Concrete Foundations and Footings

Everything above a foundation depends on it staying put. Most Orlando lots sit on sand, which carries load well when it's dense and dry. Trouble starts with loose fill, buried organic muck, old stumps and high groundwater, and every one of those turns up somewhere around this city.

Florida doesn't have a frost line, so footings here don't go as deep as they do up north. The Florida Building Code sets a minimum of 12 inches below undisturbed ground for exterior residential footings. Depth and width past that come from the plans and the soil. On lots near lakes or retention ponds, we sometimes dig out a few feet of soft material and replace it with compacted fill before a footing goes in.

1. 01Plans and permits. We review your plans and work out the permit path with you or your builder. Inside city limits that's City of Orlando Permitting Services. Unincorporated addresses go through Orange County.
2. 02Layout and locates. Corners get staked from the plans or the survey. Sunshine 811 marks utilities before we dig.
3. 03Excavation and soil prep. We dig footings to depth and width, remove anything soft or organic, and compact the trench bottoms and the pad.
4. 04Termite treatment and vapor retarder. Florida code requires termite protection for new construction, and on most jobs that means a licensed pest control company treats the soil right before the pour. A vapor retarder goes down under the slab.
5. 05Steel. Continuous rebar runs through the footings, often #5 bars, with laps, corner bars and chairs per the plans. Slab steel sits up on chairs so it ends up inside the concrete where it does its job.
6. 06Inspection. The building inspector checks depth, steel and the vapor retarder before any concrete arrives. Nothing gets poured until it passes.
7. 07Pour and cure. We pour in one continuous placement wherever the design allows, consolidate around the steel, finish the slab and start curing the same day.

Foundation trouble usually shows up indoors first. Doors that stick after a rainy week. Diagonal cracks running off the corners of windows. A gap opening between the baseboard and the floor. Stair-step cracks in exterior block.

Plenty of those come from normal settling and never go past cosmetic. Washed-out soil, a leak under the slab or, rarely, sinkhole activity can cause the same signs, and Central Florida's limestone makes that last one a real possibility. When what we see looks structural, we'll tell you to call an engineer before anyone pours anything. Cracked patios and walks around the house that are still stable are a lighter fix, usually handled with concrete repair and resurfacing.