Concrete Footing Details

The concrete footing details in most cases are the only communications between the structural engineer
and the contractor on site. This is especially true in residential construction where footing detail and
footing design are kept to a minimum. This poses a challenge as to how well the designers intend
depicted in a spread footing detail for post footings pr pier footings are interpreted in the field.
Whether the footing detail is for post footings at a commercial building or pier footings at a house the
detail must be clear and simple to understand. But the clarity and simplicity of any footing detail is heavily
dependent on the contractor's experience and sophistication which can be elusive for the normal concrete
contractor.
To illustrate the importance of interpreting designer's intend represented by a detail, consider the footing
detail shown below.

This detail was one of the biggest footings that I had estimated and constructed. The footing size 30'0"x98'-0"x12'-0", (30 feet wide, 98 feet long, 12 feet deep). There were 4 of these for a one 10 story
office building built near an earthquake fault line.
The reinforcements were as massive as the footing themselves, #11 @ 6" o.c. each way double mat top &
bottom with additional #9 @ 9" o.c. each way spaced 9" o.c. vertically. The vertical reinforcements were
#8 @ 9" o.c each way.
Estimating the required quantities of rebar, concrete , and types of anchor bolts along with steel embed
channels all require extensive knowledge for interpreting footing details.
The normal home building concrete contractor will find that constructing such footing detail require great a
lot of planning. Unlike a normal house footing that takes 2 days max to form and pour, this can take
weeks.

The biggest challenge in constructing this footing was ensuring that the anchor bolts along with the
embedded steel are anchored precisely at the desired location without movement during pour. Next to that
challenge was the fear of blow out due to the fact that ties had to be special made and there was no
guarantees they would work.
Ok, enough with not so normal footings lets look at concrete footings that can be found in almost every
residential and commercial structures. Spot footings and continuous footings are these types of footings
that majority of structures are founded upon. Pier footings is another type of footing commonly used to
support columns and post for both interior and exterior structural elements. These types of footings are
also known as spread footing

Concrete Footing Design Process

Concrete footing design, footing design, footing detail, and continuous footing all follow the same design
procedure. A concrete footing detail is the end result of footing design process following careful
considerations of the type of soil, climate conditions, ground water, type of structure, usage of the
structure, etc.
Footing design is something your normal concrete contractor or general contractor does not care much
about, it is not required of them.
Usually a contractor shows up in the picture after the footing design, concrete footing detail, and
continuous footing are complete.
Even in design-built projects, where contractors are heavily involved during design phase, they will never
inquire of how footings are designed. This section is dedicated to the footing design process.
For illustrative purposes, lets consider the Building section shown here. On the left side just below the TJI
floor joist shows a steel beam W12x26 across the living room.
The reason for this beam was to minimize the clear span of the 11-7/8" TJI joist. Due to cost and
availability of material, it was the least expensive choice to use steel beam.
This beam was carried by a 4 stud column at each end which in turn transfers the load to the footings.
Here are the steps and thought process that went into footing design:

Step 1: Determine the dead load

Concrete footing design requires estimating the dead load, the load of building material, in this case all the
material for the floor.
1. 1/2" drywall ceiling - 3.3 psf(pounds per square foot)
2. 5/8" Plywood floor sheathing - 2 psf
3. TJI Floor Joist @ 16" o.c. - 1.9 psf
4. Carpet & pad - 1 psf
5. Steel beam - 26 plf(pounds per lineal foot)
Adding items 1 thru 4 yields 8.2 psf plus weight of beam
Step 2: Determine the area tributary to the beam

An important step in concrete footing design, or any footing design is determining the beam tributary
area.
Tributary area refers to the area of the floor carried by the steel beam, shown shaded in the plan.
This means fifty percent of the area to the right and left of the beam are carried by the steel beam. Half of
7'-6" is 3'-9" and half of 17'-8" is 8'-10". Adding the two halves yields 12'-7" which is the tributary
width.
Multiply the tributary width by the 8.2 psf yields 103.2 plf. Adding this to the weight of the beam we have
a dead load of 129.2 plf.

Step 3: Determine live load (LL)

The live load is given by the code as 40 psf. Multiply the LL by 12'-7", we have a 503.2 plf
(40x12.58=503.2) live load carried by the beam.
Per plan the beam clear span is 19 feet. Combining the dead and live loads and multiply by the beam clear
span yields total load of 12,015.6 pounds [(503.2+129.2)x19=12,015.6]. Since there are two columns,
one will carry 50% of the load. Each column carries 6,008 pounds(round off to nearest whole number).
Step 4: Determine soil pressure and calculate area of footing
Since no soil testing was done for this project, the rule of thumb is to use 1,500 psf allowable soil
pressure.
Taking the 6,008 pounds divide by 1,500 pounds per square foot - the pounds cancel each other, leaving
the end result as 4 square feet of footing area required.
Since these are continuous footing the width can be used to calculate the required length.
For the 1'-4" thicken slab, it requires 3 ft (4/1.33) long which is less than the footing provided.
The exterior side of the footing, the width is 1'-8" which requires 2'-4"(4/1.67) footing length to satisfy the
required footing area. Therefore, the footing provided is sufficient.

Footing Detail
A good concrete footing detail resulted from careful considerations based on the type of structure, weight
of the structure, type of soil, climate conditions, etc during the concrete footing design process. Such
continuous footing as those shown in the building section below is an example of how residential plans
address detail for footings.
Commercial construction plans are much more involved when it comes to showing details for footings. This
is partially due to cost (companies spend more money developing plans) and building review
requirements.
It is much more difficult and expensive to get building permit for commercial construction compared to
residential. Part of permit requirements in commercial construction is footing and foundation plan sheet as
well as footing & foundation detail sheet.
On the other hand residential construction building permit requirements are understandably much more
simple. This lead to plans that are unclear because engineering design involvement are kept to a
minimum.
This resulted in details for footings done by drafters that have very limited knowledge regarding footing
and foundation engineering.
The most common footing are spot footings and continuous footings. In almost every structure both
residential and commercial use combination of the two.
At All-Concrete-Cement.com you will find sound engineering judgments relating to your footing needs.

The partial building section detail shown here was one of two building sections that I drafted for a 2,600
square feet house addition. While preparing the plans, the main objective was to pass building permit
review.
Making the plans easy to build by providing such details as interior footings detail, detail where the
existing house meets the new addition, footing step detail, detail at corner of footings, etc. were not part
of the plan.
Due to my personal involved with this particular project, the missing information was provided during
construction site visits.
This house addition was built by the home owner, who was not a contractor saving him tens of thousands
of dollars.

Continuous Footing Details

Concrete footing details such as details 1 and 2 are the most common
concrete footings at residential construction. Unlike the continuous footings in details 1 and 2 which
designed to support walls, spot footing or column footing are designed to support columns or posts.
The footing plan shown below is the same house where thepartial building section taken from. Notice the
two interior footings - one against the existing house, and the other at the bearing wall. Both interior
footings are intended to be poured monolithic with the floor slab as shown on detail 2 below.
The continuous footing against the existing house was intended to avoid any engineering analysis of the
existing walls, footings, and foundations, which can be costly. This was a necessary step given the fact
that the existing house was built in the 1930s.

The interior footing near the center of the addition is there to support the bearing wall. This bearing wall is
intended to cut down the floor joist span minimizing the depth of the floor joists.
This plan was one of many that I had drawn, coordinated with city planning and city building department
as well as owner. My engineering background came in handy during the plan approval process speeding up
the process, usually take less
than 2 weeks depending on how
fast the city review.
As an added benefit, very rare
that my plans require
engineering stamp for city
approval, a definite cost saving to
the home owner. I have coached
homeowners on permit
application, preparing plans,
general contracting, hiring subs,
etc. thereby empowering them so
they can fully in charge of their project.
This detail-1 is a closer look at the exterior
footings where it shows size of
footing, size and spacing of reinforcement, and locations of reinforcement. The #4 bars shown is the size
of rebar, which are numbered by the diameter 1/8" increment - i.e #4 bar is 1/2" diameter (4 divide by
8), #5 bar is 5/8" diameter and so on.
The 2'-6" (reads 2 feet 6 inches) required by code due to frost, a depth determined by city building
department where freezing will not affect the house. Since water increases in volume when freezes, 2'-6"
is a depth below freezing line thereby preventing the house from being pushed upward when ground
freezes.

Post Footings
Post footings are also known as column footings or spot footings shown onfooting detail 1 below. A post is
defined in the dictionary as a long piece of wood, steel, concrete, or other material that is placed upright

into the ground to serve as a marker or support. Another definition stated it is a vertical support or
structure as a support for a beam in the framework of a building.
With those definitions in mind, concrete footing details such as detail 1 shows how the footing and
reinforcements are to be placed. The terms post and column are used interchangeably which refer to a
vertical structural member partially shown at the middle of the footing in det 1.
When placing a post on concrete footings, the column must be centered at the spot footing in all
directions. This will ensure the load transferred to the footings won't create eccentric loading which
depending on the soil type can be problematic to the stability and lateral support system of the structure.
For that reason the bolt patterns must be checked and verified at least once prior to the pour.

A fence post also has footings but quite different from the column footing in detail 1. For one thing the
vertical load for fences are very small, that's why fence footings are much deeper than they are wide.
The fence footings for chain link fences are narrow but very deep, anywhere from 6 to 8 inches diameter
by 18 to 24 inches deep. The increase depth will provide lateral stability.
The thinness of the footing is primarily due to the limited vertical loads imposed on fences. The increased
depth is intended to provide counter balance forces to resist wind loads.
Due to the thinness and almost absence of vertical loads fence footing reinforcements are not required.
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