Building foundation comments please

[passedout]

Just came across this recently and since I was thinking of investing in that place I was wondering if anyone had any relevant comment to make.

The photo below has been taken in Posri road Udon Thani where the new Lumpini Place’s project has just commenced the building work.

A 14-story building with about 200 apartments it’s in the process of been built right on where those concrete columns are. There will be another 5 buildings knocked together further afield but I assume they will all be built with the same criteria. Judging by the length of the spare concrete poles that are still lying around the place I would assume that the ones in the ground have been buried from around one to two metres max.

I can’t see no deep digging going on nor concrete footings been made anywhere.

Is it maybe too early in the construction work to see that? I would have thought that concrete columns should seat on a concrete bed and the concrete bed should be around 5 or 6 feet below ground level but then again this is not my line of work.

Is anyone with some experience in building foundation willing to make a comment?

Thanks

[LennyW]

The concrete piles are driven in until they can go no further, when they hit bedrock.

No need for excavation or concrete footings under the piles.

I would suggest they will be much further in than 1 to 2 meters, i suspect the short pieces you are seeing around the site are the tops that have been cut off already, this is what they do they cut the tops off and then all the piles will be connected by poured concrete beams, this will act as the foundation and building starts on top of that.

Difficult to be accurate but judging from the size of the piling rig in the background, i would think these are 10 or 12 meter piles, so i would say they are around 8 to 10 meters in the ground.

[passedout]

Hi LennyW thanks a lot for your comment. Some of the spare concrete piles lying around were around 2 mts and some around 5 mts in length. The shorter ones could have well been chopped off bits as you said but the longer ones I don't know then. Strange though they haven't cut off the driven in piles roughly at the same level. How far up from the ground do you think they'll go with the poured concrete beams to connect the piles?

[wayned]

They put one on top of the other and then keep riving them.

[trogers]

That's a photo of piling works. The main building contractor is still not on the site. No conclusion as to what design the structure will look like. In any case, the building will sit on groups of piles using pile caps.

So far, Lumpini's projects in Bangkok all have a basement carpark to max their sales area given a restriction on building height.

[passedout]

So far, Lumpini's projects in Bangkok all have a basement carpark to max their sales area given a restriction on building height.

That's what I thought this was going to be like but...no digging no basement car park right?

Very curious to see what's going to turn out.

[trogers]

So far, Lumpini's projects in Bangkok all have a basement carpark to max their sales area given a restriction on building height.

That's what I thought this was going to be like but...no digging no basement car park right?

Very curious to see what's going to turn out.

Not necessary. Driven piles are piled to required resistance force and left exposed, unlike bored piles which can be cast to about a metre higher than the basement floor and not seen at ground level.

The main contractor can still come on site and sink in a row of sheetpiles to excavate and construct a basement when piling works is completed.

[passedout]

So far, Lumpini's projects in Bangkok all have a basement carpark to max their sales area given a restriction on building height.

That's what I thought this was going to be like but...no digging no basement car park right?

Very curious to see what's going to turn out.

Not necessary. Driven piles are piled to required resistance force and left exposed, unlike bored piles which can be cast to about a metre higher than the basement floor and not seen at ground level.

The main contractor can still come on site and sink in a row of sheetpiles to excavate and construct a basement when piling works is completed.

How's the main contractor going to excavate and construct a basement with all those driven piles in the way? It's not going to dig around them surely! I'm missing something here...

[trogers]

So far, Lumpini's projects in Bangkok all have a basement carpark to max their sales area given a restriction on building height.

That's what I thought this was going to be like but...no digging no basement car park right?

Very curious to see what's going to turn out.

Not necessary. Driven piles are piled to required resistance force and left exposed, unlike bored piles which can be cast to about a metre higher than the basement floor and not seen at ground level.

The main contractor can still come on site and sink in a row of sheetpiles to excavate and construct a basement when piling works is completed.

How's the main contractor going to excavate and construct a basement with all those driven piles in the way? It's not going to dig around them surely! I'm missing something here...

Excavate around them to a depth of 0.8-1m and install the top layer of lateral bracing for the sheetpiles and place in the working platform. Then ecavate down further till below the 2nd layer of lateral bracing and install the latter and cut off exposed piles.

Piles are driven in groups, below the locations of building columns, and there will be wide spaces between the groups of piles to place the lateral bracing.

Edited November 24, 2013 by trogers