Building Stem Wall Foundations

[Editor’s note: This is the first part of a two-part story; it provides an overview of foundation layout and describes the author’s technique for building footings. See Part II here for the completion of the stem walls.]

While I was learning the trades in high school, the carpenters I worked with also built foundations; during one particularly busy period, we formed and poured 10 of them in a month and a half. We were working in a cul-de-sac, and would set up the footings for four houses at a time, then pour them all at once. It was tough work, but it taught me...