Concrete footings in Kirkland WA - dug deep enough and sized for what they carry

Most footing calls we get are for a deck, an addition, a garage or a garden wall, and sometimes for a whole new house, which we handle as foundation installation. The price moves mostly with how many feet of footing you need, how deep and wide it has to be and how easy the site is to dig, so a flat, open yard usually costs less than a tight side yard or a hillside. The schedule turns on the permit, the weather and curing, which is the time the concrete needs to harden before anything gets built on it. I'll give you your own number and a realistic plan after I've walked the site.

Before anyone digs, I look up your address for slope or hazard areas and go over what the footing will hold up, because footings have to suit what they carry and I'd rather get that right in the trench than fix it later. Our crew marks the layout, digs the trench to depth and width, and cleans loose dirt off the bottom so the concrete bears on firm ground. We set forms where the sides need them and tie in rebar, the steel bars that keep concrete from pulling apart, wherever the plan calls for it, then pour and level the top so posts and walls sit true. Nobody sees a footing once it's backfilled, which is exactly why the trench is the last place I'd trim the budget.

Footing work often comes with other jobs. If an old footing has already settled and the house above it has dropped, foundation raising lifts it back before we add anything new. When a new footing has to go through an existing slab or patio, we use concrete cutting to saw a clean opening instead of breaking it out by hand, so the rest of the slab stays sound.

Kirkland requires a permit to build, alter, repair, move or demolish a building, and the city's permit list also names decks more than 30 inches above the ground, so footings under an addition, a garage or a tall deck fall under work the city permits. For a smaller job like a garden wall or a low deck, that list doesn't settle it on its own, so it's worth asking the city before the dig. When a job needs a permit, I tell you at the estimate, and we either take care of the application with the city or county or walk you through it, so you know where it stands.

Some lots carry extra rules, because the city's permit exemptions stop at flood hazard, wetland, steep slope, shoreline and other critical areas, and land prone to landslides or severe erosion, or soil that can liquefy in an earthquake, counts as hazardous with special zoning rules for building on it. A Parcel Report from the city's Property Search Tool shows whether any of that touches your address, and the city's landslide map shows the slopes it flags. That's the lookup I mentioned, and we run it on footing jobs in Bellevue and Redmond too.