Stake Out House Foundation Podcast
Stake Out House Foundation - It's Easy to Do
This is the second podcast in a large series that follows the construction of Tim Carter’s daughter’s new home in Downeast Maine. In this podcast, Tim talks about what is involved when you stake out a house foundation and what the benefits are. CLICK HERE to view all the podcasts in the series.
This podcast is short, just six minutes and thirty seconds. Look at the drawings and video below to see the simple steps required to stake out a house foundation.
The man in the foreground is stretching a long tape measure from a stake by the person with the blue pants and the gray sweatshirt. Copyright 2018 Tim Carter
It's best to create one of these simple drawings before you go out to stake out the house foundation. Double check the diagonal calculation. CLICK THE IMAGE to get the cool calculator I use to do this.
You need to stake out the house foundation inside the zoning setback lines. Contact your local government office to find out all about setback lines. They differ wildly! Copyright 2018 Tim Carter
The first step is to create the front foundation wall. The distance between the red dots, or nails driven into your stakes, should be the exact distance of your front wall. In this example, it's 72 feet 0 inches. Copyright 2018 Tim Carter
This is step two. You stretch two tape measures tightly with the ends of the tapes on the nails in step one. Where the two tapes cross with the house depth and diagonal measurement is where the third stake goes with the nail right at the exact cross point of the two tape measures. Copyright 2018 Tim Carter
The last step is simple. Just switch the tape measure ends on the nails on the front foundation wall and repeat what you did in the step above. Where the two tapes cross with the measurements is the location of the last corner stake. See how easy this was! Copyright 2018 Tim Carter