Pouring concrete walls is no easy task. Concrete in its semi-liquid form will resist hardening into a wall because of gravity. To get the best possible concrete walls for foundations, there are a few methods that can deliver faster and better results.
Foundation Forms
These are ready-made concrete forms that create molds for concrete walls. They snap together are secured with bolts, all while leaving you with places to insert reinforcing rebar or steel rods to make the concrete more durable. Some forms are made for specific wall sizes, and some you can put together your own foundation forms for a custom sized concrete wall.
The concrete itself is poured into the open spaces along the top central parts of the molds/forms, and then left to harden. When the walls are solid and there are no wet spots left, the forms are broken down and removed, leaving just the concrete walls behind. Additionally, if you want to create corners, you can get foundation forms that make one continuous form around the corners where the forms connect and create the corners of the concrete walls so that crews do not have to create separate corner pieces.
Ready-Made Slab Forms
These massive concrete slabs are formed offsite, then shipped to a construction site for installation. Some do not have corners, allowing a concrete contractor to formulate his/her own corners as the finishing touch. Other slab forms for vertical walls include corners, but they have to be secured by bolting through the concrete and then doing a little extra masonry to seal the seams that are present from non-cornered slab meeting a cornered slab. However, these ready-made slab forms for concrete walls and foundations cut the workload and construction time down by several weeks, a benefit a lot of contractors love when they have a very tight deadline to make.
Dirt Wall Excavation and Forms
This method is not an exact science, but it does work. Essentially, you excavate the perfect "ring" of soil out of the ground. It forms the exact size and shape of the foundation walls, and goes as deep as you can dig. Everything has to be measured and squared away perfectly so that the foundation is sturdy enough for what you are going to build on the top of it. You can make the width of this square or rectangular ring as wide and as deep as you want. Then fill the whole thing with wet concrete. The soil that remains in the middle and the soil that frames the outside both act as the supporting dirt walls and frame to create your vertical concrete foundation walls. When the whole thing has hardened, you can excavate the dirt block in the middle and then pour the floor of the foundation.
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