I’m an owner/builder and we recently broke ground for our new house. My concrete contractor was supposed to pour the house footings today and I assumed that meant all of the house footings in 1 pour. But, he left out approximately 12 feet that connects 2 7 foot long footings that come off of the front wall footing at right angles. He said it was a combination of there probably not being enough concrete left to finish and now he can use his backhoe to carry the crushed stone into the basement. He plans on pouring the missing section on Wednesday when he does the garage. Should I be concerned with having a footing that is not truly continuous or is this generally accepted? How should he connect what he pours tomorrow with what he poured today? Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Joe
Replies
What's above the section of the missing footing? ie. beampocket?? I'd hope he's going to pin the sections together with rebar. I don't think it's a big issue, but I'm sure other's will disagree. He probably didn't figure the the amount of concrete correctly and came up with the excuse of getting the backhoe in there. But, I don't see why he can't drive the backhoe directly over the footing. Put a good amount of stone on both sides of the footing prior to driving over it and you're good to go. You've got problems if the footing can't handle the weight of the backhoe. What are your soil conditions like? Is it still dry down there? Any mud/muck?
Thanks for the response. I don't think there's a lot of weight in that particular area. There's the front door and entry foyer on the first floor and a balcony above that. There is no beam pocket in the wall that goes on the missing footer. Soil conditions are good. It's dry and, as a matter of fact, the person who did the excavating commented on the hardness of the soil as he was getting near the bottom of the hole.
I agree with what you said about driving over it. He leaves rebar sticking out of the footings to tie into the walls. He could have poured that footing and put a keyway in it instead.
Most cases, no problem
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No, we do it all the time, imaging trying to pour all the footing of a shopping mall at once. As long as there some rebar to tie to, it will be fine.
.
.I'm a man, you got to respect me as a man, I'm a man
NO problem, it's a common practice.
SamT
Thanks to all who replied. I'm feeling a lot better about this now.
Joe