"A foundation footer is perhaps one of the most critical aspects of the house. The primary purpose of the footer is to spread out the weight of the structure across a larger footprint than the foundation would if it were in direct contact with the earth. If you were to calculate the total weight of a completed house plus everything in it, you'd probably be stunned by the total tonnage. Just the interior furnishings and possessions in an average home can weigh tens of thousands of pounds. Add this to the many tons of weight of the building materials and you end up with enormous concentrated loads. Without a footer under a foundation wall, the wall could actually start to slice into soil much like a knife cuts into a stick of butter. But a footer, because it's wider than the foundation wall, displaces this weight over a much larger area. A footer also creates a nice, level surface for the foundation contractor to set his forms."
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| From right side yard |
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| Garage footer portion |
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| Porch footer portion - Front yard |
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| I often see garbage on other blogs that's left behind. Shameful. |
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| From left side yard |
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| Best picture I could get of the entire thing |
Thanks for posting these pictures. I missed the day they poured the footer, and the next day onsite they were already putting the framing for the basement wall on top of the footers, so I never saw the footers like shown in your pictures. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome! I hope to get every step documented.
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