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66 views1 page

Basement

Uploaded by

Anonymous BAzcBzWu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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© Copyright K.H. Davis Engineering Consultants 2011.

All rights reserved Page | 2

entire foundation wall can be successfully lowered in a safe and controlled manner without causing any significant
shifting or settlement of the original house structure.

Benching:

The term “Benching” refers to the concrete bench which is constructed over top of a stable excavations slope when a
basement floor is lowered without extending the foundation wall footings to a lower level. In benching, a stable
excavation slope is maintained below the foundation wall footings and a concrete protection “bench” is constructed over
top of the stable excavation slope. This process is used for several possible reasons:

1. To reduce construction cost

2. To avoid undermining another nearby structure this might be undermined by the underpinning process.

If there is less than about 48” between your house and a neighboring house, it will be important to carefully consider the
proposed basement lowering method so as to avoid undermining the neighboring footings.

Typically, a stable soil slope not steeper than 7V:10H must be left in place in front of the footing and this means that the
resulting bench can be quite large, sometimes prohibitively large. For example, in order to lower a basement floor by
6”, the bench typically must extend out beyond the foundation wall face by approximately 12”. As the depth of the
basement lowering increases, so does the width of the concrete bench. A basement lowering of 18” results in a bench
which is 27” wide.

Also, the bench needs to be structurally reinforced with steel re-bars and tied-into the new basement floor, since the
bench and floor structure need to provide a horizontal “strut” to keep the bottoms of the original footings from sliding
inwards once the excavation is complete. It is also very important that the base of the foundation wall be braced from
sliding inwards during construction of the bench since the removal of the original basement floor eliminates the strut
action which was previously present to resist horizontal soil forces pushing on the foundation wall from the
outside…these are forces which want to push the foundation wall inwards into the basement. Benching should really be
done under the direction of a professional engineer when the original foundation wall is resisting a height of soil
exceeding about 5’ since horizontal sliding forces and stability of the exposed soil slope can lead to collapse of the
foundation wall. Caution should also be used in loose granular soil conditions and in soft wet clay conditions and the
use of motorized equipment such as a bobcat can disturb the stable soil slope and cause failure of the soil slope, leading
to collapse.

Before starting a basement lowering project, make sure that you educate yourself about the entire process and make sure
that you have a good contractor to carry out the project.

Other things that you should know about Basement Lowering:

1. How is it done: The perimeter of the basement floor is broken up and typically 3 stages of underpinning
lengths are laid-out on the foundation walls in accordance with the approved building The contractor starts by
excavating in front of each of the first stage 3’ lengths of wall which are to be underpinned. Once a hole is
excavated in front of each 3’ length, the contractor then further excavates the soil from below the foundation
wall itself at each hole. The hole is carefully dug out below the footing (yes, the footing and wall is literally
suspended in the air during this process) and a short shovel is used to scrape away any loose soil from the
underside of the footing. Obviously, it is important to stay out of the small space below the footing since there
is always some risk that a loose brick or block or piece of concrete could come loose. Once each section is
dug-out, plywood forms are placed in front of the hole with the inside surface flush with the inside face of the
original footing, leaving about a 2” space between the underside of the original footing (to allow a space to
pour the concrete) and the top of the form. After all of the first stage sections are filled with concrete and the
concrete is cured for about 72h, the top 2” gap which remains between the top of the concrete and the underside
of the footing is hand-packed with non-shrink grout. The top 2” should be packed with non-shrink grout to
ensure that there are no air voids between the underside of the original footing and the top of the new concrete.
Note that many underpinning contractors try to eliminate this step by using a concrete vibrator to eliminate air
voids. This sometimes does not work well at all since the vibrator actually increases the amount of air which

1468 Danforth Avenue


To r o n to , O n t ar i o M 4J IN 4
Phone: 4164891228
Fax: 4164293991
e-mail: mail@khdavis.com
Website: www.khdavis.com

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