Rectangular and continuous footing design is one of the most important aspects of any building project. The footing supports the foundation and bears the entire weight of the structure. Make a mistake in the design or construction of the footing, and the results could be disastrous.

Continuous Footing

 Rectangular Footing

The purpose of the footing

The footing provides a stable flat supportive base that distributes the weight of the load of the structure into the surrounding soil.  The weight distribution is spread out through the soil as the distance increases from the footing. For this reason, the texture of the soil is crucial to the success of any rectangular or continuous footing design.

StruCalc’s footing design module allows for the design of square, rectangular and/or continuous footings.  The footing module will provide size and reinforcement requirements for any concrete footing loaded with pure vertical load.  After a footing type has been specified StruCalc will then want to know what is providing the load; this will mean specifying the column type for the square or rectangular footing, or the stemwall type for the continuous footing.

Here you can see the load selection criteria for square and rectangular footings:

And here you can see selecting a continuous footing allows for selecting the stemwall type and weight in pcf: