Lean Design Blog: Poof! Make $200 of foundation waste disappear like magic

Do you remember David Copperfield making the statue of liberty disappear? It was pretty cool, but I felt certain the green lady was not going to be gone for long. I'm a sucker for a good magic trick though. Here's a chance for you to play magician and make waste disappear for keeps.

I have witnessed, many times, builders successfully removing the foundation under the garage door area and replacing it with a thickened slab. By most estimates this is $200 in savings that can be implemented immediately.

This takes a bit of homework first. Make sure that removing the footing meets the requirements of your local codes. There is no considerable load on the footing, but on occasion it is needed to help tie the wall together for shear. It could also be required if you are building on very poor soils. In these situations there may be simple alternative solutions.

Once you have made sure that all codes are satisfied just say "Abracadabra!" and pull that cost right out of your bottom line.

If you have done this already with your foundations or have heard of a similar success or failure, please give me a shout at [email protected] or post a comment here on this blog. I would appreciate hearing from you.