Fabric Formed Concrete Footings

Fabric is the perfect method of forming footings:

• Fabric has a much lower level of embodied energy than lumber, weighing 1/300th that of dimensional lumber;
• Fabric stays in place, preventing costly recycling of lumber;
• Fabric prevents ground moisture entering the concrete, preventing dampness and mold;
• Fabric prevents ground water contamination by the cement fines.

The images below detail different types of fabric based footing forms. Click on each image for details.

Strip Footings The use of fabric footings under foundation walls offers dramatic cost and storage advantages. A single roll of footing fabric weighing 12 pounds forms the same concrete as 900 pounds of conventional forming lumber. The fabric, being a closed form, eliminates all ground water contamination from the cement fines. The fabric, being hydrophobic, prevents ground moisture from wicking up into the concrete and entering the interior of the building, leading to a healthier indoor environment.	Fastfoot® fabric formed footers support the walls of an ICF building in Tsawwassen, BC (Fab-Form, 2004)
Edge Forming Fabric is used to form slab edging. Dramatic cost savings can be achieved through the use of lightweight fabric over conventional lumber and plywood. Fabric, being a stay-in-place form, prevents rising damp in the concrete.	The Giusti Group of Calgary, BC has installed 20 kilometers of edging with Fastfoot®, with dramatic lumber savings in embodied energy. (Fab-Form, 2005)
Footing Bags The use of fabric to form point load footings is a perfect application of fabric technology. The 'bags' eliminate all forming lumber, stakes and labor. The concrete 'blows up' the bag, producing a perfect strip footing and eliminating all stripping. The picture to the right show fabric bags, the Buttress® system by Sure Safe Industries in California. The bags are used to seismically upgrade modular and HUD-code buildings to withstand seismic loads.	Sure Safe Industries Inc. of CA, USA has adapted this technology to seismically and structurally upgrade thousands of modular and HUD-code structures across the USA. (Sure Safe Industries, 2008)