Updating Design Building Codes For Basement-wall Construction

Proposed changes would make code design tables more useful for all soil types

BY ROBERT A. GARBINI

oncrete contractors and ready mixed concrete producers often are the first targets for problems involving residential concrete basement walls that have developed cracks. Often these cracks have occurred despite the builders following good construction practicesselecting the basement-wall thickness from the building-code tables, properly curing the walls, and placing the first-floor framing before backfilling. When all these things are done and the wall still has cracks, it seems logical that the concrete was bad. But when testing shows the concrete is up to strength, builders are left scratching their heads. What went wrong? Probably nothing that either the builder or concrete producer had control over.

walls without the expense of hiring a design engineer. The limiting condition, howe ve r, is that the tables should not be used when backfill materials produce an equivalent fluid pressure greater than 30 pounds per cubic foot, or, more correctly, 30 pounds per square foot of wall surface per ver-

tical foot of wall (psff). Equivalent fluid pressure (EFP) is a simple linear pressure distribution representing the more complex irregular shape of the actual soil lateral pressure, as shown in Figure 1. Current pre s c ri p t i ve design tables used for most residential concrete basement walls are based on

Current Codes Limit Usefulness

For the non- or low-seismic areas of the country, many building codes have pre s c ri p t i ve tables for selecting thicknesses of plain-concrete residential basement walls. These tables allow the builder to select the appropriate wall thickness and construct residential basement

the presumption that the soil used for backfill does not have a lateral pressure greater than 30 psff. However, the only soils that produce lateral pressures at or near 30 psff are clean gravels and sands. The remaining soil typessilty gra ve l , silty sands, clayey sands, and inorganic silts and claysall generate

higher lateral soil pressures ranging from 36 to 55 psff. Typically, the soil excavated on a site for a residential basement is used as backfill. This soil usually is silty sand, clayey sand, silt, or clayall soil types that pro d u c e l a t e ral pre s s u res greater than 30 psff. What this means is that the

Soil Lateral Load Design Lateral Soil Load (psf per foot of depth)2 30

concrete contractor and producer often unknowingly build a structure whose design is not based on a rational approach. Unless the residential contractor builds in an area where the excavated soil used as backfill is a clean gravel or sand (no silts or clays), the basement wall probably will receive a lateral earth load greater than 30 psff and potentially experience u n e xplained cracking.

Proposed Code-Table Changes

The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association (NRMCA) has taken a step toward correcting this basement-wall design oversight through the model building-codes p ro c e s s. NRMCA has proposed new plain-concrete basement-wall thickness design tables that are based on accepted engineering principles for various re c o g n i ze d soil types. Using the tables, a municipality can adopt one or more equivalent fluid pressures to represent the prevailing soil types in its area. This would allow the same ease of basement-wall thickness selection as with previous tables, but the wall thickness would be based on a rational approach and would be suitable for use with a much wider range of soil types. As an example, assume a municipality contains a pre d o m inance of moist, silty sands in its area. In selecting a plain-concrete basement-wall thickness, the builder first refers to a table giving the general description of the soils, selecting the row with silty s a n d s (Table 1). Reading acro s s the table, the builder sees that this soil type produces a design lateral load of 41 psff. After determining the appropriate design lateral load, the minimum thickness for a plain-concrete wall can be selected from Table 2 (given the wall height and the height of unbalanced fill). The table is based on the strength requirements of the American Concrete Institutes (ACI) 318.1, Building Code Requirements for Structural Plain Concrete. For this example, an 8-

Soil Description Well-graded, clean gravels; gravel-sand mixes Poorly graded clean gravels, gravel-sand mixes Silty gravels, poorly graded gravel-sand mixes Clayey gravels, poorly graded gravel-sand-clay mixes Well-graded, clean sands; gravelly sand mixes Poorly graded clean sands; sand-gravel mixes Silty sands, poorly graded sand-silt mixes Sand-silt clay mix with plastic fines Clayey sands, poorly graded sand-clay mixes Inorganic silts and clayey silts Mixture of inorganic silt and clay Inorganic clays of low to medium plasticity Organic silts and silt-clays, low plasticity Inorganic clayey silts, elastic silts Inorganic clays of high plasticity Organic clays and silty clays
1 2

Unified Soil Classification GW

GP GM GC SW SP SM SM-SC SC ML ML-CL CL CL MH CH CH

30 41 46 30 30 41 44 48 45 44 45
1

55
1

Replace soil with controlled backfill. The design lateral soil loads are for moist conditions for the specified soils at their optimum densities. Submerged or saturated soil pressures shall include the weight of the buoyant soil plus the hydrostatic loads.

Table 1. Typical lateral loads for various soil types.

Plain-Concrete Wall Thickness Minimum Wall Thickness (inches) Wall Height (feet) Unbalanced Backfill Height (feet) Soil Classes and Lateral Soil Load (psf per foot of depth) GW, GP, SW, and SP Soils 30 4 (or less) 7 5 6 7 4 (or less) 5 8 6 7 8 4 (or less) 5 9 6 7 8 9
1

GM, GC, SM, SM-SC, and ML Soils 45 712 712 712 8 7 2

1

SC, MH, ML-CL1, and Inorganic CL Soils 60 712 712 8 10 712 712 10 10 12 712 712 10 10 12
2

712 712 712 7 2

1

7 2
1

712 712 7 2
1

712 712 10 10 712 712 712 10 10 12

10 712 712 712 7 2

1

10 10

The ML-CL designated soil in Table 1 is included in the 60 psff column due to the high probability that the silt or clay will have a high water content. Design required by ACI 318.

Table 2. Minimum wall thickness for residential basement walls with various soil types. Based on ACI 318.1 strength requirements. inch thickness is required for a 7foot-high wall with a maximum of 7 The new tables for plain-conc rete basement walls have been proposed for adoption in the Building Officials and Code Administrators Intern a t i o n a l (BOCA) National Building Code and the Council of American Building Officials (CABO) O n e and Two Family Dwelling Code. If you are in suppor t of these changes, let CABO and BOCA know by writing to: Secretary for the Council of American Building Officials c/o International Conference of feet of moist silty-sand backfill (lateral soil load of 45 psff). Building Officials 5360 Workman Mill Rd. Whittier, CA 90601 Fax: 310.695.4694 (Reference code challenge R32-94.) or Building Officials & Code AdministratorsInternationalInc. 4501 W. Flossmoor Rd. Country Club Hills, IL 60478 Fax: 708.799.4981 (Reference code challenge B152-94.) By having minimum design loads for the various soil types and a new prescriptive table based on a rational approach for the loads, builders and concrete producers can enter into a project with more confidence that the residential concrete basement wall will satisfy the homeowner. Robert A. Garbini, P.E., is marketing d i rector for building systems with the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, Silver Spring, Md. PUBLICATION #C940723
Copyright 1994, The Aberdeen Group All rights reserved