Brick Hangovers

 Concrete Foundation Tolerances or A Brick Hangover!

 Ask your low-priced concrete contractor if they have ever heard of ACI 117 – "Tolerances for Concrete Construction". The concrete footing, under 3.2-lateral alignment, supporting masonry, can be +/- 1/2"(if the footings are that accurate, why can't the placement of forms and concrete walls above them be as accurate?); You know in the photos to the right something is wrong!  Lately, some owners are lucky if their concrete foundation walls are on the right lot!  Corbelled, unreinforced masonry can overhang a foundation wall by up to 1/3 it's bed depth with 2/3 bearing on the concrete wall. [For a 3 5/8" bed depth brick that means an overhang of about 1 1/8".  This would mean 2 1/2" of the brick would be resting on the foundation.]  If there is more than 1 1/8" overhanging the foundation,  an engineer should be contacted to design a small angle to be bolted into the foundation wall to support the brick.

If concrete contractors do not take enough pride in their work to frame and pour that footing and wall within ACI tolerances, then design an alternate for the next job to be constructed with a grouted and reinforced concrete masonry foundation wall.  The mason contractor will know the importance of placing the foundation wall in the correct location, because in most cases they will be installing the masonry above it.  Try it as an alternate, you will be pleasantly surprised, but you won't be reinventing the wheel, our neighboring states all have a larger percentage of their foundations built with CMU's, do they know something we don't?