Industrialization of foundation in house-building: Put into practice

Foundations are in general not exact, labor-intensive and time-consuming. This paper describes a new principle for housing that largely improves efficiency based on rationalization of construction-on-site. The basic principle is to solely apply mass-produced parts to be combined in ready-to-construct strips (that can be geared to any specific lay-out). Based on results of pilot projects it is concluded that large reductions are feasible on concrete and formwork by 30-60%, labor-on-site by 40-50%, overall building-time by 60-90% and costs by 35-45%. At the same time stiffness of the foundation beam is largely improved and also building organization is largely simplified (primarily because of a clear and compact organization and a combined pouring of foundation beam and ground floor). This foundation can be used as strip as well as pile foundation using identical mass-produced parts. This paper focuses on the use of foundations supported by piles.