Foundation Underpinning

Piers and foundation works

The practice of underpinning small-to-moderate sized structures to repair foundation settlement and loss of support is a common engineering endeavour that is seldom discussed, or documented in structural reports or work records. But underpinning is a global problem that affects residential developments.

The most critical element of nearly all underpinning works is the physical construction and stability of the piers.To attain an adequate load capacity, the piers generally have to be founded on firm soil strata that are beneath the weaker or unstable soils that called for the underpinning in the first place. Ref: When Retaining Walls Come Tumbling Down P.332