Rubble foundation or rubble stone foundation

Let’s start with the advantages of a rubble stone foundation:

• Stone, quarry, is a natural material, it is environmentally friendly.
• The rubble foundation is distinguished by enviable strength, it will withstand a two-story brick house.
• Rubble stone is not afraid of frost, resistant to flood and groundwater. This allows you to build houses on a foundation made of rubble in almost any area, on any type of soil.
• The stone is beautiful in itself, so the foundation does not require additional finishing, as well as protection from the environment.
• Construction of a rubble foundation is not too difficult, even a non-professional can handle it.
• Quarry stones are relatively inexpensive, and if the quarry is not far from you, the delivery will not ruin.

However, the rubble foundation also has a lot of disadvantages:

• First, at the first stage, you will have to carry out very complex calculations. It is difficult to calculate how much stone is needed, because its size can vary significantly, there is no strict form, the stones will be different.
• Although it is relatively easy to build a rubble foundation, the process itself is very time consuming. You will have to lay heavy stones into the trench exclusively by hand, there is no other technology. Therefore, the construction will be time consuming and long enough..
• The price of a rubble stone can significantly increase due to delivery if there is no quarry in your region. The cost of the foundation will also raise the help of employees, and it is difficult for one person to cope with this task.

We wrote about the types of rubble masonry and its features. The process of building a foundation from rubble stone includes the following stages:

1. A trench is being dug. The foundation is laid to a depth below the freezing of the soil, that is, this indicator will be different for different regions.
2. The soil in the trench is compacted.
3. A sand cushion is poured, the layer of sand should be about 10–20 cm. The sand is also compacted. On heaving soils, it is advisable to pour gravel first, and only then sand.
4. After the formwork is equipped, the roofing material is laid with an overlap.
5. The largest stones are placed on the bottom, it is advisable to choose the most even butt.
6. The first row of stones is laid along the entire foundation, covered with crushed stone, compacted and poured with concrete, preferably a grade of at least M300.
7. The next row of rubble stones is laid across the trench, the next row is again along, and so on..
8. Rows of stones can be laid without waiting for the solution to harden on the previous layer.
9. If the foundation is high enough, the last three to four layers of stones should be reinforced to further strengthen.

The standard height of a rubble foundation is 160 cm, it should rise at least 30 cm above the ground. Stones for the foundation are different – cobblestone, tuff, shell rock, limestone, sandstone. The weight of the stone should be up to 30 kg, so larger ones are split.

Important! Before laying, stones should be wetted, this will improve adhesion to concrete.

It is equally important to immediately plan the location of communications and ventilation, they will have to be laid directly during the construction of the rubble foundation.