This is a picture of a hole the dog dug under the garage slab. There are no foundation walls, just the slab.
It’s a 1980s wood frame house in SE Georgia. (sandy soils, high water table)
There are no signs of settlement in the house - wall cracks, racked doors, etc. Even the concrete driveway has minimal cracking.
Was there ever a time when slabs were poured without walls and a footer? Is this foundation OK?
all you gotta do is just call out what you see.
Good call, you are right Roy, but I don’t want to call out correct construction.
I have NEVER observed a garage floor slab with a footer!
Me neither, but I don’t dig out around foundations. Do you do that as a standard inspection item - dig down around the foundation perimeter?
I sent the picture to a foundation specialist, and he says since it doesn’t appear to have settled in 20 years, it’s nothing to worry about. The slab looks like about 8", so maybe that’s why it’s still OK.
Looks like slab on grade they do it everywhere down here. Is there a frost line in SE Georgia?
I see what you did here.
:-;; :-;;
It all depends on the structure above.Yep!
However, When we pour any/all slabs it WILL have a footing.
Down the road people will want to do something different there …Hence, with all slabs we pour …at the minimum will get a 16 inch base plus footing.
Shabby yankee workmanship. Yep!
Quote:
Originally Posted by jjonas https://nachi.cachefly.net/forum/images/2006/buttons/viewpost.gif
I have NEVER observed a garage floor slab with a footer!
I see what you did here.
I DONT see what you did there? What am I missing?
From what I can tell from various frost line maps, we basically don’t have a frost line.
This house is about 10 miles north of the Florida/Georgia line. So I’m going with no frost line. Also, the fact that I’ve never heard frostline talked about down here makes me think it’s not an issue. Decks get built on grade as standard, for example.
I’m thinking this slab on grade without walls or footer is not ideal, but not necessarily a problem.
Jeff was implying that it is called a footing not a footer.
I would say it just needs the dirt filled back in around it.
And it does have a footing remember the slab is only about 4" deep.
**Footing **not Footer!
(Thanks Ken)
Ken, interesting. Are you saying a footer/footing/footsock/whatevs is only needed to go below the frostline to prevent heaving, so if the frostline is 0 then a slab without footer (sic) is OK?
I know very little about frost heave being born and raised here in Florida so I would say it depends on what is acceptable there. Can’t be much different than here.
Jeff, calling it a footer is common down here I still have to try to catch myself before I say it. We also say “ya’ll” down here.
I have been in residential building for a while and footing and footer are both thrown around all the time. I grew up knowing it as footing but when people say footer I don’t even bat an eye… We all know what they are talking about. But I guess technically its a Footing…
Just wait until you get an educator, or an engineer, or other professional as a client. You will come across as the non-professional with no way out!
