Footing/Foundation PICs of New Home

[ragswl4]

I have not posted on the progress of our new home for a while as we had some issues with building but its finally underway. Here are just a few of the unique footing and foundation techniques that are being used to build the house. The first pic shows the corner of the master bedroom footing and the second is the corner of the dining room. The other two are located around the foundation. Note the rebar imbeded in the granite rocks. We are excited that we are finally building and anticipate completion in 12-18 months. We will be taking over the construction once the foundations are completed.

We are building in the San Bernadino Mountains in Idyllwild, Ca. 6000 ft level and just in case you were wondering, there has not been a forest fire there in 80 years. We also have three fire stations with a mile of our building site and our property is one of several designated as fire defense areas.

[JR]

Wow, Rags, that's going to be awesome. I've never seen a foundation located like that - rebar in granite. I can't wait to see how that foundation develops, and the rest of the house, too, of coiurse!

[jhart]

That's going to be some awesome view Rags!!! Keep the pictures coming as you progress.

[Jaden]

What a wonderful thing to wake up to in the morning. Looking forward to seeing the progress.

Steve

[footprintsinconc]

WOW! i never even imagined that you were building in such a sweet place. i though just in the suburbs or something. Now you MUST post pictures on a regular basis showing the progress. the view is a killer! good luck building!

[Radman]

Boy, what a view your going to have. I must admit, that's the most unique way I've ever seen a foundation go in. Great idea, taking advantage of the natural landscape to incorporate that in your house!

[p8ntblr]

Beautiful view Rags. Just curious, what would the next be after the rebar?

[ragswl4]

Here is a couple of pics of the garage foundation. One is looking down and the other is of the right side. At the top of the block wall on the down hill view is where the floor for a storage room will be below the garage. The main floor of the garage will be 10 ft above that. At the top of the garage there will be two of three rows of blocks on top of that footing. Just to give you an idea of the slope of the land.

This is actually great progress for us as our first inspection is due Nov 17th and as long as the weather stays fair we should make that deadline. We are going to finish the garage first as we need space to store tools and materials for framing the house. We are starting to get excited now that we see a building (of sorts) coming out of the ground. There were so many rocks that the contractor gave up using a back hoe and dug the entire footing by hand with pick and shovel.

[ragswl4]

Beautiful view Rags. Just curious, what would the next be after the rebar?

That's a great question. In some places there is an 18" deep footing dug into the soil with rebar in the hole. All of that rebar around the perimeter is eventually tied together with other rebar making a complete circuit around the house. In addition there is also a footing running across the center of the house from right to left. Once the footing are poured the foundation will be contructed with concrete blocks with that rebar running through the center of the blocks and filled with concrete.

As they build up the foundation it will step down and up around and/or over the boulders as necessary. So many of the large boulders will actually become part of the foundation. After seeing the way the footings were done in the garage, the only way it could ever move is if the whole mountain fell down. It is amazing how its done.

After the foundation is completed then the wife and I will begin framing from the foundation up to the first floor. We will be building what I believe is called cripple walls to complete the foundation under the first floor.

An interesting note is the way the rebar is epoxied into the granite boulders. An 8" minimum hole is drilling into the boulder and then cleaned out and the rebar inserted. Then the county building inspector inspects each and every hole. He wraps a white clothe around a piece of rebar and measure the depth and looks for any dirt on the cloth. If it has any dirt at all the contractor has to re-clean the hole. Once passed the inspection the contractor then epoxies the rebar into the rocks. There must be at least 200 holes in the rocks for the foundation for the house. Tedious work.

[lrogers]

Let me add my WOW! to the list!

[sparkeyjames]

I wish the view out my front window was that nice.

[footprintsinconc]

questions, questions, question

Bill,

i have always wondered what kind of planning + approval and site exploration + preperation you have to go through in order to build a house in the mountains & wilderness areas where the site is not just dirt for 100ft below and level.

this stuff interests me. it is related to my field, but we only do commercial work in cities where the conditions are nothing like where you are building your house. i'd appreciate if you could give us a detail description of what was required in the site selection, then any geotechnical exploration of the site to know what is under the site, failure planes (earth movement) ... and who you had to hire ...what approval process you had go through. how did the engineer (if you had to hire one) incorporate the big boulders into the design of the footings of the house. how does he/she know the extend of the boulder underground or fracture planes in the boulder where the rebar is only being epoxied 8" deep..... do they look into all of these things ....?

if you think that this kind of information wouldnt interest others or is outside the scope of this site, you could just email me instead. remember, if you take my challange, i will most likely ask you more question .

thanks,

[ragswl4]

Bill,

i have always wondered what kind of planning + approval and site exploration + preperation you have to go through in order to build a house in the mountains & wilderness areas where the site is not just dirt for 100ft below and level.

this stuff interests me. it is related to my field, but we only do commercial work in cities where the conditions are nothing like where you are building your house. i'd appreciate if you could give us a detail description of what was required in the site selection, then any geotechnical exploration of the site to know what is under the site, failure planes (earth movement) ... and who you had to hire ...what approval process you had go through. how did the engineer (if you had to hire one) incorporate the big boulders into the design of the footings of the house. how does he/she know the extend of the boulder underground or fracture planes in the boulder where the rebar is only being epoxied 8" deep..... do they look into all of these things ....?

if you think that this kind of information wouldnt interest others or is outside the scope of this site, you could just email me instead. remember, if you take my challange, i will most likely ask you more question .

thanks,

I'll send an email.

[crokett]

That is really cool rags. I wonder is it possible to elevate the house on the granite in such a way as to not need to lay block/pour concrete for a foundatation at all? Like build it on stilts?

[ragswl4]

That is really cool rags. I wonder is it possible to elevate the house on the granite in such a way as to not need to lay block/pour concrete for a foundatation at all? Like build it on stilts?

Certainly not at this point as the original plan approval took 15 months and we want to stay as far away from those County Govy folks as possible. Doing it the way you suggested was actually discussed but as the house sits out on a small cliff the engineer and designer said that the wind load on the house will be extreme at times so it would be best to anchor it to the mountain and do everything possible to limit the height.

As it is the main floor will be 2 ft off the ground at the entrance and 10-12 ft off the ground on the backside. There is also a foundation member that runs from right to left at the center of the house that further anchors everything.

There is also a 1500 sq ft deck on the back and sides that is supported with cantilevered beams that are attached to the foundation. All in all, pretty strong looking concept, so they tell me.