Building homes in the mountains makes for some tricky foundations. Step footings are on almost every house. My question is should I join them or not? Over the last 8 years I’ve stopped joining them for a few reasons. Labour being one, 2 -the fact that I always have atleast a 3′ concrete wall with 2 rows of 1/2″ bar spreading the step. 3 -does a big blob of concrete joining the footings really help?
Quality is very important to me, but is this short cut a bad move?
Replies
If you are saying that you are building entirely over solid rock ledge, then I say that you are OK. There are two reasons for the footer. One is to spread the load of the house over a larger area so it doesn't sink into the soil. The other is that you need a level and solid seat for the forms to pour the walls.
Obviously, you don't need to spread the load for solid rock but if you had a foundation on part rock/ part soils I would keep a continuous run of rebar and concrete. I've repaired a couple that failed after roughly sixty and eighty years.
Excellence is its own reward!
"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit.
The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are."
--Marcus Aurelius
A top view of the footings would look continous, the verticle drops would be taken up by the walls. Since the walls have rebar in them aswell as our footings( which is not required under our building code) I see no problem with not joining the footings. Any heavy loads coming from the building are spread through the concrete wall on a 45 each way, which gives a huge footprint.
any thoughts?
My house is basically T shapped. The stem being the garage with a full basement under it. The two arms being the a 2 story house. The garage leg is 4ft higher than the house.
A few years ago I had a drainage problem and dug down by the footers at the corner where the garage attaches to the house and was surprised to see a gap in the footings where it stepped down.
But as you said there is a solid wall connections. The common wall between the house and the garage is 12 ft high and it connects to an 8 ft high wall on the garage basement side.
Right. Most of what I pour in steps is segmented, if it is over all rock.
Where I see failures is when part of the ffoundation is on ledge and part is on soil. Probably the best prevention therre is extra rebar in the wall at that joint..
Excellence is its own reward!
"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit.
The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are."
--Marcus Aurelius
thanks for the input.
If I understand what you wrote, it seems everyone agrees, along as I have rebar in the wall.