I have a house that was built in 1954 in a suburb of Chicago with a detached garage and am considering converting it to a living space. To determine depth of foundation and whether footers are in place, we need to excavate next to the foundation until we find the footers or bottom of the foundation.
What is the best way to do this? I have a bid from a foundation repair firm for $650 to dig it out, but that seems expensive. Any other suggestions?
Best Answer
You only need check one location. As I remember a 32" frost line, so a 3 ft hole with a shovel does not sound like much of a job. I hand dug a pond 3' deep X 11' long X 6' wide , not that big a deal. Worth getting a fiberglas handle shovel if you don't have one. For a small hole like that a "clam shell" post hole digger may be helpful.