How-To
A High-Performance Foundation
See the construction of the Rhode Island FHB House foundation, and listen to builder Mike Guertin explain the details of its assembly and describe his approach to product selection.
FHB House builder Mike Guertin and designer Michael Maines conceived of the project’s foundation with buildability, water management, and thermal performance in mind. In this video, Guertin explains his approach to the construction of the foundation from forming the footings to installing the final drainage membrane. Using a combination of insulated concrete forms, rigid foam, and a host of waterproofing products, the team was able to construct a foundation with above-average performance attributes that can be replicated easily by any builder.
Find more details about the construction of the FHB House foundation:
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Why is the Protecto Wrap not applied to all of the footings? It is easily seen when Mike is laying the ICF in the video starting at 0:05.
Mike and his crew built what are probably the best footing forms I've ever seen for a residential foundation.
When reinforcing dowels are installed in a footing, his setting template for them shows how it should be done (no wet-setting of dowels).
Given the use of these dowels, I would prefer to see a vibrator used to consolidate the concrete to eliminate entrapped air that leaves open pores for water to find its way in and affect the steel reinforcing. I understand the waterproofing applied to the exterior will resist most water, but water WILL find its way in nonetheless.
This is good work....However, any foundation that uses a lot of concrete has too much imbedded energy. I think we should be looking at foundation systems with little or no concrete: wood piling systems have no concrete, wood pole construction has minimal footing concrete, even concrete post construction (permacolumns) have far less concrete . Hundreds of thousands of structures are built this way (most houses on the Eastern Coast, pole barns everywhere, etc).