Concrete footings in Hayward CA - built for the wall or post they hold up

Most calls start with something new going up, like a room addition, a wall, a deck or a carport, or with something already there that's starting to sink. What the footing carries decides the type, and the type drives much of the cost. A continuous footing costs more to put in than a pad, a wider or bigger footing costs more again, and weaker soil calls for wider footings, so the ground under your house matters as much as the plans do. The schedule mostly turns on the drawings and the city's review and inspections, not the pour itself. I'll look at all of it on site and give you a figure for your own job.

I start by looking at what the footing has to carry, a wall or a post, because that sets the type and much of the cost, and then we build to the drawings the city reviews. Our crew lays out the lines, digs the trench to what the plans call for and cleans out loose dirt so the concrete sits on firm ground. We set forms where the trench needs them and tie in the rebar, then leave it all open and ready for the inspector before anything gets poured. After the pour we finish the top, strip the forms and backfill. Nobody sees a footing again once the wall goes up, which is exactly why that's where I'd rather spend the time.

Footing jobs often run into other work. When old concrete sits where a new trench has to go, concrete cutting lets us take out just the section we need with a straight edge instead of breaking up more than we have to. And when a wall or part of the house has already dropped, foundation raising may be the fix to look at before new footings go in.

Footing work in Hayward goes through the city's Building Division, which checks drawings against the California building codes and inspects the work while it's being built. Whether your footing needs a permit depends on the project, so the Building Division is the place to ask, and when a job needs one we handle the paperwork and inspections with you. The city sits close to the Hayward fault, and a state map marks zones where the ground may liquefy, losing its strength like wet sand, in a strong quake. If your lot falls in one, the permit process may require that hazard to be looked into and dealt with, which is one more reason we build to reviewed drawings and not a guess.

We're based in Hayward and pour footings across the East Bay and over on the Peninsula, in Castro Valley, Union City and the cities around them. A lot of what we see is older houses getting additions, back-yard walls and decks, where the new footing has to tie in with what's already there.