# Need Foundation Ideas for Screen Porch - Big Pine Needs to Come Out



## Panzer5 (Oct 21, 2008)

Any of you smart excavation / foundation guys willing to educate a dumb carpenter?

I'm bidding a screen porch & need some ideas on the foundation due to a massive pine tree being smack dab in the middle of where the HO wants the porch. (See pics) The HO wants a foundation (not piers / posts) because he wants the look of the porch foundation to tie in with the brick of the rest of the house. Although we're only putting in an unconditioned 16 x 18 screen porch, he also wants the option to convert the porch to a 3/4 season room in the future (which is driving some of my foundation concerns).

Initially I thought to put in a crawl space foundation, and face it with brick / brick facade (similar to the illustration provided). However the first foundation contractor I talked to tells me this will be very expensive & tried to talk me into a slab. I'm not bitching about the cost, I just don't know enough about foundations to know if this is the best approach.

The root system for the pine is extensive, effectively covering the entire area where we'd put in the foundation. I know we'll need an excavator to pull out the root system & there's a lot of work to go into the foundation - but the rough cost the foundation sub gave me may make the project too expensive for the HO to stomach.

So, I need to educate myself on the foundation options here before I talk to the first foundation sub again, and any other subs I ask to come out & bid the job. (Once I get this nailed down, I can finalize my bid...)

Ideas & suggestions appreciated. 

TIA.

The images below show the site for the porch & tree that needs to come out, as well as what I thought I'd use for the foundation...


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## tcleve4911 (Mar 26, 2006)

I really don't see the problem.

The pine has to come out. 

By the time the excavator pulls that root system out of the ground, half the hole will be dug for a frost wall.

The foundation costs should be minimal at that point. Get another bid from another foundation guy.

Sell your customer on the poured foundation with crawl space below....or....
a full foundation with potential of cutting through the existing foundation wall and adding room to the basement.

I know ....more money..........

At least do the footing and a frost wall. Don't dick around with a slab that won't be stable, will have elevation/drainage issues and just looks cheap.

Just my thoughts since I'm not paying for it..........:whistling

oh yeah...nice illustrations.


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## tgeb (Feb 9, 2006)

I don't see any issue with the tree roots, take the tree down, dig out the stump, the remaining roots will be no problem to dig through.

You will also have to either dig down to natural soil next to the existing basement, or design some sort of grade beam to span the over dig of the original excavation.

I prefer to get down to natural soil.

Your client is going to have to make a choice, the foundation he wants $$$, or a pier type foundation for his addition $.

You could do a few brick piers as opposed to wood posts, that might be a way to save some money and still have it match the house somewhat.


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## Tinstaafl (Jan 6, 2008)

Pine is one of the easiest trees to pop out of the ground. I could take that one down with a comealong, and as already noted, the remaining roots would be no problem.

Forget the slab idea, get a couple of quotes on a real foundation.


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## CONCRETE MIKE (Jan 11, 2010)

Panzer5 said:


> Any of you smart excavation / foundation guys willing to educate a dumb carpenter?
> 
> I'm bidding a screen porch & need some ideas on the foundation due to a massive pine tree being smack dab in the middle of where the HO wants the porch. (See pics) The HO wants a foundation (not piers / posts) because he wants the look of the porch foundation to tie in with the brick of the rest of the house. Although we're only putting in an unconditioned 16 x 18 screen porch, he also wants the option to convert the porch to a 3/4 season room in the future (which is driving some of my foundation concerns).
> 
> ...


Why a crawl space? I would go with concrete footers and brick and block, 3" depth footing x 16"width, 8"block with brick face to match. Can u excavate it yourself? If you can, pour the footings and call a brick layer out of the local union hall to install it, this is a easy job to do.


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## house bldr (Jul 11, 2006)

I just finished a building with a very similiar situation, we cut down the tree, grinded the stump below grade and trenched the perimeter then poured a monolithic slab.The roots were no problem!


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