We just started construction on our new house and unfortunately the foundation contractor has already made a mistake. They misplaced a footing by 8″. I had checked the string lines and they were all correct. Apparently they offset the form to the wrong side of the string, so they are off exactly the width of the wall, which has not yet been poured. This footing is 16″ x 8″ and supports two stories. The wall itself separates the basement from a safe room under the porch, so it is not a retaining wall – load bearing only.
The contractor is proposing to widen the footing by 8″. He will do this by epoxying #4 rebar dowels into the existing footing every 12″ and pouring the additional 8″ along side it. He will also supply a letter from an engineer approving this method. The wall will then sit right on the cold joint in this expanded footing. The footings rest on clay with an assumed 1500 psf bearing capacity (typical for this area).
While I’m pretty upset that they made such a mistake, this does seem like a reasonable approach to fix it. Should I have any worries about this solution? How will this compare strength wise to be being centered on a 16″ wide footing? In some ways I wonder if it’s not actually stronger since the wall will rest on a 24″ wide footing even though it’s off centered, but on the other hand, I worry about that cold joint held together by rebar and epoxy.
Replies
You are lucky.
You are lucky that you have a contractor who is willing to stand by his work and fix it. There is nothing wrong with this approach. Having an engineer certifiy it would certainly satisfy me. I wouldn't worry about the cold joint with all that steel. But with this addition only 8" wide, I'd be sure that there was some steel running lengthwise.
Thank you, Mike. The original 16" footings have (2) #4's running lengthwise continuously. I did not specifically ask about reinforcement lengthwise in the widened portion but will make sure they add rebar trhoughout the length as well.