Stepping Down a Foundation

[TRAK.Structural]

I've got a residential design project with a sloping piece of property that drops a couple feet from front to back. Contractor wants a turndown edge slab foundation, which is fine, but I'm wondering how to this gets built where the grade drops. Making the bottom of the concrete step down as required is straight forward enough but it feels awkward and potentially difficult to construct what would be a 3 to 4 foot deep turndown at the low point in the rear of the home. Should I transition to a strip type footing with some type of stem wall when the grade drops to more than say 1 foot below the FFE? What kind of detailing would you use in this scenario?

 

[KootK]

but how many houses in those massive suburban developments are built after loads of earthwork/grading is done?

I'm not worried about that situation. Cut and fill grading is fine by me so long as its engineered fill that properly compacted, consolidated etc.

The situation that concerns me is really more localized. Just the wedge of fill against walls really, as shown in the sketch below.

 

[TRAK.Structural]

I'm not worried about that situation. Cut and fill grading is fine by me so long as its engineered fill that properly compacted, consolidated etc.

The situation that concerns me is really more localized. Just the wedge of fill against walls really, as shown in the sketch below.

View attachment 15885

Yea that's a fair point; I would think though that if the slab is tied to the wall at the top and for short walls this effect is minimal. @Tomfh suggestion of designing the slab to span over this poorly compacted zone probably makes sense, just very abnormal for residential construction in my area at least.