DIY foundation from old tires

What folk craftsmen do not think of trying to save money on construction. A prime example is the construction of a foundation from old car tires. Our site of advice decided to figure out whether there are advantages to such a foundation of buildings and how to make a foundation from tires with our own hands.

Describing what can be done from old tires on the site, the portal showed how beautiful flower beds, garden swings and furniture from this available material can be. The main plus of old tires is that all motorists have them, they are still lying around idle, but they can still work!

Of course, building a tire foundation is much more difficult than making a flower bed. This is already a large-scale task, but you can get a very cheap and fairly solid foundation for buildings..

There are several advantages to a tire foundation:

• Cheapness. Even if you don’t have enough old tires in your garage, you can always go to the nearest car service and literally negotiate with its employees for a bottle of alcohol. They will return the tires lying around idle, all that remains is to transport them to the construction site. What is also inexpensive – you can make a couple of flights with your own car.
• High-quality rubber tires perfectly tolerate temperature changes, heat, frost, high humidity. It is a durable material designed to withstand significant loads.
• The structure of the tires allows them to withstand significant loads. You can not be afraid of deformation under the weight of the building.
• The very rubber of the tires and their shape provide waterproofing.

Of course, there are also disadvantages of tire foundations:

• Despite the fairly high strength of the material, experts do not recommend building a capital house on such a basis. This is an option for gazebos, garages, sheds, baths, and other outbuildings. However, on the network we found reviews of the owners of houses built on a foundation of tires. And the reviews are good! For example, one of the owners built a house measuring 6×6 meters and two floors with 36 tires. And safely attaches a garage to it. However, of course, it is better not to build a brick, heavy house on tires in any case. Much lighter frame – perhaps, but after carrying out load calculations.
• Do not place tires directly on the ground! So that they do not heat up from the ground and do not emit harmful vapors, waterproofing is needed.
• The tires inside need to be stuffed with something, carefully, tightly, so that the foundation turns out to be reliable enough.

We have devoted a whole series of articles to different types of foundations. So from tires you can build a columnar foundation, strip and solid. The latter will be the most reliable option. In addition, the “tire” foundation can be buried or surface.

You can stuff tires with different materials. Of course, concrete is the safest choice. However, since we decided to save to the fullest, you can fill up the tires with crushed stone, broken brick, gravel, adding sand to fill all the voids.

The process of building a foundation from car tires looks like this:

1. We draw up a plan, determine the type of base, it is advisable to make a drawing, markup on the site.
2. The upper fertile soil layer is removed completely, if it is decided to make a deepened foundation – a pit is dug. If not, it will be enough to carefully level the site. If the site is small, we are talking about the construction of a bathhouse or a gazebo, then you can handle it with a shovel and a rake.
3. Next, we lay a layer of waterproofing, fill in gravel, sand, that is, we equip a drainage cushion.
4. After that, we lay the tires according to the level – in the form of separate pillars, with a tape around the perimeter or solid throughout the site, depending on the type of foundation chosen.
5. At the very bottom of each tire, we put a layer of waterproofing material, and then fill it with broken brick, gravel, crushed stone, sand. Everything needs to be tamped very tightly, avoiding voids. It is advisable to spill the sand, and then fill it up and tamp it again.
6. Pour everything from above with concrete, wait until it dries.
7. You can start building the formwork, which should ideally overlap the outer edges of the base. We put roofing material on top again.

Experienced builders advise to lay tires in at least two layers in order to raise the foundation and improve its shock absorption properties. The upper and lower tires can be connected with self-tapping screws. Subject to the technology, the use of high-quality rubber tires, according to user reviews, usually no problems arise with the further operation of the structure..

By the way, our site has already said that a septic tank for a summer residence can also be made from old tires.

Video on how to build a tire foundation