House Footings

Ready to start Footings

Entering new territory, it's time to start working on the house footings. For people that don't know what a footing is, it's what the house sits on and it transfers the weight of the house to ground. Mine were going to be 2 ft wide and 11.5 inches thick. My plans called for 8 inch thick footings but I decided to go with extra  because I won't be doing it again. The main reason was the a 2x8 piece of lumber would only give me 7.5 inches. I like the phrase "Go big or go home" so I used 2x12's which would give me 11.5 inches. After the footings have been poured, I could re-use the 2x12's for something else (decks, docks etc...). I paid a little extra to have pressure treated wood instead of ordinary lumber.
It pays to get a good operator to dig the basement, as the end result was very even ground. This made it easy to level the forms. A friend of mine who is a contractor gave me a hand to form the footings.  Since the footings have to be on undisturbed soil, it was necessary to do step footings in some areas.  It only took 2 days to finish and level the forms.  I had use of an electronic transit to make sure everything was level and that made things much easier!

Setting Forms for footings

Footings over Canadian Shield

Next step was to call the building inspector to come out and inspect the footings. I remember when the inspector showed up, he got out of his car with a big stick. I said to him "you will not need that, I'm a nice guy". He said it wasn't for me but to check how hard the ground was and to see how far he could push it  into the ground. Knowing how hard the ground was, I said to him if it would go into the ground more than an inch I would give him 5 bucks (I know, big spender!). He walked around the footings, poking around and needless to say I didn't have to pay any money. The inspector signed off on the footing and I was okay to proceed.
Since I was using 2X12's, the weight of the cement was a concern. Extra supports would be necessary to ensure we did not blow out the forms. I decided to fill the centre of the basement with stone and then support the outside of the footings. The only way to get the stone where I wanted it, was to hire a stone slinger.  If you haven't seen a stone slinger in action, it's something to see.  Now with the stone in place and the outside of the footings braced it was time to order the cement.  Since access to the footings from the driveway was going to a problem, I would have to order a truck with a conveyer on it. The conveyer would reach to the middle of the basement then we would need to wheelbarrow the cement into the forms.  I had calculated how much cement I needed (the cement company has the formula on their web site) but wanted to confirm it with them first. I gave them all the measurements and they calculated what I needed and I was right on.

Waiting for the cement trucks

 The day had arrived to pour the footings. The trucks were on route, family and friends on their way, the weather was overcast and rain was forecast-ed for early afternoon. I had a fire going and a tarp set in case the rain came early.  With 3 wheel barrels going and 2 trucks arriving at the same time, it took no time moving all the cement into place. We made sure that the rebar was in place as we all started at different corners to smooth out the cement. Marty, Bill and myself were moving along pretty well, we were just about finished when we looked at the corner my brother had been working on. We noticed that he was a bit further behind but his cement was as smooth as silk. Just as we were finishing up the rain came and it came down hard making his smooth silky cement look no different than ours,which gave us all a little chuckle.  Lunch arrived (this is where my wife comes in) just as we were putting the anchors in the cement.  The anchor would attach the basement walls (Nudura) to the footings.  We ate lunch cold and wet. When lunch was done, clean-up was quick and my help headed home. I felt pretty good, the job went without a hitch!

Eating Lunch

I waited a few days for the cement to set up, then proceeded to remove the forms. They came off much easier than expected.  Now comes the big job, ordering all the Nudura material for the basement. My next blog will explain what Nudura is, what it's benefits are and how you install it.