Foundations

[Shannonbeth]

Are you doing your own foundation? If so, are you doing a slab, walk out or reg basement?

[Shark]

We did our own, crawlspace.
Slabs + log homes aren't a good idea because you need your logs away from the dirt.

[panderson03]

we'll be doing walk out basement cause we're building into a hill.

[dvb]

We formed and poured our own foundation because we could not find a contractor to do it for a reasonable price. Turned out it was very easy for us to do.
Dean
LHBA Class of Feb. 2006
Best investment of my life.
http://s522.photobucket.com/albums/w343/deanbrossman/

[StressMan79]

I am trying something new-- a floating slab INSIDE a stem wall perimeter. The stem wall will extend ~20" ABOVE grade, and the slab will be just above grade, so I'll have notches through the concrete for the doors. The bottom of the wall (concrete) will have some decorative covering. On the outside, it will be rock, on the inside, I'll use lap siding, short Board and Batton or maybe stone again.

The members area will have updated pics, etc once I get her done. I only have the trench for the footer done now.

-Peter

[fossten]

DVB you're my hero. I'm going to be picking your brain in the near future as I want to do my own basement pour, with ICF. Both you and Timberwolf have ideas I'm dying to use.

Bravo.

[Shannonbeth]

We formed and poured our own foundation because we could not find a contractor to do it for a reasonable price. Turned out it was very easy for us to do.
Dean
LHBA Class of Feb. 2006
Best investment of my life.
http://s522.photobucket.com/albums/w343/deanbrossman/

I must admitt, i am very intimidated when it comes to the foundation. I want a walk-out and i want to save money doing it myself, but i am not sure how to go about it. Am i able to rent the stuff i need to pour it? The wall forms and what not or will i have to buy it all and make it? I have a book on foundations but i don't know.
~Shannon~

[fossten]

I found this link which is a little helpful.

http://ezinearticles.com/?What-is-the-Cost-to-Build-a-Basement?&id=1256266

[Shannonbeth]

How much did it cost you to do your basement?~Shannon~

[fossten]

I haven't started yet. I'm weighing the costs and advantages because I may have a piece of property that needs a walkout.

[Timberwolf]

My blog details my DIY ICF basement.

Easy as pie (ok, not quite pie, more like angel food cake) but if you can build with logs, this is childs play.

My cost, about 15K (cdn $) plus another 2K for the footing.

Cheaper than having it poured BTW.

[Shannonbeth]

Stupid Question...but......
If you have a walk-out basement, do you still need egress windows in the bedrooms i assume?~Shannon~

[rckclmbr428]

All bedrooms must have at least 2 ways of egress, first is always the door you came in, the second typically is a window with at least 5.7 square feet of openable space. personally, I think I could get through a much smaller hole, given proper motivation, but welcome to code. this of course is assuming you have your basement rooms framed when the inspector makes his last inspection and issues a C.O. ;-)

[dvb]

The great part about ICF is your forms also insulate the basement. The guy I purchased my ICF forms from would rent the braces if you needed them. We poured 4 foot walls and simply used 2x4s for bracing. I believe you could do this for 8 foot walls also if you used extra braces. The rental braces made for this stuff are mostly just easier to use. The real secret to ICF is to have a really good, straight and level footer to stack the forms on. Everything is easy from there.

[Timber]

do? you know if you do a basement does your rebar for floor in basement need to be tied into footer


?i was talking to a guy who said footings and forms are simple (anything is if you know how to do it) and he?said it should be.

[Timberwolf]

The cost of my foundation included the use of the braces for the pour. The ones I got (the distributor had 5 sets, I didn't get to choose) were wood with turnbuckles, and heavy as hell. There are some nice steel ones that are easier to use. They were strong though, as we were able to "true" the wall after the pour, before the cement started to cure.

As for tying the rebar in the footing to the vertical in the walls, well as usual, "it depends" on local code requirements. In high seismic areas, you likely will, you might even need a monolithic pour (footing and wall poured as one) but for me, code states "rebar must overlap a min of 16") so I wet-set rebar dowels in the footing, leaving 16"+ then used a neat trick I got from Quad-Lock, I cut 2"-3" lengths of PVC pipe and slipped them over the rebar, then once the wall was stacked I just dropped the verticals down into these pipe pieces, and that held them in place at the bottom during the pour.

Footings and forms are pretty simple, you're just buiding a box basically, some good info if you google it. I think I have rundown in my blog, and can answer some more specific questions if you have them. The hardest part is squaring and leveling. A little off square is not big deal, as you have some leaway when you go to start the walls, but is leveling is very important. A few nice tools to have or rent here would be a good "self leveling" laser lever (there's a story here for another post) with 360 deg and pinpoint, and/or a transit and a construction calculator that can do the 3/4/5 (phyagoream theorum) calc automatically.

The one mistake I did make was not smoothing the footer, that would make starting the ICF much easier.

I'd never done footings before this, it would definately be easier the next time. I would not do forms for a traditional poured wall, not worth the time, to me, since I want the insulation value of the ICF.

One last tip, stake the footing forms really well! And don't skimp on the rebar!

J.

Jason.

[dvb]

In a traditional basement in this area (low seismic problems), the floor simply sets on the footer. If you will have supports from any area in the floor (RPSL), you will have to have a footer for these also. If you look at my photos you can see the pad for the center RPSL. Your engineer may give you more detailed drawings. Like Timberwolf says Straight, Level, Smooth, and Square are very important in the footer. Another easy way to find square is to measure corner to corner, any square or rectangle should measure the same when measured in an X from corner to opposite corner.

[dvb]

Timberwolf - First let me say I am only stating my opinion and do not intend to belittle you or your project. You build yours any way you want to and I am fine with that. I would even come help If I was closer!
I would not use PVC around the rebar. Rebar is intended to provide shear and tensile strength to concrete, which has very little of either. The PVC idea will not reduce the shear strength much and that is the most important in attaching walls to footers. The PVC over the rebar will almost eliminate the shear strength since the concrete will not form to the rebar at that point. I simply wire tied my vertical rebar to the rebar extending from the footer as I built my forms. Rebar should be wire tied at any place it crosses a support or another piece of rebar. I am sure that anytime two pieces of rebar meet end to end, there should be 12 inches of overlap. Please correct me if I am wrong on that.

[Timberwolf]

This might just my description, but I'll see if I can clarify.

The PVC pipe is slipped over each piece of vertical rebar that is wet set in the footing (about 8" deep, with 16" or more above the footer for overlap; my code requires 16" whether the connection is vertical or horizontal) after the footing cures. That way, once the ICF wall is built, you can stand at the top, and drop the vertical rebar down into the wall, and the bottom into that little PVC cup. This avoids having to deal with 9 feet of rebar in the way as you build. It should be no different than wire ties, which are there only to be prevent things from moving around, not for shear. I did use wire for all the horizontal connections. I also zip tied the rebar in many places to the plastic spacers in the wall to prevent it from moving when the cement was poured.

Not sure if I have a picture, if I do I'll post it.

I did ask, and the building inspector had no problems with it.

[dvb]

The two pieces of rebar were doing two different jobs and so they did not need to act like one continuous piece. I actually used three pieces to do this job. First one extends up from the footer, second one extends from the footer to about 3" below the top of the wall, these two were every 2' all around the wall. The last piece was to set my log on and was wet set into the wall every 4' with a 3 inch "L" bent on the end that was inserted into the concrete.
Thanks for the explanation and work safe!