Foundations are out of sight, out of mind

• Posted on March 6, 2017
• by mikew
• in Fix It & Use It
• No Comments.

Little is thought of or known about the foundation of our houses because we seldom see them. They are buried and built over, all the while supporting the assembled materials, furniture and people for a century or more! For those of you interested I thought I would briefly show you the most common type of foundation we have here in the Pacific Northwest.

At a recent home inspection I observed a county inspector looking over the foundation work next door. Once he signed off things would be buried and the wood framing would soon go up. I snapped a few pictures to give you an idea of the invisible parts that the visible parts of our houses are sitting upon.

Some things you will notice:

• Poured concrete foundation atop of wider concrete footing. This is one continuous wall and will serve as the base of all construction above. The dimensions and size of the house is determined by the the concrete foundation. This will soon be a two-story house about 2,500sf. Flooring will be built on top of the concrete wall and the rest of the house will rise up from there
• Cavity inside of the concrete walls. This knee-high space inside the concrete wall will soon be the crawlspace – every inspector’s favorite place to visit! It doesn’t look so bad now but with floor joists above, insulation, heating ductwork, and plumbing pipes, this space turns into an obstacle course.
• Drains for the yard and gutters routed around the perimeter of the foundation. These tie into a drain in the street. Water is the number one enemy of the house and this ensures that all roof water is moving quickly away from the foundation.
• Sheer strapping exposed. The metal bands sticking up from the front of the foundation will be secured to the framing of the house with a lot of fasteners to ensure the house does not get blown or shaken off the foundation by the forces of nature.

Well, the foundation work passed inspection and by now the framing is probably completed. Soon one will hardly notice the foundation and it will quietly do its job out of sight and out of mind.