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Frost Protection of Foundation/Footing

steveray, I did thank you for your response but why would they even have a figure for "Basement or Crawl Space with Foundation Wall Bearing Directly on Soil" if you couldn't construct it that way? You will notice that the other figures on that page specifically identify walls with spread footings with the P measurement, but the wall figure does not. I'll agree that it's not very logical, but nonetheless, it is shown that way.

Anyone have an answer on this one?
 
Read the description under each drawing. The only one that is referencing a foundation wall is the one without a footer. The others are either a masonry or concrete basement or crawlspace wall on a spread footing.

If you want to construct a 12" to 42" wide foundation wall to bear directly on the soil I guess the code will allow it.

The IRC has a section for pre-cast foundation walls with crushed stone footers.
 
mtlogcabin, thank you. that's the way I also read it. Your wall would have to meet the footing width of Table R403.1.
 
mtlogcabin said:
If you want to construct a 12" to 42" wide foundation wall to bear directly on the soil I guess the code will allow it.
We used to do 12" wide x 42" deep grade beam (frost line at 42") for slab on grade ranches all the time....works pretty slick when you need a brick ledge too. Some might call that a footing, others might call it a foundation, it's still six one way, and half a dozen the other.
 
High Desert said:
mtlogcabin, thank you. that's the way I also read it. Your wall would have to meet the footing width of Table R403.1.
The only place we allow less than 12 inches is in on frost protected stoops.
 
The only place I have seen a wall w/o footings is Superior Walls precast, but they are engineered anyway, so I have not had to make the call on the illogical code contrdiction....yet....
 
A century ago it was common to excavate down to the frost line and build stone or brick foundation walls right on the subsoil. Stone foundations were typically 16" or thicker, so they didn't have projections at the botton. Brick walls would typically have a few courses corbeled out another wythe or two. The verbiage for the foundation wall to extend below the frost line is probably based on this archaic construction method.
 
It only took one hundred responses to go medieval on the thread. Gotta love this forum.
 
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