Porch Footings

Digging the hole for front porch footings

 Today the excavator came back for the day. He backfilled around the garage slab and dug holes for the front and back porch piers.

You can see the precast piers standing in the background of the first photo. Then you can barely see the tops of them poking out of the ground in the second photo after they were placed precisely (within 1" each direction) as per the plan to support the wood framing that will go above it.

Three front porch footings installed

A porch (or a whole building, really) can have a floor system than is supported by piers and is over open air, rather than a full foundation wall enclosing a basement or crawlspace. This is much less expensive, and often done under exterior spaces, like decks.

On previous projects I've seen cardboard sono-tubes placed into the hole, and then filled with concrete and re-bar. ("poured in place", like the rest of the concrete work you've seen on this project). This was different, because the G.C. elected to use precast pier footings. They came delivered to the site yesterday and got installed and back-filled today. Quick and done!

Digging for the back porch pier footing

Placing the pier. Don't put it on Scott's foot!