Graphical Construction Glossary >> Concrete and Concreting. >> >> Strip Footing

Strip Footing

A footing that is longer in one direction than the other. Typically under walls.

Starter Bars

Steel reinforcing bars cast into two separate pours of concrete. With lap joints to main bars they continue the reinforcement through the concrete joint.

Back-fill

The fill material or the process of filling and compacting excavations when the work has been completed.

This type of footing has the advantage that it can be stepped in brickwork or blockwork increments so that it can easily be adapted to sloping sites.

Above is a sectional detail of reinforced concrete footing showing some of the requirements for the design. Any drawing like this only tells part of the story. The specifications will also details like:-

• Stripping off the vegetation and topsoil layer.
• The minimum bearing capacity of the subgrade.
• The compaction of the fill inside the building and the back-fill outside.
• The strength of the concrete and the corefill.

The contract specifications in their turn will call up regulatory standards like and building codes that the concrete, the reinforcing steel, the vapour barrier, the termite protection method etc etc.

The photo above shows a strip foundation that has been poured with the starter bars easily seen. Often 12mm starter bars used to be seen with a hook on the end in situations like this.

Partly it was a hangover from the days when hooks were used in plain bars to provide grip for the concrete but with the use of deformed bars and correct laps there is now no need for them structurally, but they were still used for safety reasons. Imagine someone falling onto them.

Now with the use of these cheap plastic caps the hooks can be left off and the bars are still safe.

Blocks starting to be laid on a job similar to the one in the sketch at the top of the page.

When all the blocks are laid to the slab height they are corefilled BEFORE BACK-FILLING. Washed sand is used and it is watered in which can achieve good compaction. Care should be used with mechanical compaction equipment not to damage the blockwork.

A bundle of N12 starter bars to b e used in reinforced blockwork construction.

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