Grade Beam is a beam that is built at Grade level (earth level) mostly used to buildings with piles and to connect pile caps to each other. Its main function is to transmit the load from a bearing wall into spaced foundations such as pile caps or caissons. These types of beams generally used when soil bearing capacity is less than the anticipated design loads.

Grade Beam may have designed to either directly rests on the soil or above the soil spans between piles. In case, when it is required to the extent the foundation deep into the soil the grade beam would be the right choice.