2.Laying the Footing

Before we could start making the pad footing, the students had to excavate about 200mm below the floor level and insert the reinforcement cage + formwork.

After leveling the excavated ground and placing some hardcore ( 1 sd : 1 rough agg) the formwork for the pad footing is placed into the pit and leveled using a spirit level.

The reinforcement cage is elevated above the floor using spacers made from broken cement sand bricks to elevate the cage above ground level.

The column starter bars are then tied to the cage using wires. After setting the rebars in place we then could start concreting the pad footing with a mixture of  1cement: 2 sand: 2 coarse aggregates with a w/c ratio of 0.6 to enhance workability. The concrete is then compacted to increase its strength using metal rods.