Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
The S~needish i'atent t~ffic~ - .
' ACT Inter~~ti~.~nal A~a;~ficaticar~ ~~ ~2 I O 2 ~ ~ ~,
1 0 4 -02-2004
A FOUNDATION STRUCTURE
Technical field
The present invention relates to a building foundation structure of the kind
defined in
the preamble of claim 1.
More particularly, the invention relates to a ground-supported foundation
structure.
Normally, the ground is drained and a capillarity breaking layer of material,
e.g. crushed
stone, is strewn over a flat and horizontal upper surface of the ground, said
material
having a particle size of 2-4 mm.
Baground art
It is well known, not least from the experience gained over a long period of
foundation
work, that ground-supported foundations run the risk of allowing moisture to
migrate
through the foundation structure and into the building erected on the
foundation. Smells
are also liable to penetrate through the foundations. It has been found in
particular that
the ground°s own smell "jusmine" odour, is liable to percolate through
known
foundation structures.
In addition to being impervious to smell/odours, it is necessary that a
foundation
structure can established quickly and at low cost, and that the imperviousness
of the
structure will satisfy the requirements of being well integrated with the
foundation
structure.
Disclosure of Invention
Accordingly, an obj ect of the present invention is to provide a generally
smell/odour
impervious foundation structure that can be readily constructed in desired
sizes from
lightweight elements.
Foil that is impervious to jusmin odours and that retains for a very long time
in the
environment in which it is placed, for example a time period in the order of
one hundred
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to several hundred years, is placed on a supporting surface, suitably a
levelled layer,
over the ground area. The foil is often exposed to ground moisture and
moisture of
condensation in an environment which will relatively often be acid or contain
aggressive substances. Consequently, it is particularly suitable to choose a
metallic foil
material that can withstand such an environment over a long time while still
retaining its
imperviousness to jusmin odour.
When the metallic foil, for instance Al-foil, shall be laid essentially
directly on the
ground levelling layer, so that it will lie in direct contact with the
granular material in
said layer, the foil will preferably have a relatively large thickness, e.g. a
thickness in
the order of 0,1-1 mm, so as to ensure that the foil will not be penetrated
when
subjected, in time, to the load exerted by a building construction, via the
foundation, and
brought into intimate contact with the levelling layer. At such thickness, the
metal foil
can be obtained/delivered in roll form and unwound from the roll at the site
of the
foundation structure and laid over the foundation area. The foil will also
have a good
tear strength, therewith minimising the risk of damaging the foil as it is
laid out. If, for
practical reasons, the width of the foil is smaller than the width of the
foundation
structure, foil lengths can be lain adjacent one another with a join
therebetween, e.g. an
overlap join, so as to ensure the imperviousness of the foil layout to
smell/odours. The
overlap foil may have a width which is adapted in this respect and may include
a strip or
layer of glue, adhesive tape or some readily deformable foil, preferably
springy foil, that
has substantial width in the breadth direction of the overlap foil and
therwith ensure that
impermeability to smell and odours is achieved over a wide area in the air
leakage
direction. A single overlap joint between mutually adjacent strips of Al-foil
will
normally suffice, since such joints are usually pressurised along the whole of
their
length. The levelling surface may, of course, be covered with plastic foil
prior to laying
out the metallic foil, for instance in order to prevent the ingress of
sand/grains into a
possible overlap joint between adjacent strips of Al-foil. In one embodiment
of the
invention, the Al-foil may be laminated with plastic foil if so desired, for
instance from
handling aspect, although the relatively thick and odour proof foil,
preferably
aluminium foil, used in accordance with the invention is able to retain its
integrity for a
very long tome in its environment, which is often aggressive. The majority of
plastic
foils would lose their integrity in said environment over the same time of
period.
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In another embodiment of the invention, the odour-proof foil, e.g. Al-foil,
may, of
course, be placed between two layers of heat insulating material included in
the
foundation structure, in which case the Al-foil may be thinner, because the
insulating
material defines a smooth and even support surface onto which the foil can be
rolled
out.
The object of the invention is achieved. The invention is defined in the
accompanying
independent Claim while further embodiments of the invention are defined in
the
dependent Claims.
I the case of particularly preferred embodiment of the invention the surface
of the
ground is first prepared by draining the ground and then laying on the surface
a layer of
capillarity breaking material. For instance crushed stone, habing a particle
size of 2 - 4
mm. anf thereafter smoothing the layer to obtain a flat and horizontal
surface.
Prefabricated standard size sheets or sheets, e.g. rectangular sheets, of
cellular insulating
material, such as foamglas~ having a thickness of 50 mm for instance are laid
tightly
against each other in a first layer on the crushed stone. A further layer of
such sheets
may optionally be lain in mutual tight abutment on the first layer, wherewith
the joins
between adjacent sheets of the second layer will be offset in relation to the
joins in the
first layer.
It is endeavoured to achieve a liquid tight joining sheets together. The
cellular insulating
material is preferably foamglas~ or some other material that provides an
absolute
minimum of water adsorption or absouption and this is also highly pressure
resistance
and safe against vermin and that is effectively heat insulating and diffusion
tight.
The insulating layers are conventionally surrounded by a frame, whose members
may
consist of sheet metal U-beams, wherein the concave side of respective beams
faces
toward the interior of the foundation element. The area within the frame is
filled with
pressure-strong heat insulating material, for instance two superposed layers
of cellular
insulation (2 x 100 mm foamglas). The frame of the foundation element can be
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stabilised, by mounting sheet-metal I-beams in said frame parallel with one of
the frame
U-beams. The sheet-metal beams of the foundation element are joined
mechanically in a
manner to stabilise the element. The foundation element may have a thickness
of 200
mm for example. The use of U-beams and I-beams in respect of the foundation
element
means that the cellular insulating sheets can be shape-bounded to the beams by
inserting
those sheet portions adjacent the beams into the concave parts thereof.
Moreover, the
upper horizontal flanges of the beams will provide anchorage points for wall
construction of the building erected on the foundation structure. The building
structure
may be of the kind that has the form of a prefabricated box, which usually
produced in a
factory situated at some distance from the foundation structure.
Alternatively, the
foundation eler2~ent may be placed separately on the foundation structure and
anchored
to its sheet-metal flanges.
Because we have found that even in the case of sealing foil, that has a low
smell
transmission capacity, the foil will allow smells and odours to wander
therethrough in
practice, we prefer to use a sealing layer that is comprised of a metal alloy
or a metal.
So far as we are aware, aluminium foil provides desired imperviousness to
odours, even
at thickness as small as 0,01 mm - although thicker foils will, of course,
provide greater
security in this respect and will also facilitate construction of the
foundation structure,
since foils of the type in question can be delivered in rolls from which foil
strips can be
unwound and flattened and then laid on the foundation structure.
Brief desciption of drawings
The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the
accompanying drawings, in which
Figure 1 is a schematic vertical view of an invention foundation structure;
Figure 2 is a schematic illustration of an overlap join between two strips of
foil
consisting of odour-impervious material;
Figure 3 illustrates a variant of the subject of figure 1;
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Figure 4 shows another embodiment of the subject of figure 1;
Figure 5,6 and 7 are respective views of frame elements in a frame
construction that can
be included in the foundation structure; and
Figure 8 illustrates an embodiment of a sheet to which sealing has been pre-
fitted.
Modes to carrying out the invention
Refernng to Fig. 1, it will be seen that at the site of the foundation
structure there is a
drained ground layer 50 which may consist of or be covered with a capillarity
barrier,
preferably a layer of crushed or broken stone, wherein the upper surface 51 of
the
barrier 50 essentially flat or horizontal.
Placed on the surface 51 is an aluminium foil or metal sheeting 111 which has
preferred
thickness of at least 0,1 mm, and more preferably a thickness of 0,3 - 0,5 mm.
Established on the foil 111 is a layer of heat insulating material, preferably
foamglas.
Sheets of foamglas 40 are joined together and placed over the foil 111. The
sheets 40
are stabilised with the aid of the frame 31 which surrounds at least the
mutually joined
sheets 40.
When the foil 111 is obtained in the form of strips whose width is smaller
than the
width of the foundation structure, the foil strips may be placed with an
overlap join 112.
A sealing layer, e.g. time-durable adhesive, may be applied across the width
of the join
to minimise the danger of smells being transmitted through the mutually joined
foils
111. Alternatively, a sealed join can be established with the aid of welds,
adhesive tape
or there technical correspondence.
Figure 3 illustrates an embodiment in which a layer 17 of heat insulating
material, e.g.
mutually joined sheets 10 of foamglas, is placed on the surface S1 of the
capillarity
barner, wherewith Al-foil is placed on the layer 17, prior to placing the
foundation
layer, established by sheets 40 and the frame 31, on the foil 111.
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Figure 4 illustrates a variant in which a further layer 18 of sheets .10,
mutually joined at
their respective edges, is placed on the foil 111 before the frame with sheets
40 is placed
on the layer 18.
The frame 31 surrounds the foundation layer established by the sheets 40 so as
hold the
foundation structure in the horizontal plane, said frame also providing
anchorage points
for the building to be supported by the foundation structure. According to one
embodiment of the invention, the exposed parts of the edges of the sheets 40
may be
recessed to receive the legs of a generally U-shaped frame member 32 (Fig. 5).
In the
embodiment according to Fig.6, the frame member 32 has roughly the same height
as
the sheets 40 although the top and bottom surfaces of said sheets are slightly
recessed to
enable them to receive the legs of the frame members 32. Figure 6 shows that I-
beams
37 may be arranged in the joins between adjacent sheets 40, said sheets in the
join
regions recesses that receive the flanges of the I-beams can also have the
same height as
the sheets 40. However, it is preferred at the present distance of the frame
members
between said flanges corresponds to the thickness of the sheets of insulating
material.
The flanges on the frame members have only a small thickness e.g. thickness of
1 mm,
and their position above the main surfaces of the sheets normally causes no
trouble.
The frame 31 normally rectangular in shape and comprises straight, U-shaped
sheet
metal profiles which are joined together (Fig. 7) at the corner regions of the
frame by
means of rivets, screw joints, glue joints or corresponding fastener means
between
overlapping leg portions of sheet metal profiles, which have essentially the
same web
measurements and a small material thickness, e.g. thickness of 1 mm.
It will be seen from Fig. 6 that rods 43 may be extended between the members
of the
frame 31 as to hold the frame members together in the horizontal plane.
It will be understood that the frame 31 with associated sheets 40 can form an
integral
part of a prefabricated box unit, so that the foundation structure and
supplementing any
parts of the foundation that may been earlier mounted on the site of the
foundation
structure, wherewith prefabricated box units may be joined together to form
the body of
a building on the foundation structure.
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Naturally, the foundation structure can be established in the manner shown in
Figs. l, 3
and 4, wherein the framework of a building can be erected in accordance with
loose
timber techniques or block techniques and anchored to the frame structure.
By way of a modification of the embodiment shown in Figs. 3 and 4, there may
be
included an additional frame which grips all other heat insulating layers and
possible
intermediate or outwardly lying foils/metal sheets 111.
One of the heat insulating layers (17, 18) may be formed by preferably
rectangular heat
insulating elements 10 that are mutually joined along their edges. One main
surface of
respective elements 1 may be covered with a piece of metal foil 11, preferably
aluminium foil. The pieces of metal foil 11 on the elements 10 can be
sealingly
connected with overlap joints, e.g. by overlapping strips 12 of said metal
foil on the foil
side of mutually adjacent elements along their respective joins.
Alternatively, the foil
covering on respective elements 10 may have an edge portion 12 that projects
out
beyond the edges of two mutually adjacent edges and overlaps the foil covering
at the
edges of said adjacent elements.
Both of the layers 17, 18 may be built up by joining such prefabricated sheets
10
provided with a foil covering 11. The sheets 10 of said two layers may
conveniently be
orientated so that their foil cladding 11 will be in mutual contact, whereby
the insulating
sheets 10 of the layers 17, 18 will be separated by two mutually bordering
layers of foil
material. The foil cladding o covering 11 on the sheets has an equivalent
composition to
that of the aforedescribed foil 111.
Preferably, the joins between the sheets 10 in respective layers 17, 18 will
be offset in
relation to one another.
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