This paper presents the experimental tests on cyclic behaviour of the base plate connections that are connected to the foundation with and without fully post tensioned anchor rods. The main aim is to evaluate these connections that are designed with available design procedures from the low damage aspect. Also, the effect of post tensioning on the seismic performance of this type of connection is presented. To characterize the base plate connection damageability, each column base was designed for a particular major inelastic deformation mode such as anchor rod yielding, yielding of the column, or column and base plate yielding. It is shown that considered joints are not able to be categorized as “a low damage”. Also, post tensioning of the base plate increases the rotational stiffness of the base, and results in more ductility of the column with low axial force