Traditional UK foundations consist of strip foundations. These require deep excavations often more than a meter deep, followed by filling with a large amount of concrete.  Traditional Slabs are very thick, typical thickness 150mm and in most designs a screed of around 70mm is placed on top of the slab.

Concrete is a significant contributor to climate change, emitting around 7% of global CO2 so any reduction in use is worthwhile. On low energy buildings it is important to have the correct detailing around foundations to reduce the heat loss through the concrete to the ground, which is often achieved by installing insulation underneath the screed, along with insulation around the perimeter to avoid cold bridging to the foundation. This approach is not ideal since the concrete used in the foundation is not used as thermal mass within the building – using this concrete as thermal mass can be good at regulating the temperature in the house.

The Scandinavian foundations’ system addresses these problems and eliminates the need for deep foundation trenches. Scandinavian Foundation system uses only a fraction of concrete compared to traditional UK foundations.  A double Radon Protection system is another advantage with Scandinavian Foundations.

The U-Value is the best on the market, approximately 0.106 w/m2K.