Checking The Building For Square
The most important thing when building a home is the
ability to keep everything as square, plumb and level as possible.
Starting with the foundation, if the foundation is not square or level,
the rest of the house is going to be out of alignment.
You've probably heard the saying, start with a good foundation. This
applies to the building industry as well. There are quite a few ways to
build a square foundation, it all depends on what kind of tools you
have, to build it with. Some of these tools can be quite expensive but
it used every day can save you a lot of time and of course time is
money.
You don't need expensive tools to build a square foundation. You could
actually build a square foundation with less than $100 worth of tools.
It might take you a little longer but could be done.
Let's start with the 3 - 4 - 5 rule.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words so let's look at the
picture below to get an idea how to check something if it's square and
correct it.
Okay lets see if I can explain this in layman's terms. If no West side
of the foundation is 3 foot and the north side of the foundation is for
foot, then the diagonal measurement from the southwest corner to the
northeast corner would be 5 foot.
This can also be done using 30' x 40' should equal 50 foot. You can use
this if the building is large and you need to check it for square.
The diagram below shows you another way to check the foundation to see
if it's square.
By measuring the foundation diagonally from each corner, the measurement
should be exactly the same. If it isn't, the building is out of square
and should be adjusted before the concrete is poured. This measurement
should always be checked before you get too far along in the form
building process.