How to dig a trench for the foundation

How do the formwork for the foundation

This article is about how to dig a trench for the foundation for the house, deck or any other structure. The foundation is essential for hardness and durability of your building in the long term, so it is important to pay attention to our management. Remember that you need to hire a qualified engineer to determine the depth of your foundation, as well as the number of valves which need to be used. In this article we will show you some basic techniques of digging a trench for the foundation.

You should understand that the structure of the soil affects heavily on the depth and size of your basement. In some cases, in addition to the foundation is required to put the pillars. Therefore, to better assess the quality of the soil before purchasing it or before the building construction. Before you start digging a trench for the foundation, you must carefully prepare the site. You need to remove trees, shrubs and their roots. If your site grow big old trees, it is better to move the construction to another place, otherwise you will have to spend money on cutting them at the root.

To dig a trench for the foundation, you can use the rental of a hydraulic excavator, hire a few people to dig a trench or on their own. Obviously, the first option will do the job quickly, but in some cases, the hydraulic excavator can not get to a narrow and isolated area. In this case, the only way-to hire 3-4 people to dig a trench for the foundation with the help of a shovel or a drip yourself. From our experience, dig a trench for the foundation, shovels better and cheaper than rent an excavator. First of all, when digging a trench technique. trench can collapse accidentally, when digging a trench by hand you are more in control of the process. However, if we are talking about a great site, then it is best to use a shovel.

Preparation for digging trenches for the foundation

materials

• boards
• tent pegs
• twine

Tools

• protective gloves, goggles
• tape measure, carpenter's pencil
• hand saw / circular saw
• hammer
• level
• shovel
• wheelbarrow

Tips

• thoroughly clean your tools after project completion

Time

• a few days, in accordance with the soil

Marking the foundation trench

The first step is to lay the foundation of your home. In order to do a good job, you need to build around it as shown in the figure below. In the future, these "stakes" will need to drive safely in the corners to mark the foundation of the future.

Further, the right thing to do layout and hammer pins.

Smart Tip: measure the distances several times, measure the distance of the diagonals.

How to dig a trench for the foundation

Once you've made sure that the balance of your home done right, you can proceed to the top of the trench digging under the foundation. As we have said, there are cases where you can not rent a hydraulic excavator, so you have to use the traditional method: dig a trench with shovels. While this may seem like a simple process, we can assure you that it is difficult, but if you pay attention to our recommendations, you it will seem easy.

Firstly, it should be noted on the ground marked the line of the future trench. It is important to foresee where you will throw off the ground.

Smart Tip: Before digging a trench for the foundation, you have to remove the plant, which will be on the way to your home. Use a shovel or a saw to remove shrubs and their roots.

If you have to dig a trench next to your house, you should pay special attention to how this might affect the rigidity of your home design. You should make sure that you are digging trenches not to damage the foundation of the house.

Work carefully and patiently, any mistake you will create more problems. Oddly enough, there are many people who think that the foundation is not important, it is not visible. Nothing could be more wrong, so make sure you build a foundation in accordance with the plans, or your safety is at risk.

Smart Tip: the expansion of your home, in most cases, you also need to strengthen the foundation of your old house to make sure it will support the old and new buildings.

If on your way there are concrete interference, use a hammer for breaking down concrete or a jackhammer. Concrete stones are if you make annexe.

Smart Tip: using a hammer, make sure that you wear safety goggles and ear protection.

Continue to dig a trench for the foundation in accordance with the plans and make sure that you fold soil near the construction site, in the future, you will need the ground to fill foundation.

Smart Tip: remnants of soil excavated from the trench can be useful to continue to apply it on your site. If you do not need it, you can give it to someone who can use it in your garden.

You can transport the soil using wheelbarrows. Wheelbarrow - a handy tool because it allows you to transfer the soil from the construction site, not putting much effort.

Smart Tip: Make sure that the wheel barrow pumped, otherwise it will be difficult to transport the soil.

You can also make bridges in order to make it easy to transport in a wheelbarrow ground on them.

Smart Tip: Cover the trench at night, so no one can fall into it, and do not damage his health.

When digging a trench foundation, it is important to make sure that its bottom perfectly aligned.

Use a laser level or water level is to make visible the signs on the four pillars mounted on each corner of the trenches. Further, use a tape measure to measure the distance from the marked signs laser level to the bottom of the trench. If the depth of four equal, this means that the corners of your trench is at the proper level. If the depth is different, you have to configure it appropriately.

Read more about how to build the formwork for the foundation.

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