Application
Machine Base Cutting & Foundations
Cutting, coring, and modifying machine bases and foundations for installing, relocating, or removing equipment.
Machine bases and equipment foundations take a beating over a plant's life, and every re-tool brings new bolt patterns, isolation requirements, or the need to remove an old base entirely. Cutting and coring these massive, heavily reinforced foundations calls for methods that stay controlled around live plant equipment.
Crews we route work to isolate a base from the surrounding floor with clean saw cuts, remove the foundation concrete, and core new anchor patterns for replacement equipment. In Houston's petrochemical and manufacturing plants, this is turnaround work that has to fit tight outage windows and protect nearby running machinery.
Cutting, coring, and removal methods
The base is isolated with slab sawing and, for deep foundations, wire sawing to section the concrete for removal. The concrete comes out as structural concrete removal. New bolt patterns are set with concrete core drilling, tying into anchor bolt coring and equipment pad cutting.
Concrete scanning maps the heavy reinforcement typical in machine foundations before cutting.
Practical considerations
- Wire sawing sections deep, heavily reinforced foundations that a blade can't handle in one pass.
- Low-vibration methods protect adjacent running equipment and sensitive instruments.
- Wet-cutting controls silica per OSHA 1926.1153 in occupied plant areas.
- Work is phased to fit outage windows and keep the rest of the line running.
Low-vibration around live gear
Wire and diamond sawing remove machine bases with far less vibration than breaking, protecting the equipment still running nearby.
Machine base FAQs
- Can you remove a deep, reinforced machine foundation?
- Yes. Wire sawing and slab sawing section the foundation for controlled removal, avoiding the heavy vibration of breaking it out.
- Can you core new anchor patterns for replacement equipment?
- Yes. Anchor holes are cored to the new equipment's baseplate template so the machine sets without field-fitting.
- How do you protect nearby running equipment?
- Low-vibration diamond and wire sawing minimize vibration transfer, protecting adjacent machinery and instruments.
- Can this fit a plant outage window?
- Yes. The work is phased and scoped to fit turnaround schedules — share the outage window through request-pricing.
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