Question related to construction

Member for

17 years 2 months

Dear Shahul,



The answer of Se de Leon is excellent. Concrete Slabs that rest directly on the ground is called "slab on grade".



I googled it and found the following definitions as well;



A horizontal placement of concrete directly over a prepared earth substrate

en.wiktionary.org/wiki/slab_on_grade



A type of foundation with a concrete floor placed directly on the soil. The edge of the slab is usually thicker and acts as the footing for the walls.

www.startremodeling.com/construction_glossary.htm



Slab-on-grade foundations are a building engineering practice whereby the concrete slab that is to serve as the foundation for the structure is ...

www.accu-crete.com/cs/services/glossary_of_terms.html



A concrete slab that is fully and evenly supported by an substrate such as the ground. Sidewalks are slabs on grade.

www.concretenetwork.com/countertop_glossary/indexr-t.html



A concrete slab that is less than 4 feet below the surface.

www.pexsupply.com/glossary.asp



Concrete slab foundation built on ground level. No crawl space or basement.

www.greatinspector.com/faq-term-structural.html



With kind regards,



Samer


Member for

24 years 5 months

Hi Shahul,



My 2 cents.



Slab on grade is synonimous to slab on ground. I prefer to use slab on ground because the word grade has a technical definition which may or may not be the actual ground itself depending what building code you are using.



I hope this helps.

Member for

16 years 11 months

Samer,would you please explain about slab on grade what does it mean?

Member for

17 years 2 months

Dear John,



This is standard teminology. Here are the answers:



a) pre-cast foundation

Answer: This means that the foundation is casted at one place then it is transported and lifted in place at another. When you have multiple modules, and to save time, contractor use this method. Like for a 1km fence, or lighting poles, etc.



b) pre-engineering/pre-fab building (i.e. electrical bldg, sub-station)

Answer: When you use computer software to create your custom tailored building, like a factory; you can specify the number of bays, height, width, loads, location, etc and then special computer softwares can provide you with the design and shop drawings and it will be sent later to a fabrication shop for fabrication and treatment and shipping to site. These buildings can be made from steel, wood or precaste concrete.



c) pipe-rack modules (off-site fabricated)

Industrial facilities require that fuilds are transported from one site to another. The pipes are carried by structural steel (usually) members. These members are called pipe racks. Fabrication is done at factories and installation is done at site. Hence the term (off-site fabrication)



d) stick-built structural steel

This term is used to describe the structural steel columns and beams. Usually when you have a building like a car park made out of structural steel, while installation is taking place, you will notice that the columns are like vertical sticks, and the beams are like horizontal sticks.



Hope that the information will help.



With kind regards,



Samer