The house needs something solid to sit on or it would just sink right into the ground
Footers are what keeps the house above ground. They vary from house to house as the soil
conditions vary along with the building code of each county. Since we have such a high
water table and a sandy soil, we went extra wide on our footers in order to float the house
more on top of the ground.
Here are the forms being set up for the footers
There are many different ways to form footers. You can rent metal forms that you nail into
the ground. You can nail 2x8's on top of each other length wise which leaves you with a footer
that is narrow at one end and wider on the other end. Another way is to cut each board
to fit and put blocking over each joint on the outside making a uniform footer. This method was
the way we chose as we planned to use the lumber later on to build the porch. Once the outside
walls of the forms are built, you need to insure that they are level and square. By using a transit,
you can check the height at different points around the footers to ensure a level house. Rebar
needs to be laid inside the footer forms to add strength to the footers. Finally, you are ready to
have your work inspected. An approval slip from the inspector allows you to order the concrete in ASAP.
Here are the finished footers.