Exposed footer at walkout…….

[rcramer]

This is from my Saturday inspection, good thing a slab was not poured under the deck. Looks as though the builder forgot to step the footing, I wonder why the city inspector did not catch this? You should have seen the realtors face when I pointed this out and described how it needed to be fixed; she just turned and walked away. The buyer told me my fee for the inspection was the best money he ever spent. I wanted to make sure, so I dug up to the bottom of the footer, and sure enough it was only 8” into the grade, a far cry from the 30” requirement. The home was built in 1994 and already had some large cracks in the foundation wall among cracking in the drywall. Am I glad I didn’t miss this one…….

[David P. Valley]

Nice crack.

Footings in Massachusetts must be below our frost line, which is 3 to 4 feet deep. I like using 42" inches as a guideline when advising my clients about footings under support posts.

[rcramer]

Hey David,
Yea, it gets a bit colder in your neck of the woods. When I lived in north east Indiana, the frost line was 42" too. Around here though it is 30" although it has not got that cold for a while. Probably why the house I inspected is still standing. Whats the footing requirement for Canada? Hummmm