Abbey Pynford’s Housedeck raft foundation system has been used on the construction of a communal dining hall at Cuffley Outdoor Centre in Hertfordshire.

Protected trees grow close to the site, so traditional pile foundations would probably damage their roots, and leave little scope for changing pile locations if an obstruction is discovered. However, the Housedeck system effectively “floats” over the surface, leaving tree roots undisturbed.

The system uses a structural reinforced concrete slab 225mm deep that covers the entire footprint of the building and is supported directly on piles between 140mm and 350mm diameter without the use of ground beams or pile caps. The steel reinforcement ensures that loads on the slab from the building are transferred to the ground by way of the piles, without the risk of the them “punching” through the slab.

There are four versions of Housedeck and they all meet NHBC and LANTAC technical requirements.

Abbey Pynford

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