No Footing Under Garage Pad, What To Do?
mikedrums
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
1978 Ranch, Middle TN, Stud Framed, Rotted Masonoite Siding- Covered in Vinyl
Due to moisture getting into garage I did some exploratory digging and discovered that the garage was built on a floating slab with NO footings. This is *not* a monolithic slab, just (-)4″ concrete sitting on soil. I don’t even see gravel or a moisture barrier. At present, it has lasted this long with no major cracks or severe settling. The load bearing walls are just sitting on the pad.
The rest of the house has footings and foundation block, creating a crawl space.
The lack of proper footings is one issue. The other issue is that the siding goes all the way down to the ground or at least to the concrete pad which sits on the ground. This is improper in my opinion and I’d like to rectify the situation.
The dirt was so high on this side of the house that it was at or above the vinyl siding for much of the length. The water would puddle against the side, go behind it, soak into the old Masonite siding, and wick into and underneath the sill plate, getting inside the house.
The dirt was so high on this side of the house that it was at or above the vinyl siding for much of the length. The water would puddle against the side, go behind it, soak into the old Masonite siding, and wick into and underneath the sill plate, getting inside the house.
What I would like to do (in conjunction with a siding/style remodeling) is to have a brick or stone knee wall on the lower third of the exterior, with siding above.
So here what I have to figure out.
1. Do I need to dig out and pour footings under the garage pad to properly support the load above it?
2. What sort of footing do I need underneath the masonry knee wall? Even if I use fake veneer stone, they will be attached to the wall, which doesn’t have proper footings.
Thanks for the input.
Mike
Replies
This is par for many old garages (though usually older than yours). Very often the garages did not need to be built to code, and even when code adherence was theoretically required often it was ignored and the garages built un-permitted.
The three choices I see are 1) tear it down and build it right, 2) somehow insert a few courses of block or brick under the walls, 3) leave it to rot and figure out ways to protect the house proper from the water intrusion. One could theoretically jack it up and insert a new full foundation under it, but that would be more expensive than option 1 (unless this garage is some sort of architectural wonder).