A wall footing or strip footing is a continuous strip of

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

that serves to spread the weight of a

load-bearing wall A load-bearing wall or bearing wall is a wall that is an active structural element of a building, which holds the weight of the elements above it, by conducting its weight to a foundation structure below it. Load-bearing walls are one of the ear ...

across an area of soil. It is a component of a

shallow foundation A shallow foundation is a type of building Foundation (engineering), foundation that transfers structural load to the earth very near to the surface, rather than to a subsurface layer or a range of depths, as does a deep foundation. Customarily, a ...

Wall footings carrying direct vertical loads might be designed either in plain concrete or in reinforced concrete. Since a wall footing deflects essentially in one way, it is analyzed by considering as a strip of unit width and its length.

References

{{reflist Building engineering Architectural elements Shallow foundations