We are now three weeks into our project in Sudbury, ONT. The guys have been working hard to get the building set on the right path and getting themselves up and out of the mud. We are putting up a three story, 90 unit seniors residence. There are a lot of ICF walls going up; a couple of thousand linear feet. With all these ICF walls going up, it is so very important for our footings to be level before we begin to set our block.
Well constructed footings are important regardless of the type of wall you build and are absolutely essential for ICF construction.
ICF contractors know that a quality footing will save them headaches later on, and are willing to put the time in to make them as perfect as possible. We like to pour our own footings, because we know that the extra attention will be worth it when we set the wall.
Any deviance in the footing from straight, level or plum will cause significant problems later.
If the footing isn't absolutely level, the wall will be out of plumb. Absolutely. An out of plumb wall is no good as a wall.
If the footing dips in the middle than at the corners, when the ICF blocks are set they will be tight as they go up. They'll bind and twist and make getting the wall straight difficult, and could increase the chance of a blow out during a pour. Contrariwise, ff the footing humps, the corners will be pushed out of plumb.
Out of square layouts are just as bad. We have cursed an inaccurate footing with out-of-place rebar. We make absolute certain that our vertical bars come out of the concrete straight, and are on the surveyed centre of wall line.
It doesn't have to be difficult, and it's possible to easily pour accurate, level footings every time.
Here's a link to some more images of the footings. We expect to be done the footings and on to walls before the end of this week. The linked photo-set will be updated as the building goes up and we have more to brag about.
Which we will, cause we're pretty proud of our work.
Cheers, and happy Friday!
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