Construction of the foundation for a grain warehouse Introduction The quest for food security in Sub Saharan Africa

has become very important to stakeholders in this sub region and the world at large. To keep up with this direction, various policies have been and are being employed to ensure food is always available for consumption as and when needed. The Ghana shared growth and development agenda policy framework features various policies to improve our agriculture sector for that matter food security. The framework brings out the issue of making agriculture more scientific, technological and innovative. Amidst all these policy directions, one of the most important aspects of agriculture is warehousing and for that matter building very good foundations to ensure appropriateness and fitness to the produce concerned. Warehousing refers to the activities involving storage of goods on a large-scale in a systematic and orderly manner and making them available conveniently when needed. It is one of the important auxiliaries to trade. The need for warehousing arises due to seasonal production of goods, seasonal demand, large-scale production, quick supply, continuous production as well as price stabilization.

Constructing the foundation for a grain warehouse

Warehouses are intended for the storage and physical protection of goods and every part of it should be carefully built using appropriate materials and following engineering requirements. This will help to build a warehouse that excludes pests and moisture to the barest minimum.

Types of foundations

Strip foundation normally provide for loads bearing walls, and for rows of column which are space so close that pad foundation would nearly touch each other. The minimum strip width is 450mm and its enough for two story building on the normal standard soil. The minimum depth is 150mm

1) Strip foundation

This is the most common type, it is mainly used where you have strong soil base and nonwaterlogged areas. Most small buildings of just a floor are constructed with this type of foundation. Depending on the structural engineers recommendation, the depth of the foundation could be from 600mm to 1200mm mostly for small scale buildings. When the soil is excavated, a level at which the concrete will settle evenly is established, then concrete is poured this may be from 150mm(6) thick to 450mm(18) thick depending also on building after that block is set round the trenches at the center of foundation ,the foundation usually follows the block lines. The blocks are then layed to d.p.c level before another concrete is poured on top, this is the german or oversite concrete. This type seems to be the cheapest. 2)Pad foundation

This is where isolated columns (pillars) are casted from the foundation to carry a slab at the top of the ground. This is mostly used when underside of building is going to be used as parking space or when the other space is not conducive to have foundation. This column is isolated and then referred to as pad.

3)Raft foundation

This is where you have concrete spread around your building from the base of foundation all through to the german floor/oversite concrete/ground floor slab. It is mainly used in areas where the soil are sandy and loose, you spend more on this than the other previous two most of the time. It is also recommended in waterlogged areas but with buildings of less storeys. It has a ground beam which shuts out from the foundation base and is also attached to the ground floor slab to form a network of concrete embedded round the building space. The ground beam are usually from 600mm to 1200mm for low buildings. 4)Pile foundation

The most expensive and the strongest type of foundation, this requires specialist engineering to do. The soil are bored deep down the earth and filled with concrete to be able to support loads of multistory building on top. Most skyscrapers are constructed with this foundation type. A waterlogged area of high building may also require this. It is the costliest hence it is used for high rise building mostly.

5)Grillage foundation

This is used when very heavy loads from structural steel columns have to be carried on a wide base, and where the overall depth of the foundation is restricted (to enable the base slab to be sited above the ground water table, for example) a steel grillage may be required to spread the loads. The girder of the lowermost tier is design to act as cantilever carrying as a distribution loading equal to the bearing pressure on the foundation slab. An intermediate tier may be

required. In large grillage the girders in each tier are located by tie bolts passing through holes drilled through their webs with gas barrel spacer threaded over the bolts between the web.

6) Basement and Buoyancy

This type of foundation has same principle with raft foundation but it has an additional and important function which utilises the principle of buoyancy to reduce the net load on the soil. In this way the total settlement of the foundation is reduced and it follows that the differential settlement are also reduced. Buoyancy is achieved by providing a hollow sub-structure of a depth such that the weight of the soil removed in excavation for it either balances or is only a little less than the combine weight of the super-structure and sub-structure

The foundation for a grain warehouse is very important such that it should inform you of the site to select when building a warehouse. As an important step to exclude moisture, the ground should be ideally level and raised above the surrounding area and should not be sited in flood prone areas. In instances where there are no level grounds slightly undulating grounds should be used and the foundations aligned along contour lines. More so, the characteristics of the soil such as its load bearing capacity, drainage and resistance to compaction should be checked. Foundations should not be built on black cotton soils since they are weak and cannot bear much load. Unstable clay soils and areas which have been filled in should be avoided wherever possible, because they involve the risk of subsidence. In all cases, it is necessary to dig down to a point where the soil-bearing pressure is 150 kN/m2 or better. The floor must be able to bear the weight of the grain which will be stacked upon it, and it must also be impermeable to ground water. For these reasons the floor should consist of a slab of reinforced concrete laid upon well compacted hard core, with a moisture barrier sandwiched between the two. This moisture barrier

should consist of a layer of bitumen or asphalt, bitumen felt, or a polyethylene film. The reinforced concrete slab must be made with expansion joints, to prevent cracking (which makes storage hygiene difficult). It should be covered with a cement cap a few centimetres thick, which is rendered smooth and hardened (to prevent powdering). Ideally, the concrete slab should be laid after the roof has been completed: to prevent direct sunshine drying it too rapidly, and possibly causing it to crack. This will also stop the incidence of rodents boring holes through the cracks. The floor level must be sufficiently above ground level to ensure that water will not enter the warehouse, even after the heaviest rainfall that can be expected. Consideration could be given to erecting the warehouse on a plinth raised about 1.2 metres above ground level, to facilitate loading and unloading of vehicles.