Concrete Footers 24 Round or Square

[James]

Which is better a 24 inch round concrete footer or a 24 inch square footer.
The installer said he has never tried the 24 inch round yet and was wanting to try it out but which is better in you guys opinion???

[Mark]

A 24" square footer has more surface area than a 24" round footer. Natually, the 24" square is better, as there is more of it.

That being said, it depends on what the home requires. So much footer is needed, and how much and where depends on the home, where it's being placed, soil loading, etc, etc. You can't just say , oh I'll try this method this time.

The cost difference is insignificant as to be a determining factor.

[James]

I agree with the cost difference not being a significant difference but was wondering if one was better than the other.
I see your point Mark and will let the installer know that I would prefer Square rather than round because of the larger footprint that it will make therefore havng more square footage to distribute the load across.
It will be a Homes of Merit being setup with sheetrock so it will have to have perimeter blocking every 8 ft as well.
Installer said he places Double blocking at every corner and where Height requires and he places his piers every 6 ft under beams with standard blocking.

[rmurray]

I posted in the other forum...there is more info here though...be sure to read the manual...the sandy based soil in NFL can very well require larger footers...Sounds like the installer is planning on using the 4 inch portable footers so popular in that area...I would recommend you consider the added cost of poured footers..this home is way heavy and you DO NOT want to have it settle...

[james]

I am a frustrated would be installer, how do you calculate or deal with the wieght of the concrete footer when determining soil bearing capacity and the required size of the footer, this would seem to be a problem as everytime that you allow for the wieght of the footer and increase its size, the wieght goes up and so must the size of the footer in a never-ending cycle?

[Bill Fry]

Once you get the load bearing capacity of the soil simply calculate the width of the footer to pour.The lower the soil bearing capacity the wider the footer.Thats about it.

[Bill Fry]

I agree and would not use portable footers either.A poured footer done correctly is not
going to sink or shift like a portable block might.Poured footers should cost between 1200 and 1500 in your area.

[Danny]

James , as the others have stated, you must determine, the soil density, FIRST....we use a penetrometer to do this,
after you get the soil density,
you figure the roof live load ( 20psf) the wall dead load (5 psf) and the floor live load (40 psf)....and this determines the load of each pillar and the size of the footing....
however you can use smaller footings but you will use more of them, (16x16 being the least you can use)
, and also if you were to use a 24x24 and you bored them, you would have to use a min. of a 28' bore to get the same sq. footage, we use a 30' in this case, when boring the footings...
footings are the life of ANY home....just remember when in dought....OVERKILL!!!!

[james]

Good point, adding an additional footer(s) would solve the problem.
Thank you.