footings and toe

We have reached a temporary hiatus on foundations work on our Waxwings bungalow. Attention has turned to Judith and Rogers Goldcrest bungalow while out concrete cures.

Here's a 'birds eye' view of Waxwings taken from half way up the mound of crushed brick and concrete that dominates the site. It shows where metal reinforcement has been concreted in that will support internal walls.

The design of the footings is different from a conventional build as we have a 'toe' of concrete outside the steel reinforcement. Onto this will be built three courses of blockwork which will be a foundation course for the external walls. The mortar in this course of brickwork will be allowed to cure and then the full raft of concrete will be poured in. The three courses of blockwork will act as a retaining wall, holding the poured concrete in place.

The 'toe' design is part of a design strategy to remove a thermal (or cold) bridges from the new homes. Conventionally built homes have many such thermal bridges which allow the cold to penetrate the home, making it less thermally efficient and therefore colder and more expensive to heat. Our outer blockwork course will be topped with glass bricks which will not allow cold to enter the walls from the foundations below.