Backfill compacted in layers, not tipped in
Why — act while you have leverage
Loose backfill settles. The floor over it sinks, the plinth cracks, and the fix is to break out the floor you have just paid to finish.
What to look at
- Layers of a consistent depth, each compacted before the next
- Fill free of rubble, roots and topsoil
- Watering during compaction, not after
How to check it yourself
Fill goes back in layers and each layer is compacted and watered before the next. Building rubble, roots and organic soil do not belong in it. This is the least glamorous check on the list and it prevents one of the most common complaints after handover.
Where this comes from: IS 1904:1986 — foundations in soils, general requirements; NBC 2016 Part 6 Section 2 (indian standard or building code)
More foundation checks
- Photograph before this is covered
- Cover blocks in place — 50 mm to footing reinforcement
- Steel matches the grade and diameter on the drawing
- Concrete cured for at least seven days
- Rubble foundation: through bond stones at every course band
- Rubble foundation: hearting solid, chips under a fifth of the volume
- RCC footing: size and depth as designed, on the correct stratum
- Raft foundation: reinforcement laid in the order the drawing gives and not walked flat
- Pile foundation: pile records kept for every pile, not a sample
- Under-reamed piles: bulb formed at the designed depth
- Plinth beam continuous and tied into the foundation
- Column starter bars plumb, with 40 mm cover and correct laps
- Damp proof course laid unbroken at plinth level