Concrete Block Crawl Space Foundation

I wanted to check back in and include some pictures of my block work. I’m building a crawl space foundation, mainly because I don’t want to seal up all of my pipes for water, sewer, and electrical, but also for the HVAC to run from the floor up instead of the roof down since we know that cold air sinks and hot air rises.

Laying this concrete block has been very time consuming. I really want to get it right the first time, so I’ve been meticulously laying each block, making sure they are all level and square. This is very time consuming work.

My Block Laying Process Went Like This…

1.) I let the footer cure for a few days. I know I didn’t have to let it cure so long, but I was busy anyway. In case you were wondering, footings in my county need to be 8″ deep by 16″ wide, I made mine 10″ deep by 20″ wide with two pieces of rebar all the way around. I also set vertical rebar every 6′.

2.) I laid down a 1″ thick bed of mortar for the bottom layer or first course of block. I painstakingly leveled every block like I was building the great pyramids.

3.) I got to the first block I laid and… SURPRISE! It was level! I felt like I had accomplished something, then I realized I had to do it again for second and third course.

4.) I applied an water sealer to the 1st layer of block and footer I had poured since there was some rain in the forecast.

5.) I added ladder reinforcement in between the second and third course, as seen in the photo below. I plan on filling the cores every four feet, from the footer up where I have my vertical rebar embedded in the footer, as well as filling the top course to create what is called a bond beam around the entire wall.

6.) I left spaces where I would have to add venting.

7.) I made sure everything was level with a masonry string with a line level and also 4′ long level.

I’m still working on finishing the block work but it’s raining today. I figured I’d take a couple minutes and upload some pictures to share if there is anyone out there reading this already. I know Google picked my site up and indexed all of my categories. I checked the traffic stats and it looks like you are out there reading. Share some comments.

If you’re looking at the picture and saying, man that hill looks like it sends water right down to the house, I have a small v shaped trench over there now and I do plan on grading that hill down even further to make sure water goes in the opposite direction of my house.