You are trying to avoid a condition where frost occurs in the soil directly under a footing and in which case the soil expands (or rather the moisture freezes and expands within the soil matrix) and dislocates the footing. Concur with blackwed, however assuming a frost depth of 6 inches anywhere in south carolina is a typical, very conservative assumption The state currently uses ibc 2003. A contractor is suggesting the use of 1ft deep, very wide concrete slab to support heavy rotating equipment The local jurisdiction has a required frost depth 42in Can a very heavy foundation (while still below the allowable bearing capacity of the soil) eliminate the need to go below the 42.
On the other hand, dry, clean, sand or gravel may freeze without heaving Heave can vary a lot from year to year depending on moisture conditions and weather. Hi, guys, need help here If frost depth is determined for a county, how many tests do they perform before the county is satisfied with their estimate of frost depth Is climate change taken into account in frost depth calculations It seems to me that there are a ton of variables that could affect frost depth, so am just curious how these numbers are typically determined.
The recommendations also state that placing friction reducing material can be considered as an alternate option to prevent damage. Frost depth also tends to presume a bit of heated building in the tabulated numbers, so keep that in mind for say, a freezer building, unheated storage, etc. The frost thermostat you mention is commonly called a freezestat It is normally an averaging sensor installed downstream of the preheat coil, and it is wired into the fan control circuit to shut down the fan if the temperature approaches freezing. I will probably continue to show a floating slab with an expansion joint between the slab and the typical exterior wall, and then show a downturn thickened slab edge bearing on either a short foundation stem wall (frost wall i guess you guys and/or gals call it up north) or directly on the footing.
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