OK,
Seems like I might be doing this myself. My most recent guy was supposed to stop by on Tuesday, no show. He’s going through a nasty divorce so he’s a little distracted. I’m thinking I have to be prepared to do this foundation myself. Leaning towards ICF’s due to ease of install but I have alot of questions. Here’s a recap of the job for those who don’t know. Old house lifted 6 feet up, new foundation 32″ above grade, 24″ down to footing. Assume a 24″W x 8″H footing. Three rows of ICF at 16″ tall each. Total height of footing and foundation 56″.
1. With regard to the footing, do you put vertical rebar in prior to pour,stab it in when concrete is setting up, put in when your setting up ICF’s?
2. If I were to use a 1/2″ real brick venner on exterior surface of ICF, would I need an ICF brick ledge?
3. What would the normal spacing be for the vertical rebar, I believe the horizontal is one per row.
4. Given that the house is 125 years old, and possibly not square, what thickness of concrete would you recomend 6″, 8″, or even thicker. Sill beam is about 3 1/2 “.
5. And this one’s for Piffin, reread and looked at your picture in posts for “Jack this House”, did you brace the inside as well as the outside with horizontal boards?
Finally, any helpfull hints would be appreciated.
Thanks
Kevin
Replies
Kevin -
1. With regard to the footing, do you put vertical rebar in prior to pour,stab it in when concrete is setting up, put in when your setting up ICF's?
Rebar before the pour - your mud will be too thick to stab it in & you might be distracted with other things on pour day.
2. If I were to use a 1/2" real brick venner on exterior surface of ICF, would I need an ICF brick ledge?
You could, or you could lay 4x8x16 cmus on your footer to make up the 24" - whichever works better in your situation.
3. What would the normal spacing be for the vertical rebar, I believe the horizontal is one per row.
One per row horizontal is the norm, but check the "prescriptive manual for ICFs" for rebar tables - google it - you'll find it free online. 2 rows of #4 rebar in the footer.
4. Given that the house is 125 years old, and possibly not square, what thickness of concrete would you recomend 6", 8", or even thicker. Sill beam is about 3 1/2 ".
I would think a 6" wall would be plenty, but check the manual! I like 8" everywhere, but thats paranoia.
Brace every 4', and screw sheets of plywood or diagonal 2x6's to your corners.
4x8x16 cmus on your footer to make up the 24"
HUH? What's cmus?
concrete blocks
concrete masonry units....
he wants you to lay 4" block on the footing to bring it up to where your veneer will startMike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Thanks,Do you think it necessary, for 1/2" brick veneer?
1/2" veneer is usually laid up like faux stone. Scratch coat of mud over wire, brick is buttered and laid from the top down, then joints are filled with a grout bag and tooled.
No need for a brick ledge. The wire lath and mud hold it in place.
Dave
I see - you are talking slim brick face when we were thingking real brick veneer.For what you are thinking of then no you don't need a bricklip. That is for supporting the load of the brick wall which you do not have. Just plaster the falsies on the face over the wire lathe and scratch coat.For your job one vertical rebar for each form block is all you need. I stick them in after pouring the footer just like I do with anchorbolts, while the crete is still plastic. It is imperative that you get your footings formed and poured LEVEL.This means that the forms will be seated and secured well so they do not get knocked loose when you are pouring.You have the rebar fitted in and tied at lapps, and chaired off the ground. We cut the vertical rebar ahead of time and bend about an 8" foot on the bottom. Then we pour, float the surfacce, take a breather and pay the nice concrete truck driver, drink a cup of coffee and talk about how well it went - or how bad it went, and then we grab up the verticals and slide them in. For you, I would suggest having had a nail already placed in the forms at center of wall locations so you canm slip a string on the nails and have a straight line to go by for placement. Occasionally we end up with one located right where the ICF webs are and have to bend it later. Not to worry.On my other thread, we used twice as many verticles and drilled them in after the pour as we built the wall in place. Safer that way.
Get youirself something to cap these rebar with and fence off the are against kids in the neighborhood who might fall on one of the rebar standing out. There are safety caps available. We usually use coke bottles. The flagging for visibility is half the job.
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...we used twice as many verticles and drilled them in after the pour...
Our ICF called for a 2' X 2' #4 re-bar grid in the basement, and 2' horizontal by 4' vertical grid for the upstairs.
Another option for the verticals -- pour the footing, poke in 3' pieces of #4 on 2' centers into the footing, 1' arm in the footer and 2' up, 1 foot from each corner,and with-in 6" on each side of your bucks (including tops and bottoms).
Toss a 1/1-2" X 1-1/2" PVC ring on each vertical, after making the wall, drop the rebar down through the wall hitting the ring at the bottom, tie the top. If possible stagger the horizontal left and right of center a bit and you can thread the vertical down through the horizontal to keep it centered in the wall. This really helps as there's no vertical re-bar to putz with as the wall is constructed. We place about 180 - 10 footers this way and it wasn't as bad as it may seem.
sounds like an idea to keep in mind.adding to that, I suppose you could use a pvc as long as the wall is tall to locate for tall walls. Get it over the stub from footer where you already have the short ring, then slide the full length steel down it.
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Your right, but probably not necessary. It's way easier than it sounds to hit the the ring at the bottom...stady hands and um-good gloves.In addition, we made the verticals longer than the basement walls is tall, pour the wall leaving better than a foot exposed. After we decked the house, the pieces exposed were the starters for the above grade walls, ring and do it all again.Oh yeah, if "someone" misses putting a ring on stub at the footer or wall level, put the vertical rebar on top of the stub, with out the rebar threaded through the horizontals, slide the ring from the top to stub...DAMHIKT. Sometimes it helps to put a slight bend in the bottom foot or so of the rebar to hit the ring.Rip
I misunderstood what you meant by brick veneer - I'm with piffin - just lay block and switch from 12's to 8's for your brick ledge, or if you are using stick-on brick, just lay an 8" block foundation and put 2" of foam on it, and stick the brick to that.
there, I did the whole post without saying ICF, CMU or EPS...
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probably going with ICF, not because of insulation, but ease of assembly. It's a crawl space so don't have a real need for insulation.
"I did the whole post without saying ICF, CMU or EPS..."LOL
Well,
OOP
DEE
DOO
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The inside had some whalers too, but not as many.
I don't brace near as much for a short all like that.
If you are wanting a brick finish, I would be thinking about having a mason build a CMU wall for the whole thing, footers to sill. He would run 8" block below grade, then switch to 4" solids inside and brick outside up to sill. Now it is structural instead of just veneer
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Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!