Residential basement wall footing design
Residential basement wall footing design
(OP)
We are designing a new home with an 8 foot tall basement retaining wall. Currently, we do not have a soil report and the client does not plan to obtain one. We designed the wall for an assumed soil bearing capacity of 1500 psf and the footings are approx. 60" wide. Needless to say, the client wants smaller, more normal footings.....approx. 24" wide.
Should we lessen the footing width by assuming a higher soil pressure of 2500 psi and state this was assumed on the drawings?
Or should we keep the current design to really cover ourselves?
Should we lessen the footing width by assuming a higher soil pressure of 2500 psi and state this was assumed on the drawings?
Or should we keep the current design to really cover ourselves?






RE: Residential basement wall footing design
Keep in mind that if you do design as pin pin the floor has to be constructed prior to backfilling or the wall has to be braced until the floor is in place.
RE: Residential basement wall footing design
I will say that I think you should check your loading. Your 5' wide strip footing suggests that you have a 7,500 lb/ft load on the soil. Or maybe you said 'basement retaining wall' and it's really a cantilevered retaining wall?
Anyway, in my opinion you should always state what soil bearing capacity was used on the drawings.
RE: Residential basement wall footing design
RE: Residential basement wall footing design
RE: Residential basement wall footing design
RE: Residential basement wall footing design
Around here, 30" wide is the typical for a 2 storey wood framed house. As kipfoot mentioned, your size calculated means you have 7.5k/ft of vertical load coming down which seems quite unlikely in residential construction.
RE: Residential basement wall footing design
RE: Residential basement wall footing design
RE: Residential basement wall footing design
However we don't do block walls here, ever. For which I am grateful. Old houses are rubblestone foundations, the rest are concrete. Some (very few but still some) are PWF wood foundations.
RE: Residential basement wall footing design
RE: Residential basement wall footing design
Dik
RE: Residential basement wall footing design
RE: Residential basement wall footing design
RE: Residential basement wall footing design
RE: Residential basement wall footing design
kingpenn3, glad you figured it out. My state code also allows 2000psf before a geotech has to get involved. You should check what your state code says (assuming you're in the US).
Please remember: we're not all guys!