed of installation.