Concrete & Foundations
Concrete Footing & Foundation Design in Melbourne
Reinforced concrete footings, slabs and foundations designed to AS 3600 and matched to your geotechnical report, for equipment, structures and heavy vehicle loads that can't afford to move or crack.
What we design
- Pad and strip footings for platforms, stairs, equipment frames and industrial steelwork.
- Equipment and machinery foundations, including hold-down bolts, uplift and overturning checks.
- Heavy-duty slabs and hardstands for forklifts, trucks and mobile plant.
- Weighbridge foundations that stay level enough to keep the scale accurate.
- Bored piers and piled footings where the geotech report calls for them.
- Suspended decks: steel girders with reinforced concrete decks for very heavy wheel loads.
Designed for Melbourne ground
A lot of Melbourne sits on reactive clay that swells when it's wet and shrinks when it dries out, every season. A footing that ignores that will move with it, and for something like a weighbridge or a machine base, even small movement causes problems.
We design every footing against the site's geotechnical report: the allowable bearing pressure, the site classification and how much the ground is expected to move. Where the report recommends piers or piles, we design them; where there's a cheaper alternative that still works, we'll tell you.
What you get
- Calculations to AS 3600 and AS/NZS 1170 covering bearing, bending, shear, punching shear, uplift and settlement.
- Footing drawings with dimensions, reinforcement, cover and hold-down details.
- Sign-off by a Chartered Professional Engineer.
Related projects and reading
Above-Ground Weighbridge
Structural design, foundations and certification for a heavy-duty concrete weighbridge.
View projectHeavy-Duty Concrete Deck
A 10 m × 4.5 m deck for a mining truck with axle loads up to 62 t.
View projectWhy does my geotech report say piles?
Why the building next door isn't a good guide to your footings.
Read the answerFrequently asked questions
Do I need a geotechnical report?
For most footings, yes. The geotech report tells us what the ground can carry and how much it moves, and the footing has to be designed to suit. Melbourne has a lot of reactive clay, especially in the north and west, so guessing the soil can be expensive. If you don't have a report yet, we can tell you what testing to ask for.
Why does my geotech report say piles when the building next door doesn't have them?
Because neighbouring buildings carry different loads, may have footings you can't see, and ground conditions can change within a few metres. Your report is based on boreholes on your actual site. We've written a full answer in our Insights section.
Can you design a foundation for a machine, tank or weighbridge?
Yes. Equipment foundations have to handle more than just weight: vibration, uplift, overturning and settlement limits from the equipment supplier. We design the slab or footing for the actual loads and the supplier's tolerances.
Do you design the reinforcement as well?
Yes. The design includes footing sizes, reinforcement bar sizes and spacings, cover and any hold-down bolts, shown on drawings your concreter and steel fixer can work from.