Construction Technology

D31TA

Lecture 4
Basement
construction

Dr Mohamed Abdel-Wahab
m.abdel-wahab@hw.ac.uk
Lecture Outline

1. Introduction e nt co nstru cti on

et ho ds for ba sem
2. M
g
3. Waterproofin
1. What can basements be used for?
Storage, service room, gym, refuse
store, ...etc.
 additional
So, basements can provide ............space in a
building and thereby enhancing the quality of life
............. of
occupants.
www.concretecentre.com/news/2011/basement_solutions_for_shoebox.aspx
The Basement Information Centre

www.basements.org.uk
What are the loads that are acting on a
basement?
What are the issues arising during
excavation works?

1. What are you going to find during excavation

2. Temporary/permanent soil support
3. Keeping the water out!
Approaches for basement construction

1. Temporary support to basement excavations

Broad approaches to temporary soil support
Lateral support arrangements used for sheet steel pile walls
Interlocking sheet piling
 Ground anchoring

Drilling rig
Installing temporary support is expensive and slows
down construction activity.

Therefore, to speed construction, modern techniques

have been developed to allow the permanent basement
walls to be instilled before the deep excavation work
begins.
2. Permanent basement wall construction prior to excavation

• Diaphragm walling
• Contiguous bored piling
• Secant wall piling
 Retaining walls construction
Diaphragm Walls
Diaphragm walls are typically 20m to 50m deep, but may extend to considerably
greater depth.
 Diaphragm walls

www.bacsol.co.uk
www.casagrandeuk.com/videos.htm
Contiguous bored pile walls
Secant wall piling
 Bored Pile walls

piling rig in CFA mode

The range of CFA piles is between

300mm and 1200mm in diameter and
can be created up to 30 meters long.
 Rotary Bored Piling

piling rig in rotary bored piling mode

For larger diameter piles up to 3000mm

rotary flight auger systems can be used,
but these are not continuous flight and
the soil has to be brought to the surface in
sections.
3. Top down basement construction
3. Waterproofing
The image below shows various water penetration points. Nearly every one of these
are present in the modern basement in some form or another.
What are the signs of water seepage through
a basement?
 External tanking

Internal tanking

Vandex waterproofing

Tanking is applied to the inside face of the slab and walls.

 Summary

1. Introduction
2. Methods for basement construction
3. Waterproofing
References