[Bill Douglas]

Someone mention foundations?

I used to do the computers for a company called Robinson Seismic who invented/designed/had patents on rubber and lead foundations for big buildings to help them survive earth quakes. I conversationally mentioned to them I was redoing the foundations on my old 1899 cottage. They said dig a hole, not deep but wide and make the bottom of it concave. By this they meant deeper on the outside of the hole than in the middle. They said almost everyone makes the mistake of having a "convex" shape to it and the poured concrete forever sinks into the ground with the point in the middle acting like an arrow - if you can imagine that. Whereas a concave bottom to the poured concrete foundation "stacks up" the dirt and compresses it as it tries to sink into the ground.