New Home Begins

dave1949 · Nov 30, 2012

sdkubota said:
Generally bearing loads on to footings from a traditional house are extremely light and actually don't require a spread footing in most cases depending on soil types. You are better off increasing the bearing loads onto soils that have expansive characteristics and often in those areas a footer is deliberately omitted from even large building designs.

Foundations are a mystery. I was thinking about the compacted crushed stone and the 45* load bearing spread. It seems like that remains true as long as the compacted stone doesn't "loosen-up" over time, and I have no idea if it would or wouldn't.

I also thought about the old hand-stacked natural rock foundations around here. They dug a cellar pit and stacked rocks around the edges, usually capping the stacked rocks where it comes above grade with 6'-8' long cut granite lintels. Some of that was probably for appearance but it would also cut down on the wind and mice coming through the foundation wall.

Some of those old homes are still straight and true, some have sills that have a lot of dips, and floors that go in all directions but level. I assume the major difference is the soils they are built on.

sdkubota · Nov 30, 2012

As an example...even most poor soils have an allowable bearing capacity of 4,000 psf and that includes a safety factor of 3 meaning the soil won't actually fail until 12,000 psf are placed on it. Most houses with a 16" spread foundation are probably placing less than 1,000 psf of load on the underlying soils. The 45 degree load spread isn't limited to crushed stone but is based on the friction angle of the soil. The soil a few feet under your foundation has no idea an increased load has been placed above it. All this information is primarily off the cuff and based on pre-consolidated soils in my area that were previously compressed by ice 2 miles thick (glaciers).

dave1949 · Nov 30, 2012

I did some half-hearted reading a while back on foundations under old stone buildings like churches, castles, etc. It is easy to find lots of pictures/drawings of the above ground structures, but not much on foundations.

I ran across some articles by a guy in the UK who is supposed to be a leading expert on restoring these old structures. I was surprised that his advice is to dig out the sod and start laying stones! Of course, ground freezing is probably not common in many parts of England, and those old structures are massive. He was really focused on using lime-based mortars that are plastic enough to not crack with shifting and settling.

In other articles, it sounds like the strategy, especially for castles on rocky hills, was to dig down to solid rock and build up from that. But overall, I didn't find as much detail info as I would have liked.

sdkubota · Nov 30, 2012

Garages around here are constructed on floating slabs all the time. The floor goes up and down with the freezing cycle and overall the structure doesn't suffer in any way. To prevent it from going up and down you need a foundation below the frost line.

Obed · Dec 1, 2012

dave1949 said:
Maybe you could put in the beginnings of a water garden now, and finish it later. If there is a an area between the house and the stream bed, a water garden somewhere in-between would allow you to move water from the house, through the water garden with an outflow to the stream.

At this point--and it will never be easier, and without spending much, getting the pipes from the french drain and gutters tied together and run to the water garden location might be enough to get the water away from the house for a couple years. I assume you have some natural fall in the grade toward the stream. A rented trenching machine should handle the pipe install.

Of course, it helps if you like water gardens :laughing:

I can't recommend draining the gutters and the basement french drains using the same pipe. You could use the same trench but run separate pipes. Keep the gutter drains completely isolated from the basement drains. Otherwise, think of what will happen of the common drain pipe clogs, The next rain storm you will send all the water from the roof into the basement and flood it. Use separate pipes for certain. Plastic pipe is cheap.

Also, I wouldn't use the cheap black corrugated flexible drain pipes. They are easy for the installers but they more easily cave in and fail than the solid pipes. It would seem to me that the corrugations would also be more likely to collect debris than the smooth solid pipes. Basement drainage is a something you don't want to shortcut. The subs and contractors will try to cut costs everywhere they can; you will have to manage them.

If you can run drain pipes to daylight 200 ft from the house, then I would do it. Somebody with a backhoe could dig that trench in no time assuming he doesn't have to deal with rock.

Obed

Obed · Dec 1, 2012

Could you describe the path a person will take to walk from a car parked in the garage to the kitchen?

tkappeler · Dec 3, 2012

Obed said:
Could you describe the path a person will take to walk from a car parked in the garage to the kitchen?

Sorry for the delay as I had a work (real work, not this play, fun stuff

) deadline that had me tied up for the weekend.

From the garage, there is a small stairway, approx 3', that leads to the laundry room/pantry. From there to the center great room and the kitchen is directly behind the laundry/pantry. Yes, you do have to go through the great room to get to the kitchen.

tkappeler · Dec 3, 2012

We now have footings!! Forty eight tons of 3/4" stone was brought in and the a good portion has been piled in the basement by the excavator today and will be spread around on Wednesday when the footings have cured sufficiently to drive the tractor over to spread it out. The garage portion of the house will in fact use the gravel foundation method as the architect was OK with that. That gravel will be delivered tomorrow and placed tomorrow or Wednesday.

Great weather for concrete. 60's today and no frost over the next few days.

Basement walls will be installed on Thursday.