How To Layout Stepped Footings

Last month we had a smaller foundation that had a lot of steps. This is a funky lot where the house sights in almost like a baseball diamond. Here at Pioneer Builders Inc we self perform most of our foundations because of scheduling and cost. Its really difficult to sub out the foundation work because all the good subs are really busy and expensive (good for them!). I don’t mind the work, its a change of pace from framing.

3 years ago I reviewed the Stabila LA180L Layout station for The Journal of Light Construction. I love that laser and it has made a difference in efficiency. When the property is first cleared we can set this up to shoot square and make adjustments before the foundation is dug very quickly and eliminates any errors we make running long tapes. When we are forming footings we can quickly verify the excavation was doing correctly and set “targets” to form towards, minimizing moving the footing around to square and parallel.

The video explains how this worked on this foundation.