Houses would be much easier to build if all concrete footings were perfect, but perfection is a monster that feeds on man-hours, especially when working with rough-sawn 2×10 lumber that is wet, warped, and covered in old concrete. Still, that didn’t stop me from laughing when an architect on my last project recommended that we try Fastfoot, a reinforced sheet-plastic footing form that is unrolled and installed in a light framework. When I stopped to consider that I routinely pour concrete into forms made of foam, Fastfoot no longer seemed so silly.

To get started, I built a light framework with 2×4 top rails supported by stakes spaced 2 ft. to 3 ft. apart. Then I laid the footing fabric into the framework and stapled it to the top edge, folding the plastic neatly to go around corners. After tying the sides of the framework together with 1×4 strapping, I was ready for the pour. Setup took about 20% less time than I had estimated for installing lumber forms, and this was my first time working with the system.

When it came time to pour, I was tense, but that nervousness evaporated about 10 minutes into the pour; nothing moved from where I’d put it. Stripping the form lumber was easy. In fact, except for the top braces and a few stakes, all of the lumber was clean enough to be reused for the house’s framing.

Having such success with Fastfoot, I really can’t see myself forming footings any other way in the future. This system is faster, better, and less expensive. Who says you can have only two out of three?