The part of the house nobody walks in and admires — until the drywall starts cracking six years on. We excavate below frost depth, tie rebar to the engineered schedule, and stay on site for the inspection. Get this wrong and everything above it argues with gravity for forty years.
A footer distributes the entire weight of the structure into the soil. Too shallow and it heaves when the ground freezes; too narrow and it settles unevenly; under-reinforced and it cracks in two on a variable lot. There is no cosmetic fix for a bad footer — only a structural one.
We excavate to the architect-specified depth, always below the Middle Tennessee frost line, onto undisturbed competent bearing soil — never fill. Forms set and braced, rebar tied per the engineered schedule (typically two runs of #5 continuous with perpendicular ties at corners and stepped transitions), dowels set for the wall pour above.
We coordinate directly with your excavator, foundation crew, and structural engineer so the footprint pulls clean and square, with anchor bolts and dowels exactly where the wall rebar needs them. On sloped lots we form keyed step-downs; for load-bearing interior walls we form thickened pad footings to the column loads on the drawings.
We stay on site with the county inspector and we photograph every steel placement before the concrete covers it — bar size, spacing, cover, lap lengths, dowel positions. When a footing inspection is the gate on your pour date, the last thing you want is a re-inspection. We don't give them a reason to write one.
A stepped footer on a Franklin hillside, a 4,000 sqft Brentwood foundation footprint, and an engineered pier-and-grade-beam system in Forest Hills.
Defaults below are residential. Engineered structures follow the structural drawings line-by-line — always.
| Depth | Below frost line — 12–18" minimum in Middle TN, deeper per engineer On undisturbed bearing soil · never fill |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | Per plan · typical 16" × 8" continuous Width sized to soil bearing & number of stories |
| Mix design | 3,500 psi min · 4,000 psi preferred ¾" aggregate · 3–5" slump |
| Reinforcement | 2× #5 continuous · ties @ 24" o.c. · 3" cover to earth face Laps min. 40 bar diameters, wired |
| Step-downs | Keyed transitions formed to sloped lots · dowelled to the run above and below |
| Inspection | We schedule and stay on site for the footing inspection in Davidson, Williamson & surrounding counties |
| Warranty | 1-year workmanship guarantee · backed by the engineer's stamped design |
Four steps for a residential footer. The sequence holds whether it's a flat slab footprint or a stepped hillside foundation — only the forming complexity changes.
We set batter boards, lay out the footprint to the plan, and excavate to depth on competent soil. Soft spots get over-excavated and corrected before steel.
Forms set and braced, rebar tied to the engineered schedule, dowels and keyways placed for the wall pour above. Photographed before the pour.
County inspector verifies depth, soil, and steel. On the green tag, trucks roll — concrete placed, consolidated, and screeded level.
Forms pulled, footing finished backfill-ready, and the foundation crew takes a clean, square, dowelled footprint.
Most of our footer work falls in one of six buckets. The reinforcement schedule and forming complexity change; the discipline doesn't.
Full perimeter footings for 3,000–8,000 sqft custom homes in the Williamson and Davidson estate corridors. Most common pour.
Most commonKeyed step-downs on the steep wooded lots of Forest Hills and Leiper's Fork, each level below frost without over-cutting.
HillsideDrilled piers and grade beams for difficult or expansive soils where spread footings won't carry the load.
Engineer-ledThickened interior footings and column pads under beam lines, sized to the point loads on the structural set.
Point loadsFrost-protected footings for detached garages, shops, and pool houses, tied to the main structure where specified.
DetachedSpread footings and continuous footings for small commercial and mixed-use, coordinated with the GC and engineer.
CommercialThe questions GCs and custom builders ask us most on a footer scope.
Below the frost line — code minimum is 12" below undisturbed soil here, and we commonly go 12–18" depending on the jurisdiction and the engineer. On custom homes the structural drawings often call for deeper; we follow the stamped set, not the minimum.
Yes. We schedule it, and we stay on site while the county inspector verifies excavation depth, bearing soil, and steel placement. We don't pour until the green tag is in hand — pouring over un-inspected work is how a footing gets jackhammered.
Constantly — it's most of our Forest Hills and Leiper's Fork work. We form keyed step-downs so each level sits below frost depth without over-excavating the high side, and dowel the transitions so the runs act together.
Residential default is two runs of #5 continuous with perpendicular ties, 3" cover to the earth face, laps of at least 40 bar diameters wired tight. Engineered foundations follow the structural schedule exactly — we tie what the stamp says.
For anything engineered, the structural engineer sizes width, depth, and steel from the wall loads and soil bearing. For straightforward one- and two-story residential we work to IRC minimums or the architect's set. When in doubt, we recommend the engineer — a footer is the wrong place to estimate.