BEFORE THE ARCHITECT — BUILDER DRAWINGS – PLANS & ELEVATIONS

Foundations For Residential Building Construction, Continuous Stem Wall . . . unusual

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This is about the continuous stem wall concrete foundation base to the Spahaus, a spa enclosure which enclosure is in the shape of an elongated octagon.  You've seen this structure in other ways on this website in Builder Drawings — 

The first in this series of three is an annotated plan view (elsewhere in the related prints it is clearly identified that the foundation in elevations is to be uniplanar to the horizontal, no steps, no breaks, no inclines, no declines).  This drawing indicates what foundation elements go where, and refers by letter code to the 5 (A-F) different drawings of Details plotted in another section of Plans & Elevations.  The smaller, octagonal, concrete foundation band around the tub's independent and precedent concrete pad arose from not only the unreliability of the tub's existing concrete pad in regard to bearing perimeter load from the Spahaus structure, but also its 3" over grade elevation to its top face which developed to be about 3" lower than the top face of the continuous, concrete stem wall and new concrete pad, i.e., not only could we not discern any footing to the existing pad, but also we could not live with just a 3" lift over grade for our new pad and wall.

There are lots of abbreviations in this drawing which cryptics are identified item-by-item in a glossary, key, or legend printed somewhere on these drawing sheets.  For your own understanding, this is what each abbreviation means on this sheet: CONC=concrete; EXG=Existing; FTNG=Footing; FNDN=Foundation; INCg=Including; OGL=Over Grade Level; PRM=Perimeter; TS=To Scale (1/4":1"-0", as plotted); WL=Wall.

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Next, the same plan view, but this time with measurements.  It's tough to tell what dimensions are more important than other dimensions to a concrete or foundation contractor when you're drawings plans to building house foundations nowhere nearby.  Some contractors prefer measuring on-center, some from centerlines to different points, some from outside or inside corners of formwork.  This drawing shoots at all of these one way or another, trying not to look too cluttered.

A couple more abbreviations:  DIMs=Dimensions; MSRD=Measured.

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Finally, just to make sure nobody gets the wrong idea about how this unusual grouping of shapes fits together, the AG took the plan view and rotated it 45-degrees along the upper axis.  Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.  As both designer and builder, the AG really appreciates these unconventional views of a complex project.  No foundation or cement contractor in his right mind would object to two different look—sees at the same projected, potentially difficult formwork and pour long before the cement delivery trucks roll up to the work site.

The last of the abbreviations for today:  BEL=Below; DK=Deck; FOC=Face of concrete; INT=Interior; NTS=Not To Scale (meaning in this drawing as plotted that the scale is not the overall scale of 1/4":1'-0", noting separately on the drawing that the scale is 75% of the overall scale).

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