Piles and bearers

28th March
Pile and bearers

Today we started on piles and bearers. Because the house is being moved, we are putting down temporary piles on top of a sole plate [4 sole plates]
     

Hand tools used : Rule and pencil / hammer and nails / Builders level
Power tools used:Dynadrill / radial saw / [some used a nail gun]
protetive equipement: ear muffs / steel cap boots
     
Hazards: Radial saw [ran through safety process with Matt]
 Radial saw

• We have made temporary piles [3 x 1100mm by 50mm boards nailed together] and have calculated of the building plans for the floor structure as needing 32 piles. The lengths vary slightly from 497mm up to 504mm

 nailing the temporary piles together   Plans
 cutting the piles to length

There are 5 types of pile :-

1. An Anchor pile gives provides bracing as a result of the stifffnes of the pile. As it is placed in the ground deep than an ordinary pile, a min of 900mm setting above 100mm of concrete place also having at least 100mm of concret around it up to ground level
2. A braced pile has a diagonal timber brace fron one pile to an other. This helps with lateral loads
3. An ordinary pile only resists vertical loads
4. A driven pile is no more than 3.6m long and is driven into the ground with a pile driver machine
5. Cantilevered pile is a driven pile that complies with - top of pile is 1.2m above ground / - no pile is a 6m wide strip is twice the height above clear ground level with any other pile in that group

E. Explain how to fix the bearers to: anchor; braced; cantilever; driven and ordinary piles (NZS 3604, Section 6).

F. Explain how to prevent dampness in the foundation and sub floor framing (NZS 3604, Section 6).

G. Explain what a bearer and a stringer are, and their purpose(s) (Ref. Consortium Student Handbook: Substructure).

• A stringer is a horizontal piece of framing timber fixed to the side of concrete, masonry cladding to support the ends of the joist
• A bearer can be a solid piece of timber or laminated timber that is attached to the pile to evenly distribute the vertical loads [plus how it is braced to also take horizontal loads: example wind and or earth quarks] / must be treated wood [H1.2] by radiata pine / also must be of a set structual grade

H. Explain how stringers are attached as per NZS 3604, Section 6.

• Bent M12mm bolt  with a minimum of 100mm into the concret / DPC [damp prove course] between the concrete and timber / bolt centered with a 50 x 50 x 3mm washer [all fittings must be hot dipped galvanised] / spacing specified by the NZS 3604 [section 6 table 6.7]

I. Explain what is meant by Capacity of Bracing for Sub floor bracing design as per NZS 3604, Section 5. Discuss how the sub floor bracing is distributed in a building.

J. Explain a sub floor bracing method as per NZS 3604, Section 5