As well as piling we are happy to price and carry out installation of reinforced concrete ground beams.

These are the most typical method of linking the piles together and more common than a piled raft/slab. The purpose of the ground beam is to link the piles together and provide a platform for further superstructure construction. Excavation work is carried out immediately or a short while after the completion of the piling work and are excavated to the engineers specification and to the level supplied by the client. The excavation then commonly has a layer of void former placed at the bottom. A void former is a compressible or degradable layer which will create a void between the ground and the underside of the beam to stop any pressure on the footings caused by ground heave.
Common forms of void former are Cellcore, Claymaster and Clayboard.

Reinforced steel cages are then placed in the excavation using grade plate spacers, commonly known as chairs, which ensure the engineers specified gap between the void former or side of excavation and the reinforced steel bars. The excavation is then flooded with concrete and 7 days later is ready for building on.