• Photo 1: Reinforced Concrete Slab Foundation
  • Photo 2: Reinforced Concrete Foundation Beams
Stage 02: Foundations

Any building, regardless of size or type, depends on a good foundation for a satisfactory life expectancy and minimum maintenance. Our firms’s preferred method for the foundation of our buildings, is monolithic slab foundation. Following the excavations, blind concrete is poured on a water blocking membrane placed on the ground, for leveling the foundation surface and for creating a clean surface for reinforcement placement. Then, our Topographer outlines the perimeter of the building and the exact position of the columns. If the level of the ground floor slab has to be elevated, then we use reinforced concrete foundation beams and the voids between them are filled with crashed rock. After the drainage pipes are fixed, a water blocking membrane is placed on the filling material exposing the foundation beams to prevent climbing moisture. After the ground floor slab reinforcement is positioned, the slab concrete is poured.

The type of concrete we use is C20/24 and the steel is S500. These values comply with the Greek and European building codes (Eurocodes).

Our concrete  crew chief, Kostas Papadopoulos is among the most experienced in Corfu and his team works with us for more than twenty years.

All our buildings have foundation electrical grounding, which is made of grounding steel films forming a closed ring. It is connected to the reinforcement of the foundation with conductive links which meet the European requirements and International Standards. The foundation grounding has the following significant advantages over the conventional grounding methods:

Low value of grounding resistance
Durability – Mechanical protection
Electrical grounding anywhere in the building interior.
The grounding is placed in an existing excavation, resulting in ease of installation.

Most plumbing and electrical pipes run through the foundation concrete slab. In case that the ground floor needs to be elevated, we use foundation beams instead of slabs. The voids are filled with crashed quarry gravel. The surface is covered with moisture resistant membrane, polystyrene insulation board and steel reinforcement prior to the floor slab concreting. In the same way as above, most plumbing and electrical pipes are boxed in the concrete.

Photo 3: Steel House Frame Foundation Anchors

STEEL FRAME HOUSES: If the structural frame is to be done with steel members, steel anchors are placed in the concrete where the steel columns are to be bolted on. Accuracy is very important, so care is taken that the anchors are not bent or shifted from their original position.

Photo 4: Prior to concreting

Drainage pipes are being secured in place. The membrane will block ground humidity to find its way up on the floor concrete

Photo 5: Steel Frame foundation

Then, reinforcement bars are placed, and the foundation concrete is poured.