Footings & Foundations
Footings
Footings are the base of your build so it's essential to get them right. Any issues at this stage will compound throughout the rest of the project - not just during construction but throughout the entire lifespan of the structure.
We use Fastfoot in all of our footings and we can’t recommend it enough. Fastfoot is one of the critical components we use when building a holistic, healthy home. It has clear environmental, structural, and economical advantages over traditional footings.
Fastfoot is a damp-proofing product that provides a capillary break between moist soil and porous concrete. This capillary break prevents moisture from wicking through the concrete of your footings, up into the foundation, and through the structural core of your build.
Without a capillary break, any moisture in the soil will seep through exposed footings and into a building with alarming speed. This increases dampness throughout the structure of the build and into the basement itself.
Fastfoot reduces labour cost, it reduces lumber needs in your footing construction by approximately 50%, and it contributes to LEED points in seven different categories. This is where every high performance build should begin.
To learn more about Fastfoot, we recommend starting here.
Foundations
We build all of our foundations with Nexcem. Nexcem is the highest performance ICF product in all applications. This is especially true below grade where its key strengths are most beneficial.
Learn about the main benefits in comparison to other ICF products:
From The Ground Up: Step by Step
Here’s a step by step look at how Singbeil ICF typically does below grade work. While every job is different, the photos and captions below highlight many of the common steps and processes involved in building below grade with Fastfoot and Nexcem. All photos are from Singbeil ICF builds.
