{"id":1495,"date":"2018-01-02T16:19:38","date_gmt":"2018-01-02T16:19:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/?p=1495"},"modified":"2018-03-16T21:50:29","modified_gmt":"2018-03-16T21:50:29","slug":"building-a-new-house-digging-the-footers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/2018\/01\/building-a-new-house-digging-the-footers\/","title":{"rendered":"Building a New House \u2013 Digging the Footers"},"content":{"rendered":"

They started digging the footers today. Around 11:00 the builder called. The grader had called him and said he was not hitting stable ground. He had already gone down as far as is typical, but was hitting soft soil and clay.<\/p>\n

The first contractor had warned us about this when we originally talked about building in a flood zone. We know there used to be a lake near where we are building. I don\u2019t believe it went this far, but we could be hitting silt. And we know there are springs in the area.<\/p>\n

We made an appointment to meet him at the site in a couple of hours. In the mean time, they would keep digging.<\/p>\n

By the time we got there everybody had a better idea of what was going on. The back hoe did eventually hit \u201clake bottom\u201d. We are going to have some very deep footers, but it looks like we won\u2019t have to do any additional engineering.<\/p>\n

\"We
We don\u2019t want the house to settle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We don\u2019t want the house to settle.<\/p>\n

The inspector will check the soil density with a penetrometer. That\u2019s just a fancy word for poking in to make sure it is not too soft. We poked away, and it looks solid enough at the bottom of the trench.<\/p>\n

Next: Building Our New Schumacher Home: Foundation Construction ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They started digging the footers today. Around 11:00 the builder called. The grader had called him and said he was not hitting stable ground. He had already gone down as far as is typical, but was hitting soft soil and clay. The first contractor had …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[31],"tags":[36,37,42],"class_list":["post-1495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-house","tag-footers","tag-foundation","tag-frost-footings"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/featured_image-footers.jpg?fit=1200%2C632&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1515,"url":"https:\/\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/2018\/01\/building-our-new-schumacher-home-foundation-construction\/","url_meta":{"origin":1495,"position":0},"title":"Building Our New Schumacher Home: Foundation Construction","author":"Carla","date":"January 15, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"They are working on our footings and foundation today. The contractor came out to dig trenches for frost footings. What should have been one foot is about four feet. They have to keep digging till they get past the mud. They dig. Poke with a tool. It pushes right in.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Our New House"","block_context":{"text":"Our New House","link":"https:\/\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/category\/new-house\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Building Our New Schumacher Home: Foundation Construction","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/featured_image-building-our-new-schumacher-home-foundation-construction.jpg?fit=810%2C431&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/featured_image-building-our-new-schumacher-home-foundation-construction.jpg?fit=810%2C431&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/featured_image-building-our-new-schumacher-home-foundation-construction.jpg?fit=810%2C431&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/featured_image-building-our-new-schumacher-home-foundation-construction.jpg?fit=810%2C431&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13454,"url":"https:\/\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/2024\/02\/leveling-the-building-site-digging-the-footers-and-footer-inspection-small-modular-cabin\/","url_meta":{"origin":1495,"position":1},"title":"Leveling the Building Site, Digging the Footers and Footer Inspection: Small Modular Cabin","author":"Carla","date":"February 7, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"As soon as we got the permit, they started cutting into the bank to make a level building site. This will be the back of the house.\u00a0 The site seemed pretty level already, but now it is really level. He cut the top of the lot and pushed the topsoil\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Modular Cabin"","block_context":{"text":"New Modular Cabin","link":"https:\/\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/category\/new-cottage\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/featured-footers.jpg?fit=810%2C431&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/featured-footers.jpg?fit=810%2C431&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/featured-footers.jpg?fit=810%2C431&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/featured-footers.jpg?fit=810%2C431&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2021,"url":"https:\/\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/2018\/03\/progress-on-re-digging-the-footers\/","url_meta":{"origin":1495,"position":2},"title":"Progress on Re-Digging the Footers","author":"Carla","date":"March 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"After a long weather delay, they got back to work on Friday, March 2. They started re-digging the footers and pumping the water out of them. The geotextile fabric and loads of gravel were delivered. What is the fabric? The fabric is Thrace-Linq\u00ae 125EX. I read it off the label.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Our New House"","block_context":{"text":"Our New House","link":"https:\/\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/category\/new-house\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Progress on Re-Digging the Footers","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/featured_image-progress-on-re-digging-the-footers.jpg?fit=1200%2C632&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/featured_image-progress-on-re-digging-the-footers.jpg?fit=1200%2C632&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/featured_image-progress-on-re-digging-the-footers.jpg?fit=1200%2C632&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/featured_image-progress-on-re-digging-the-footers.jpg?fit=1200%2C632&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/featured_image-progress-on-re-digging-the-footers.jpg?fit=1200%2C632&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2003,"url":"https:\/\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/2018\/03\/back-to-work-starting-on-the-engineered-footers\/","url_meta":{"origin":1495,"position":3},"title":"Back to Work! Starting on the Engineered Footers","author":"Carla","date":"March 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"It is March and they are finally working on our house again! Woo Hoo! The last time they were out there was on January 17th. We got the Engineer\u2019s Excavation Report on January 22nd and gave them an additional check to keep going. We pulled money out of the retirement\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Our New House"","block_context":{"text":"Our New House","link":"https:\/\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/category\/new-house\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Back to Work! 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It may be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Our New House"","block_context":{"text":"Our New House","link":"https:\/\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/category\/new-house\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Building Our New Schumacher Home: Build","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/featured_image-building-our-new-schumacher-home-build.jpg?fit=810%2C431&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/featured_image-building-our-new-schumacher-home-build.jpg?fit=810%2C431&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/featured_image-building-our-new-schumacher-home-build.jpg?fit=810%2C431&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/featured_image-building-our-new-schumacher-home-build.jpg?fit=810%2C431&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1488,"url":"https:\/\/www.projectsmallhouse.com\/blog\/2017\/09\/building-a-new-house-can-you-build-in-a-flood-plain\/","url_meta":{"origin":1495,"position":5},"title":"Building a New House \u2013 Can you build in a flood plain?","author":"Carla","date":"September 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Can you build in a flood plain? 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