What are Relief Vents / Valves ?
Definition of Relief Vents / Valves in Construction
When designing a pressure slab, which is identified by the hydro static water pressure building up under a slab on grade, the engineer will design relief vents and or valves as a security to prevent uplift.
Water pressure building under a slab on grade, can cause the entire slab to lift up or fail. The relief vents / valves are mechanical vents embedded within the concrete slab to relieve the pressure, if a catastrophic failure of all the other engineering methods fail. The design of pressure slabs and the systems developed to relieve pressures that develop beneath concrete slabs is an important element of shoreline construction. It is extremely important that the slab is designed to vent the pressures developed without any structural damage to the foundations of the building.