Introduction

A building cracking is one of the most significant structural defects on the

buildings especially which served for public usage. The professionals especially
surveyors and engineers have made mistake in interpreting the significance of
cracking in buildings. Many of them are not a well-trained for autopsy and repair
of the structural building defects.
Cracking is now prevalent in earlier year before. The availability of the
insurance cover for structural subsidence and landslip is the main reason it is now
more apparent. The changes of climate also have much influenced in the building
cracking problem and have major impact to the soil clay with high moisture
content.
The common reason of the buildings movement is resulted by the soil
conditions below the ground surface. Settlement of foundation is generally related
with substructures problem. Foundation settlement generally occurs in buildings
shortly after the buildings construction and alteration have completed. It is
occurred as a result as applied load on the ground that has never been loaded
before or with increasing load. The initial compression on the ground can result in
structural cracking depending on the soil quality and load bearing capacity of the
ground.

SCOPE OF STUDY

Buildings cracking generally related with the structural settlement.

Cracking of the building can reduce the strength of the structure, reduce an
aesthetical and serviceability values besides danger to the users of the structure.
The loads that have transferred from structure to the soil will cause settlement
problem. The settlement which is not keep in a tolerable limits will be impaired
the desired use of structure and may reduce the structures design life.
In this individual project I choose surau Tun Syed Nasir located near the
ATM bus stop in front of the futsal court. The reason I choose the building and the
area is because the settlement of the soil is high and it can be seen if we have a
walk around the area and some major cracking at the building due to the
settlement on the soil. The area itself has poor drainage system when heavy rains
happen in several times in a year. Besides that, the type of soil on that area also
affects the rate of settlement of the buildings. Silt and clay soil type will give a
challenge to the engineer to construct a building on that type of soil. The high
moisture content in the soil itself will risk the foundation of the buildings.
Furthermore, a clay soil will not change its volume unless the water
content changes. Structural damage may occur if the change in moisture content is
relatively rapid (say over a few weeks or months) or if it affects only part of a
building. Situations which can cause this include changes in subsurface drainage
(such as a water leak from a burst or blocked pipe or drain), localized drying of a
soil (due to plant growth or proximity of trees), or a sudden change in the water
regime (due to the removal or pruning of a tree which was sheltering the soil and
keeping it relatively dry, for example).

SOLUTION AND SUGGESTION

There are several ways to overcome with this problem which can help to
reduce the cracking at the building and the value of settlement that occur in the
soil itself. In my study, there are three techniques for settled foundation which is
Foundation Underpinning, Polymer Injection and Grout Pumping.
The first suggestion to overcome this problem is Foundation
Underpinning. The word Underpinning itself referred to as Piering. This
technique involves driving steel piers (either helical or standard push piers) into
the earth beneath a settled foundation until each pier reaches solid, stable soil or
bedrock. A bracket at the top of each pier is connected to the foundation, enabling
the installer to raise and stabilize the settled mansory. Underpinning is effective
for rising settled foundation walls and slabs.

Figure 1 and 2 Example Underpinning process

Besides that, Polymer Injection is one of the technique that can be done to
overcome this settled foundation problem. Expanding geotechnical foam can be
injected into loose or weak soil to consolidate and stabilize the soil while also

improving its load bearing characteristics. Polymer injection is sometimes used in

combination with underpinning. By itself, its an effective technique for raising
settled sidewalks, walkways and concrete slabs.

Figure 2 Example of Mud Jacking

Lastly, the repair technique for settled foundation that can be considered is
Grout Pumping. Sometimes it referred to as mud jacking; this technique involved
pumping liquid concrete slurry into voids beneath settled concrete. Grout
pumping can be used to raise sunken sidewalks and slabs, or to fill voids left after
raising a settled foundation with piers.

Figure 2 Example of Mud Jacking