Arlington Zero Energy Passive progress: footings in place

After extensive excavation on a difficult site, the footings were poured this week, and as I write this post, the formwork for the basement walls is going up. What makes the site so difficult is the steep slope and the very little room onsite for equipment and storage of earth.

The procedure for the footings is the same we have used for all our recent houses: 4” EPS insulation below and around sides of footings. As you can see from the photos, however, there is considerably more steel in this project, as the basement walls serve to retain two stories of earth on the uphill side.

Below: EPS insulation at bottom and sides of formwork

Reinforcing at footing under 2 story concrete wall:

Concrete poured:

In this photo, the 4″ x 4″EPS running across top of footing near the corner blocks out the space for the connection between interior and exterior footing drains:

Looking toward the hillside: