Day 30 - footings are ready for concrete

Day 30 - Friday May 6, 2005 - Day 30 - the footings are ready for concrete!

In this photo, you can see the fastbag has been installed. Fastbag is an environmentally friendly way of making footings. #1 - it holds the concrete with less lumber than required by typical form construction. #2 - there is no leakage (waste) of concrete with the bag. #3 - helps prevent "rising damp". (Rising Damp -- sure sounds like a British expression to me...)

Other things to note from this photo...

• You can see the footings are placed directly on the bedrock. You can't get a better foundation than that!


• Note how the footings are stepped to follow the contour of the bedrock. This will save on the concrete required for the footings. You can see the plywood at the end of the upper level of the form where it steps down (left foreground). The basement floor will, of course, be flat. It will be about 4" above the form level by the basement stairs - rectangle at center of photo is the frame for the stairs to the basement from the garage.


• The three black squares in the centre back of the photo are the support posts pads. These transfer the load from the beam that runs down the center of the house to the footings.

A lot of care was taken to level the footings and get the measurements and placement of the footings correct. An absolute level base is required to install ICF walls, otherwise there will be trouble later with concrete blowouts when pouring the walls.