How to pour a footer for block wall

[Steve B]

I want to make a block wall that is of various heights. This will be an undulating wall covered with stucco, a southwest type with wrought iron, wood railing, and pipe inserts.

When making a footer, do you get your string line right, then pour into the trench, then wait until the concrete is set enough to hold up the weight of the blocks so it doesn't settle? I would put rebar, as well as every six feet or so vertically, and then grout those cells for vertical strength.

My main question is getting the footer and first course in.

Thanks.

Steve

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[LouB]

You might want to ask your town building inspector about local code

[gfretwell]

The more level you make the footer, the easier it is to get started with the block. Usually you let the concrete set overnight or longer before you start building on it

[IGot2P]

Just curious, what makes you think that Steve B even lives in a town? And if he does, what makes you so sure that the town even has a code and/or a building inspector? I know that the town that I live in has neither!

Don

[Colbyt]

Steve,

The concrete needs to set and maybe cure before you start your wall. 24-48 hours drying time is plenty for a wall 2-3 blocks high. Anything taller should cure for at least a week before you start building. Or at least before you get a lot of weight on it.

Then the blocks are set in a bed of mortar. Minor imperfections can be made up with more or less mortar when the first course is set. Usually a mason will dry stack the corners or a wide expanse of a straight run 2-3 blocks high, stretch a string and identify any potential high spots in the footer that must be dealt with. Not recommended but I have seen mortar beds or parts of mortar beds as deep as an inch for small sections to make up a boo-boo.

Trying to set the first course into the wet concrete is more trouble than it is worth. It will also be very hard to do properly.

[LouB]

What makes you think he doesn't? Most folks do live near civilization:-))

[Oren]

My local permit office will give me a detailed drawing for the footer.

Watch out for that property boundary line....

[James]

Look at the response and info from Colbyt. Does anyone think that the OP would get this much information from the local building inspector (even if there is one ??)

No.

James

[aemeijers]

If you aren't gonna form up the footer to pour it, your two choices are to level it by eye measuring down from a string, or pound a stake at the (alternating) edges of trench every couple of feet, and use the tops of the stakes as your reference. Back in stone age, we used scrap cedar siding ripped down to 3/4 square profile for the stakes. We always waited several days for footer to cure before laying block on it. You shove the rebar J-hooks into the pour as you go along, of course, holding them vertical however is painless.

[Steve B]

I should have been more specific, but then, the answer I got had nothing to do with the question, did it?

You are right. I live in an AG 1 zone. We get to pretty much do anything we want, except if it involves electricity, plumbing, or other specific things.

To reply to such a question with a neener neener neener answer about building inspector reflects that the person answering merely knows nothing about the question on construction, and has no experience about anything outside their little portion of the fishbowl/universe.

FYI, I do live in a township, and I must apply for permits for only certain things. For all the rest, we just Git r' done. How to do things, and where to get permits are two entirely different questions.

Steve

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[Steve B]

It must be a bitch to live in such paranoia. That's why I chose a rural ranch at the very end of the road. We do what we want, and don't HAVE to tell anyone.

Steve

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[Harry K]

And mine re-drew the plans I did for my porch roof repair.

Harry K

[Jim Elbrecht]

I called one 30 years ago. I'd already talked to the contractor & he laid out how he would install a septic system. He just eyeballed the property and went with seat-of-the-pants engineering.[and 40 years of experience digging holes in the town]

The inspector came out and began his schpiel about perk tests, etc. I asked him if the contractor would do those or should I, 'Joe Blow will be doing the work'. It was like I'd just kicked him in the nuts. 'Oh, he's doing the work? He'll just do as he pleases anyway. . . Here's your permit.'

I'm sure there are good permit officers out there-- but there is too much politics and too little merit hiring in town government to rely on it.

Jim

[Oren]

My friend was telling me about an inspector. The guy would always find something wrong, regardless.

Oren: Find out what his days off are and call the inspection then, a more friendly inspector.

Bubba: That works!

[Tony]

Maybe that is his way of admitting that "joe blow" knows 100 times more than he does about septic systems? How did/does that septic work? Did Joe Blow really know his shit and others too? Or was Joe Blow full of hot air and leaking drain fields?

[Steve B]

"Tony" wrote

Isn't that what they're designed to do?

Steve

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[Tony]

Well I meant they shouldn't be any liquid you can see or smell. They should be *leaching* liquid into the ground and not above it.