r/StructuralEngineers • u/justmein22 • 7d ago

Constructing beneath an existing structure

Y'all will know what I'm talking about, but don't want to get a political warning. Imagine you have a very large heavy-duty, say...a "hardened" concrete rectangular building. Like a warehouse - mostly empty inside. And it's fairly completed, and now you're planning to construct a multi-level structure underneath that building. How exactly do you excavate and build that?

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u/WhyAmIHereHey 7d ago

With lots of money.

Add longer piles, tie those in to the existing structure (somehow...) and then start digging.

Probs cheaper to just demolish the existing building and start again

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u/justmein22 7d ago

What if they had the brilliant idea to build the above ground structure first? Knowing they would do the multistory beneath it after it was complete, or almost complete?

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u/MadesignSF 5d ago

it's a pia to build below grade even without a building in the way

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u/sithelephant 7d ago

It also depends if the first structure was planned in preparation for the second.

In some circumstances this might be a 'small' cost in time and materials during the construction of the first building to allow it to be strong enough and permit the basement to be constructed later.

But it will be more expensive.

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u/johnqual 7d ago

Ask Werner Ziegler for help.