Foundation repairs are expensive; help avoid major problems in the future by doing a regular checkup on your home. Inspect foundation walls for cracks; these can be caused by settling, expanding tree roots, or improper drainage. Inspect and clean out your gutters regularly and be sure that the drains direct water away from the foundation.

Bob's back at the Mashpee site where he meets with developer Joe Valle to discuss the foundation that is being poured. Valle explains that the excavation work for an average foundation costs about $5,000 and includes the digging, backfill, and finish grading. The poured foundation also costs about $5,000, divided equally between the cost of labor and the cost of materials. Valle estimates it will take about 30 yards of concrete to pour the average foundation, which is equal to three truckloads. Bob questions the decision to pour a full foundation and wonders if it might not be more economical to build a crawlspace. Valle explains that the advantages of a full basement far outweigh any cost savings from digging and pouring a shallower foundation. The added living space is well worth the cost, especially since the foundation must be dug and poured regardless of the depth. As for a concrete slab, Valle says that the market does not support it in the Massachusetts area. Even with a slab house, a frost wall must be dug and poured, before the concrete arrives for the slab. Once the foundation is poured for this River Hill home, posts are set every 16 inches so that the sill can be bolted to the foundation and the house can be tied down to its base.

Bob is with Tim Berky, the general contractor for the Rowley Victorian addition and kitchen remodel. He updates Bob on the progress since the footing for the new foundation was poured and repairs to the original foundation were made. Berky and his crew found dry rot in the existing entry and had to remove it completely. The mason had to create a sloping course to level out the existing entry foundation and repoint it to blend it into the new foundation work. Inside, Berky and his crew removed the bathroom fixtures, secured the pipes to prevent leaking, opened the walls to expose wires and pipes for shutoff, and began to cut the entry into chunks for removal. The sill was releveled and an adhesive was used to attach the new sill to the brick foundaiton.

Bob and Ryley make their first tour of the site where the foundation is already in place. Ryley notes that with a sloping grade you want to drop the foundation as you follow the grade so that you don't have a lot of concrete sticking above the ground. Bob points out that the beauty of a sloping site is that the basement provides really good living space. Looking at the smoothness of the foundation wall Ryley can tell that the contractor used new forms for the pour. The horizontal line in the wall indicates where during the pour one truck pulled out and another pulled in, not uncommon in a large pour. The honeycombing that Bob notices is purely an aesthetic issue which could have been avoided by vibrating the concrete during the pour but does not compromise the wall's structural integrity. Bob and Ryley finish up with a quick look at the plans for the basement layout.

Bob meets Buba Barrow of Barrow Construction, the general contractor for the container-built housing project, and Ray Price of SPNHS, the project manager for the job. Barrow, a former engineer turned builder, explains how the stem wall foundation is constructed first with 20-inch by 8-inch footings reinforced with rebar that are poured to support a concrete block wall reinforced with #5 rebar set 32 inches on center. The cells are filled with concrete in a continuous pour to make a monolithic slab and foundation. This type of foundation, known as a stem-wall foundation, is the sturdiest possible support for a home built in hurricane territory and subject to wind, storm surge, and uplift. Bob talks to Price about the site clearing on this shaded lot covered with Florida Live Oaks. Once the central oak and the brush were cleared, Price supervised the pouring of the footings during a challenging set of delays in Florida's rainy season. The rectangular foundation is ready for the intermodal steel building units (ISBU's) that will arrive on site and be welded to the steel plates set in the concrete as weld points around the perimeter of the foundation.

Chris Vila joins Superior Walls� Mel Zimmerman to talk about a few of the benefits of a factory-built foundation system. Constructed in a controlled environment, the foundation walls can be delivered to the site and installed in a single day. The panels have provisions for wiring and plumbing systems, and even have pressure-treated lumber furring strips attached to the concrete to facilitate the easy installation of drywall. The cost of a factory built foundation system is comparable to a traditional foundation, according to Zimmerman.

Bob teams up with, Michael Shiels, the project�s general contractor, to discuss the foundation prep work that is underway. The home site began as a piece of raw forest on the side of a hill. The contractor�s team sliced a shelf out of the hill to lay a flat foundation. Local codes required a four-foot below the frost line base for the foundation�s frost wall.

Bob Vila meets with Jim Costello from Superior Walls of America to discuss the difference between precast panels delivered to the site and a traditional poured concrete foundation. The precast panel is made of an outside shell wall of high strength concrete combined with rebar reinforced concrete pillars. The ten-inch thick pillars give a look similar to a traditional stud wall with Styrofoam insulation. Pressure treated furring strips attached to the pillars make drywall or paneling easy to attach. The panels have an R factor, the measure of a materials resistance to the passage of heat, of 5 (concrete block has an R factor of about 2). Polyurethane caulk with special concrete adhesives is added between each panel to insure a tight seal. The panels are attached to each other and the base with pre-installed saddle bolts. A typical home�s installation takes about five hours and without having to wait for the foundation to set or dry, contractors can begin framing immediately. The walls are guaranteed for 15 years compared to poured concrete walls, which generally have a warranty of one year.

Bob joins Tim Berky to hear how the foundation and footing will be handled for the Victorian kitchen and deck addition. The mason is due to arrive the next day to repair the brick face along the exterior of the house and set a 12-inch block topped with 8-inch block shelf along the back to allow for a brick top. The crew will then pour a "rat slab" or filler slab along the bottom. None of the new foundation work will be visible when it is done because of new framing. Berky is pouring three yards of cement for the new footing. Once the mason is finished with the new foundation work, they will remove siding, the roof and doors, cut electricity and plumbing, and the gut the interior of the existing mudroom. The mudroom sill is rotted, so Berky's advice is that it be removed entirely and rebuilt.

Bob talks with Howard Brickman about the challenging soil conditions on this project, where a high water table and impermeable soils must be considered for the foundation. To alleviate these problems, several tons of inch-and-a-half crushed stone were trucked to the job site. The footings for the foundation were placed to support the load-bearing walls. Waterproof Fab-Form plastic footing forms were used instead of typical wood forms because they will keep the water out and away from the footings. A plastic membrane was placed on the inside of the Fab-Forms to further protect the footings from water. The forms are connected and braced for the pour with stakes that are screwed into the forms with threaded wallboard screws. When the stakes are removed, the screws will be snapped off. Using this method has removed two of three steps in the standard footing construction process. The forms double as the drainage-pipe material and will stay in place after the pour, eliminating the need to remove the forms once the concrete is set. In a typcial footing pour, the forms would be stripped away from the footings before the drain pipe was placed. With Fab-Forms the slab and the footing with integral drainage can be poured at the same time, using a smaller footing than traditional installations.