Footing Depth

mason22

hey guys im going to be building a 3 foot high stone wall i was wondering how deep i need to pour my footing its going to be only 3 feet hight the wall

mason22

o ya i live in connecticut

genecarp

8 to 10" never had a problem, many peaple will probably start screaming, FROST LINE, FROST LINE 32'' 24'' i think its overkill

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CR2

As far as I know, if you need footers they cannot be placed above the frost line(if any), follow your local codes to avoid problems, it might look like overkill now, but it could be a pain in the a.. later, if something happens is going to cost you more to fix it than it will to do it right the first time.
Good Luck!

Kaiser

Call the building Dept. You don't have to tell them where the wall is going

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Norm Yeager

The depth of the footing will be determined by your local code. To ignore this is foolish. Water expands at a pressure of 150,000lbs. per sq. ich at a volume of 9%. If the ground below your footing freezes it will most likely raise the footing enough to crack whatever is on top of it. I've seen numerous examples of this over the years. An alternative to a deep footing is to insulate the ground above it, artificially changing the frost line. There's plenty of info. on this out there and it's accepted by most codes.

tcleve4911

I've seen 8-10" of compacted 3/4" Crushed stone 6-8" below grade. Good for drainage.
If you're gonna use concrete, you better get some rebar & ties in there. JMHO

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RED HORSE 554

Mason 22 Many Thing Will Need To Be Determined Before You Start Your ( I )wall. Will It Hold Back The Push Of Earth From Behind. Next Some Say That The Frost Line Dose Not Matter It Needs To Be Looked Out For. The Stringth Is Needed To Hold It All Togeather So Rebar And Wire Is Needed. I Just Did A I Wall Poured At A Elementry School And We Used A Footer Size Of 18`` Wide And 12 `` Deep At Ground Level And We Went 36`` High With A Sack Finish. But It Had No Push And Or a Frost line To Deal With. I Would Say That The Footer Bottem Should Break The Frost Line And Should Be 1/3 The Higth Of The Wall And Should Be At Least 18`` Wide If You Have No Push From The Earth Behind. If It Dose Then Use Wing Wall Poured At A 90% The Same Hight As The Wall Is Tall With A Footer Below It. Tappered From Your I Wall To Below The Ground Level In The Direction Of The Push From Earth. Then You Will Have No Breaking Up Of The Exposed And Or Unexposed Walls And Footer This Will Give You Good Service For A Long Period Of Time. And hang the stone from the poured wall using wire clips and morter around as needed stringht and looks as needed .Drill holes into the stone glue in the wire clips and the same for the i wall. You can use stucco wire poured into the face of the wall if you want to hang the stone on.

concretemasonry

If you build a wall with mortared joint you need to be below the frost line with a concrete footing. This a "rigid" type wall that will crack with frost heaves.

If you build a stacked wall without using mortar, you can place it on compacted gravel (no concrete footing) with the bottom of the wall a foot below ground level. All segmental block retaining walls up to 45' high have similar requirements. A 3' high retaing wall wall is very common with these units. You can also use local stone and the strength will depend on the type of stone, size, backfill and workmanship.

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Dick

Engineer, designer and consultant recently active domestically and internationally on construction and design in about 35 countries.

JonM

Frost line here in Ct is 42"...a 3' high stone wall doesn't require a building permit...is this a dry stone wall?...if so why would you need a footer...their are thousands of miles of stone walls around here with no footer...dating way back to the Revolutionary War...walls are just put on the ground.