Adventures in Home Improvement: Basement Wall Footers

We have been hard at work in the basement ~ thus the lack of posting!

Since the footers for the columns are poured, next we move to the footers for the walls. Since we are digging down below the existing wall and footer in the basement we have to pour new footers and walls down to meet them. We can only dig 4 foot sections at a time ~ because we are digging under the existing wall any more than 4 feet and we would risk the wall caving in. So we have the walls marked off in 4 foot sections and we started digging! Sorry these are not very pretty pictures...it's hard to make dirt look pretty!

After we dig the section, rebar is pounded into the clay on either side and connected to run all the way across the new wall/footer. Wood forms keep the concrete in place until it hardens. Each footer/wall section is made in 3 parts.

(This is where my laundry room will be!)

Each section has 2 metal straps curved into hooks on the bottom that stick down into the concrete footer and are bolted to the upper part of the wall to connect the new wall and footer to the existing wall.

We are working on finishing up footers #6,7, and 8 (of 34!) 

and starting to dig #9. 

This will be the most time consuming part of 

Operation Finish Basement

but will be worth it in the end!