The foundation "Swedish plate": what is its advantage?

Over time, traditional types of foundations are under increasing pressure from new promising construction technologies. An excellent example is the foundation "Swedish plate".

The basic principle

The technology of its laying is interesting in that it combines a monolithic concrete slab, a floor heating system and engineering communications, also laid in the very depth of the basement. Thanks to this approach, you can get in the shortest possible time not only a warm, but ideally even floor, almost ready to lay any floor covering. That is why the foundation "Swedish plate", the price of which is relatively low, is becoming increasingly popular in our conservative country.

How is the process of laying

• Carefully removed the top layer of soil, and the area of the exposed area should be slightly larger than the size of the future building.
• A layer of sand about 15 cm thick is poured, after which it is moistened and thoroughly rammed.
• Preliminary drain draining system and all required engineering communications.
• Then lay a layer of gravel, the thickness of which should also be at least 15 cm.
• Produce a stack of expanded polystyrene and formwork, which form the lateral base of the house.
• After this, 0.2 m of extruded polystyrene foam is laid.
• Making sure of the evenness of the base, install special supports, on which the reinforcing foundation of the future foundation is laid.
• The pipes of the warm floor are also installed there, after which they are pumped with air.
• They poured concrete, the thickness of which should be about 0.1 m.

Without being an exception, the foundation "Swedish plate" generates a lot of doubts and questions from experts who are accustomed to working only with proven technologies. For example, a lot of questions are caused just by the thickness of concrete only 10 cm, whereas in the classical version this figure is 0.3 m minimum. To some extent, these fears are justified, since before the erection of the structure it is absolutely necessary to check the characteristics of the soil in the area where you plan to erect your house. In general, the foundation "Swedish plate", the technology of which is described above, is perfectly suitable for most of the panel houses and buildings from the timber.

In addition, the greatest doubts among our builders are the same polystyrene foam that fits in the base of the entire structure. Our specialists do not understand how the foundation "Swedish plate" can stand in our weather conditions. We will not deceive you: at the moment, there is simply no long-term statistics on how such houses will behave after 50 years in our climate. But the Finnish climate in many respects is similar to ours, and buildings have been going through the sixth decade.

In addition, the foundation "Swedish plate" assumes certain nuances that you must decide for yourself in advance. So, how comfortable is the complete concreting of the sewage and water supply system in terms of their maintainability? How comfortable will you live, seeing snowdrifts directly above the window? After all, we do not have a base, and the house is much lower down to the ground. In addition, the issue with such construction is controversial in the absence of gasification of the site: in the future, it will be necessary to solve the problem with penetration of holes for pipes.