Footer Cleanout

Now that the Ditch Witch work is complete, there is quite a bit of hand work still to be done on the footers. Cleanout of the remaining loose dirt, redistribution of all the augured dirt on the pad and cutting a 45 degree bevel on the inside top of each edge of the footer require some sweat.

Here is a drawing to illustrate the footer/slab plan:

Photos of non-cleaned out section of the footer:

Photos of cleaned-out sections follow. Note the 45 degree bevel on the inside edge. Adding that bevel increases the amount of concrete on the edge of the footers and reduces the stress points where the slab and footers meet.

The pad was so solid that a pickaxe was required to clean out the corners adequately.  The key is to get the bottom of the footers cleaned out down to rock or virgin soil.  Any non-compacted dirt in the footers can result in eventual settling and cracking of the foundation.  Since the pad is already leveled, we are moving the augured dirt to the inside of the foundation to build the pad up evenly. We probably will not require any crusher fine fill, since we have enough fill dirt to build the pad up the 1″ or so needed. The form boards will be 5 1/2″ above grade, so building up the interior of the foundation another inch will still yield a 4 1/2″ thick slab. 4″ is the nominal thickness… any extra adds additional rigidity.

We will be using a long, straight board to pull the dirt on the slab level by putting a lip on the board and dragging along the form boards to achieve a level surface. We plan to sink several pieces of vertical rebar into the slab with the tops level with the form board. These will serve as a pivot point on the interior of the slab for anchoring the long board when pulling the dirt level on the slab. Photos to follow when we get to that point.