Last edited 10 Mar 2017

Raft foundation

Foundations provide support for structures, transferring their load to layers of soil or rock that have sufficient bearing capacity and suitable settlement characteristics.

Very broadly, foundations can be categorised as shallow foundations or deep foundations. Shallow foundations are typically used where the loads imposed by a structure are low relative to the bearing capacity of the surface soils. Deep foundations are necessary where the bearing capacity of the surface soils is not adequate to support the loads imposed by a structure and so those loads need to be transferred to deeper layers with higher bearing capacity.

Shallow foundations include:

Strip foundations (or footings).
Pad foundations.
Raft foundations.

Typically, raft foundations are formed by reinforced concrete slabs that cover a wide area, often the entire footprint of a building. They spread the load imposed by a number of columns or walls over a large area, and can be considered to ‘float’ on the ground as a raft floats on water.

They are suitable where:

Ground conditions are poor and strip or pad foundations would require significant excavation, for example on soft clay, alluvial deposits, compressible fill and so on.
Settlement, or differential settlement is likely.
Where it may be impractical to create individual strip or pad foundations for a large number of individual loads. In very general terms, if strip or pad foundations would cover 50% or more of the floor area, then a raft may be appropriate.

Raft foundations can be fast and inexpensive to construct, as they tend not to require deep excavations compared to strip or pad foundations and they may use less material as they combine the foundation with the ground slab. However, they tend to be less effective where structural loads are focussed on in a few concentrated areas.

They tend to include steel reinforcement to prevent cracking, and may incorporate beams or thickened areas to provide additional support for specific loads, for example, below internal walls. Typically, a thickened reinforced area is created at the perimeter of the raft to form an edge beam supporting the external walls of the building. A concrete toe often supports the external leaf of the wall.