Steel building foundations, everything you need to know. It’s natural that when contemplating a new pre engineered steel building all your thoughts are about the building itself – height, width, span, finishes and so on.
And these all matter: they’re part of the buildings function, its look, its practicality. Get them right and you’ve got a prefab steel building that you’re going to love for years to come.
But an integral part of the building’s installation isn’t the building itself – it’s the foundation on which the building is installed.
If you want your newly installed steel building to be safe and sound – and stay that way – then you absolutely must be
(a) installing on a solid, custom-built foundation with
(b) perfectly aligned anchor bolt connections.
Foundations and anchor bolts are the two vital keys to a safe and successful installation. Your steel building rests on the foundation while the anchor bolts securely fasten the structure to the foundation.
These items cannot simply be guessed at and then corrected later.
Your steel building kit is a prefabricated precision item.
Everything about it is meticulously planned and exacting in its measurements. And this includes the anchor bolts that attach your building to its foundations.
And it’s a fact that any steel building manufactured by a reputable firm that cares about how its products perform will require professionally constructed foundations. The consequences of a less than adequate slab or improperly placed bolts can be severe – and can include building collapse.
Your steel building manufacturer will tell your elected concrete engineer the type, diameter, and quantity of anchor bolts – The engineer is to determine the required length of blots. Your engineer must install these bolts into the foundation at the time of pouring the concrete.
So don’t pour the foundations until you have the correct anchor bolt specification for the building!
You will not save time by guessing at what kind of foundation will hold your new building. In fact, you’ll waste time – and a lot of cash – when you’ll almost certainly get it wrong.
In short, let the pre engineered steel building specification dictate the specification for the foundation.
Because it doesn’t work the other way around.
Allied Steel will provide anchor bolt plans for our steel buildings that ensure our buildings’ stability – and your foundation should be designed around those plans by your foundation engineer.
Your foundation engineer will specify the type of foundation system your new building needs: slab, pier or perimeter being the most likely choices. Getting this right is also instrumental to the success of your installation.
Which type of foundation is best for you will depend on a number of factors
- The stability and layout of the terrain that the foundation will rest on
- Horizontal forces on your structure, such as wind and seismic activity
- Vertical forces on your structure, such as rain, snow, ice and building load
So it probably goes without saying – but we’ll say it just to be sure: your foundation must be a first-class one – so choose a first-class concrete contractor to install it. And preferably one who has experience of building foundations for steel buildings.
THE CHAIN OF RESPONSIBILITY
So who is responsible for what?
We’d be happy to discuss this in detail with you but here’s a guideline:
As the building owner it would be your responsibility to hire the right concrete engineer for this work.
That contractor in turn is responsible for pouring the slab and, vitally, for locating the anchor bolts in exactly the right place.
And whoever erects your building must check that the foundation and its bolt connections are all present and correct before assembling of the building commences.
It’s generally best to assume the buck will stop with the building owner so… check everything, take no chances and if in doubt, ask!
Allied Steel will assist, advise and help you get your project absolutely right – just call us on 1.877.997.8335 or fill in our contact form HERE and we’ll get right back to you.
