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California 2018

The 2018 FHB House is a net-zero energy, high-performance home in California’s Sierra Nevada foothills designed to meet the goals of the California 2020 initiative and comply with the most progressive energy code in the country. The project combines a very tight, well-insulated envelope, cutting-edge mechanical systems, and unique material choices, all wrapped up in a one-of-a-kind modern design.

Forming the Footings

Pinning the footings to the batholith with steel and epoxy.

By David Good

We set our batter boards to finished floor height. They are over 10 ft. high on the south side. If you want a breeze, get your plumb bob out! Transferring a string line to the ground is easier with a plumb laser. Use a block to find the laser dot by the string, and then mark the offset from the line to transfer below.

With the string lines set at finished floor height, we laid out the footings.

 

Every line of our footings crosses rocks and required epoxying into the granite for either the vertical or horizontal rebar. Our engineer, Mr. Jokerst required 10-in. embedment and Simpson Set22 epoxy. We went through about four 3/4-in. SDS Max bits and two 5/8-in. ones. The drilling itself was not bad with Tod’s big Milwaukee hammer drill. Stepping the footing at the rocks, however, was time consuming.

Pinning the footings to the rock and ledge means more drilling; this time for rebar epoxied into the granite.

California has placed us in the same seismic zone as the Bay Area which is ridiculous and results in over-designed, expensive foundations. The 10-ft. retaining-wall footings (which are on solid rock) are almost 5 ft. wide and 12 in. deep with #5 rebar cage, four bars top and bottom wrapped 12 in. o.c. All of the footings have a 2×6 keyway for the walls that acted as our screed and held the vertical steel dowels.

Our seismic zone means wide footings with lots of steel.

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California 2018 Videos

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View Comments

  1. AlmaEBurns | Jul 31, 2018 01:50am | #1

    Good job you done here!

  2. RussMill | Aug 16, 2018 03:15pm | #2

    What a waste of labor and materials. Not one ounce of common sense used on site selection!

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