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THE PROVINCE
SUNDAY HOME SECTION (Dec 10, 2000)

Rick Fearn has simplified the making of foundations.
His Foundation fabric saves time and trees

SkyTrain footings built with Surrey builder's product
By Judy Swanson
Staff Reporter

A few years ago I watched the empty lot beside my home become a house. Even before the framing began I was struck with how much lumber was ending up in the giant-sized dumpster parked nearby. 

In the late '80s, Rick Fearn, then a building contractor, noticed all that wasted wood and decided to do something about it. He came up with a foundation-forming product that uses fabric instead of lumber to form concrete footings, the basis for the foundation of all our buildings.

Now the Surrey inventor is a runner-up in the Technology and Production category of the annual Canada Mortgage and Housing (CMHC) Awards for his innovative Fastfoot® system. "I was working on a heritage house in Vancouver and when we did the foundation we must have used over $4,000 in lumber. It was just such a waste", recalled Fearn in an interview. At the time, Fearn's office was located in a fabric warehouse. 

One day the penny dropped. "I realized fabric was perfect because it would adjust to uneven ground," he explained. "I didn't know what material to use so we experimented with many kids of fabrics and patterns with the National Research Council."

In the end, he came up with high-density woven polyethylene, which also acts as a contamination barrier preventing the alkaline from concrete leaching into the surrounding soil and water table. The fabric also prevents water from wicking up through the concrete, which makes for dryer and more healthy homes.

Fearn says Fastfoot® is twice as fast as traditional forming methods. Pairs of two-by-fours (the only lumber needed) are fitted into steel "Fast-yokes" placed about every 10 feet. Depending on the job, the footings can be adjusted in width from 8 to 18 inches. The polyethylene Fastfoot® fabric is stapled to the two-by-fours and the concrete can be poured into the fabric trough. "There are no stakes to drive in the ground. The fabric stays in place after the concrete is poured so there is no formwork (lumber) to remove," he said.

The Fab-form Industries system is now being sold in Germany, Ireland and Japan. It's also being used by contractors in 17 U.S. states. Canadian builders have been slower to embrace Fearn's new technology but he's hoping they will follow suit now that his Fastfoot® patented technology has been used for the concrete footings on the new SkyTrain Millennium Line expansion scheduled to open late next year. 

"It takes time before radical innovation is accepted in the industry", said Fearn. "But it will save everybody money and time."