Engineering and Construction

The casting-in of the holding-down bolts with adequate provision for adjustment requires that they are positioned in the concrete surrounded by a tube, conical or cylindrical, or a polystyrene former. After removal of the tube or former, which should be delayed until the last possible time before the erection of the columns, the available lateral movement of the bolts should be between three and four times the bolt diameter. In cases where open tubes are used they should be provided with a cap or cover to prevent the ingress of water, rubbish and mud. After erection, lining, levelling and plumbing of the frame the grout voids around the bolts should be cleaned out by compressed air immediately prior to grouting. The bolt grouting and baseplate filling should be done as two separate operations to allow shrinkage to take place. During the levelling and plumbing operations wedges and packings are driven into the grout space. Before final grouting these should be removed, otherwise, after shrinkage of the grout filling material, they will become hard spots, preventing the even distribution of the compressive forces to the concrete base.