FOOTINGS

Footings are the first tangible start to construction. Footings will carry the foundation walls. The foundation walls will carry the house. Therefore although the footings will never be seen once construction is finished they are extremely important. The squareness and accuracy of the house depend on the footings & foundation walls being built right.

Loading in the material for footings

Crushed rock in place

Ladders and Boxes

SURVEYING

Before we begin our footings we call in the surveyor to check that our excavation is correct and that it is large enough to accomodate the footings.  Once this is confirmed we call in our Geotechnical Engineer to inspect that the excavation is safe and that the grade (ground) that we are about to build on is capable of supporting the load of the house that we will create. The surveyor will put pins on every significant corner. We will then place a piece of 4″ PVC piping over the pin to protect it during footing preparation, the pipe will be staked securely.

BOXES AND LADDERS

We start making the forms for the footings by making ladders and boxes. Ladders are for the long runs of walls and boxes are for any load bearing posts carrying point loads down from floors above. The ladders and boxes are laid out in accordance with the surveyors points.

RE-INFORCING STEEL

Re inforcing steel is placed in the footings and boxes in accordance with the Structural Engineers drawings. Then we call for the required inspections, first the Structural Engineer and then the Building Inspector. Once these are approved we pour the concrete.

CONCRETE

Most Builders will not pay a lot of attention to the footing pour. We however view it as an advantage to make sure it is very well done and trowelled off as accurately as possible. This enabales us to stand up plywood for foundation walls very quickly and accurately, without a lot of “cutting to fit” on large sheets of plywood which is costly and time consuming. Whilst the concrete is still setting up we insert “wet dowels”. These are L shaped pieces of re-inforcing steel that hook under the laterally running steel and are left  in a vertical position.  These will tie into the vertical steel in the walls.

Pouring the footings

Still pouring. Wet dowels in place

We are now ready to start forming foundation walls on top of the footings.