Site I

Flashcards containing vocabulary terms and definitions related to foundations, soil, and site preparation.

Frost Line

The layer of soil where water is likely to freeze and thaw, causing heaving that can damage structures.

Bedrock

The most stable soil to build on.

Buoyant Upload Forces

Underground water pushing up on a building, potentially causing it to float.

Dead Loads

Permanent weight of the building itself.

Live Loads

Non-permanent loads, occupants, furnishings, rain and snow.

Lateral Loads

Loads from wind, tornadoes, hurricanes, and seismic forces.

Lateral Soil Loads

Underground lateral loads on basement walls from the weight of soil and hydrostatic pressure.

Wisconsin Glacier

Earth material rock pushed during the last ice age.

Manhattan Schist

Bedrock formation that dips down and then comes up again in Manhattan.

Differential Settling

Unwanted uneven settling of a building that can cause structural damage.

Raft Foundation

Foundation type consisting of crisscrossed railroad ties and steel rails embedded in concrete.

Peat and Topsoil

Organic soil unsuitable for building foundations because it's spongy and unstable.

Silt

Soil whose particles are too small to be seen by the naked eye and are spherical.

Clay

Soil whose particles are too small to be seen by the naked eye and are plate like.

Consolidation

Process of a building's weight pushing moisture out of clay soil, causing it to compress.

Liquefaction

Tendency of soil to liquefy during an earthquake due to saturation.

Frictional Soils

Soils that rely on internal friction for strength, such as gravel and sand.

Cohesive Soil

Soil that relies on stickiness for strength.

Liquid Limit

Water content at which soil transitions from semi-solid to fluid.

Shear Strength

Resistance of particles sliding over each other due to friction or interlocking.

Well Graded Soil

Soil with a wide variety of particle sizes that packs tightly and provides better foundation support.

Poorly Graded Soil

Soil with similar sized particles that is better for drainage

Water Table

Elevation below which the soil is water-saturated.

Bathtub

Watertight assembly or structure built to keep water out of an excavation area.

Geotechnical Report

Report that outlines the stability, strength, compaction characteristics, drainage characteristics, organic content, plastic limit, and overall content of earth that will be built on.

Superfund

EPA program to clean up hazardous waste sites across the country.

Brownfield Site

Sites that have contaminants.

Grubbing and Clearing

Removing trees, plants, and stumps to prepare a site for a foundation.

Angle of Repose

Steepest angle at which excavated area can be before the soil backslides into the pit.

Soldier Beams

Shoring system where wide flange steel beams are driven into the soil.

Lagging

Wood boards that are put in between the steel beams to keep the earth out as you dig deeper and deeper.

Shoring

A wall created when excavating to prevent the collapse of the earth around an excavation.

Sheet Piling/ Sheeting

Steel sheets are driven into the ground directly to form a continuous underground wall.

Benched Excavation

Using the characteristics of the soil and the angle of repose to create an excavation.

Soil Mixing

Creating walls by drilling down and mixing the soil in columns with Portland cement and water.

Slurry Wall

Underground, deep concrete wall.

Tremie

The name of the funnel in the straw system that brings the concrete down to the bottom of the trench, in that slurry wall system.

Crosslot Bracing

Steel elements are used and bear against the other side of the excavation.

Rakers

Uses steel elements and leaning them against the bottom of the excavation.

Tiebacks

Nails are giant rods that are used to hold the excavation wall back.

Whalers

Horizontal members of walls.

Super Structure

The part above the ground.

Sub Structure

The part below the ground.

Foundation

Part below any of the spaces that transfers the load of the building to the earth.

Deep Foundation

Foundation deeper that the building is tall.

Shallow Foundation

Foundation shallower that the building is tall.

Deeper

Spread footings in a cold climate should be.

Wall Footings

Footings, that the Wall Bears Down.

Column Footing

Only have a point load.

Grade Beams/ TIe Beams

Rigidly Brace Column Footings to one another, make sure that the whole system remains rigid in the event of an earthquake or hurricane or tornado.

Cantilevered Footing

We're we cant allow our footing to spread out beyond our prop line.

Combined Footings

We allow one footing to be right and put it right up against the wall.

Slab on Grade

Turn down the slab to be a little deeper on the edges.

Mat Foundations

Columns are so high, its better just to make one for all of them.

Grade Beams/ Tie Beams

They both tie Columns Together at Grade, so that we don't have to worry about the lateral forces.

Shallow Frost-Protected Footing

Building can be used to heat the soil beneath it, so that it never freezes.

Floating Foundation

Foundation that removing the same amount of soil that you build.

Floating Foundations after Frank Lloyd Wright

Series of rubber dampers, Hydraulic Shock Absorbers, and Base Isolation Pads to keep the structure standing through an Earthquake.

Caissons

Drilled and then filled with Concrete.

Piles

Elements that are hammered in.

Belled Caissons

Caissons has a bell on the bottom to allow more earth to bare on.

Socketed Caissons

Not to belled can go far down to bare on rock.

End Bearing Piles

Piles that goes all the way down and rest on rock.

Frictional Piles

Driven down not so much with the idea that it's gonna be supported from below, but rather the friction on the sides is

Pile Cap

Where each pile's not strong enough to hold its own column.

Mini Piles

Giant Nail, to shore up the building.

Helical Piles

Giant Screw screwed into the ground.

Soil Improvement

Enhance the soil and its like a hybrid.

Under Pinning

In the world of RENOVATION, its like renovation but for the underground portion.

Integral Waterproofing

Has special Admixture that stops up the pores of the Concrete, and its makes the concern less likely to allow warter through.

Blind Side Waterproofing

Attaching the for work, put in place before the concern is poured.

Back Filling vs Filling

Subset of filling, it is to replace the soil that was removed.

Retaining Walls

They're typically exterior, and and most cases they have eccentric loading

Earth Reinforcing

Take earth compacted into a layered net of steel, plastic to hold up soil.

Geotextiles

Used in so many different places and so many useful things, such as erosion control.

Active removal of Radon

Used to remove dangerous Radon gas through the removal into a fan.

ALTA Survey

Survey shows things like easements, and rights of way.

Filter Fabric

Used for self fencing during contruction.

ACSM survey

More like a lawyer survey vs, topo survey.