Fabric Building Foundation Options
Cast-In-Place Concrete
Cast-in-place concrete is the most common foundation material due to its strength, versatility, and availability. Typical concrete foundations included reinforced piers at or slightly above grade, poured walls, and grade beams. When properly designed and reinforced, a concrete foundation will serve its intended purpose to support our fabric structures.
Precast Concrete
Precast blocks and panels are excellent foundation choices, especially for many smaller fabric buildings. The beauty of this foundation is that it serves to keep the structure in place as well as provides a retaining wall for the retention of various commodities. The precast is portable and remains an asset.
Shipping Containers (Sea Containers, Conex Boxes)
The brilliance of utilizing containers as a foundation is that these are typically already on or near the jobsites when selected to do the job. The containers can serve a multitude of purposes while also acting as the fabric building foundation, possibly housing parts and equipment or serving as a workshop. If containers are already being used on site, you have the perfect opportunity to add some covered space for a very low cost. This type of foundation is typically used for smaller tension fabric buildings and often for temporary fabric buildings.
Screw Piles, Helicals, Micropiles and Earth Anchors for Fabric Structure Foundations
These are popular choices for many circumstances. They are typically very quick to install, and the installation takes place with minimal or no excavation. In situations where items that are subsurface and cannot be disturbed, there are a very limited number of options available to a client. Helical anchors can be an especially good foundation choice for a relocatable fabric structure. Of course these foundations need to be engineered to verify they can handle the base reaction forces applied by the fabric structure.
Wood Posts
Wood posts are only an option for narrower fabric buildings. Wood walls are typically inexpensive, and allow for various sheeting materials to be applied both on the exterior and interior. Typically, the wider the fabric building, the less likely it is that a wood post meets the requirements to resist failure when maximum wind and snow loads are applied.
