Garage slab cutting through wall

[BerthaLee]

Edited:

 

Issue regarding wall elevation showing correctly for custom home plans.

 

Why is my garage slab cutting through my stem wall? It's not in all areas - See between garage door and man door - and it's not cutting the pony walls. Normally, it wouldn't be an issue, but when I make a wall elevation, it shows the slab cutting through the CMU.

 

I'm attaching the plan, a screenshot of the specific area, and the elevation I need to fix. See green circle

 

Thanks!

 

Susan

Cooper Newbern 10-17.zip

Edited Saturday at 09:55 AM by BerthaLee
Named walls opposite. More clear on question.

[javatom]

Set the garage to have a floor and NOT be provided by foundation room below.  Set the foundation level under the garage to "open below".  On the floor 1, open the room dbx and to the the structure tab.  At the bottom of the page, there will be an option for slabe pour number.  Change it from 1 to 2.  You might have to adjust a few other things but this will get you close.

[BerthaLee]

35 minutes ago, javatom said:

Set the garage to have a floor and NOT be provided by foundation room below.  Set the foundation level under the garage to "open below".  On the floor 1, open the room dbx and to the the structure tab.  At the bottom of the page, there will be an option for slabe pour number.  Change it from 1 to 2.  You might have to adjust a few other things but this will get you close.

This just seemed to move everything up. I also set the floor for the garage at -20 (top of footers)

[javatom]

I have turned off the pony walls.  You also need to turn on the layer that shows the floor surface.

[BerthaLee]

10 hours ago, javatom said:

I have turned off the pony walls.  You also need to turn on the layer that shows the floor surface.

 

I need those walls for the build? My issue isn't showing the homeowner what the garage is going to look like, it's providing an accurate house plan layout including a wall section. My issue is the green circled area.

 

I've added another cross section that shows the concrete going under the CMU part of the stem wall. I need it to stop at the CMU.

 

Also, this made me realize that I misspoke in the original question. It's not the pony walls on the house side that are the problem, it's the normal stem walls on the exterior.

Edited Saturday at 10:04 AM by BerthaLee
Added photo

[SHCanada2]

On 10/17/2025 at 11:41 AM, BerthaLee said:

Why is my garage slab cutting through my stem wall

where is that. It looks like there is a gap and its not going underneath

[javatom]

Your foundation wall is not right.  The bricks should be set to the exterior, not the main layer.  Brick would be considered siding and would not normally bear the weight of the 2x6 wall above.  The main layer should also be set to a thickness that will support the wall above.  I just did this on your plan and the section view works fine.  The slab will stop at the main layer and not go under it.

[BerthaLee]

18 hours ago, SHCanada2 said:

where is that. It looks like there is a gap and its not going underneath

 

This is exactly where my problem is. This is the stem wall in the garage. The odd thing is that the stem wall is cut out, but there is nothing there. This is where my problem is. Why is it cutting it?

[BerthaLee]

17 hours ago, javatom said:

Your foundation wall is not right.  The bricks should be set to the exterior, not the main layer.  Brick would be considered siding and would not normally bear the weight of the 2x6 wall above.  The main layer should also be set to a thickness that will support the wall above.  I just did this on your plan and the section view works fine.  The slab will stop at the main layer and not go under it.

The foundation wall is correct. Please see attached wall section. If I change the brick to be exterior, the siding will not match up, so this will not work. If you look at the wall section above, the slab does stop at the CMU wall, but the wall doesn't continue to the footer.

[javatom]

Brick is considered a veneer.  The condition you show would mean there is not a direct load path.  The wall above is being structurally supported by the cantilevered floor system.  This would make it a non prescriptive design.  It probably would work but you might want to have an engineer sign off on it.  I have attached a picture of how I would do this.

[BerthaLee]

15 hours ago, javatom said:

Brick is considered a veneer.  The condition you show would mean there is not a direct load path.  The wall above is being structurally supported by the cantilevered floor system.  This would make it a non prescriptive design.  It probably would work but you might want to have an engineer sign off on it.  I have attached a picture of how I would do this.

 

My husband is a contractor and has been drawing and building these foundations for decades. This is normal building around here. They do use ladder wire between the CMU and brick curtain.

 

I appreciate the help, but this has nothing to do with why the program is cutting off the CMU wall at the bottom.

Edited 16 hours ago by BerthaLee

[Chrisb222]

1 hour ago, BerthaLee said:

I appreciate the help, but this has nothing to do with why the program is cutting off the CMU wall at the bottom.

 

Susan, I spent a decent few minutes yesterday futzing with your file and couldn't determine the issue. At one point I was able to move the foundation wall using the arrow keys while watching a cross section view in another window and the offending wall area would alternate between cutting the slab correctly and exhibiting this problem with each 1" move. Since the issue occurs in one area of the wall, and not in another spot on the same wall, I suspect some type of issue with the software not understanding how to create what you want. I also noticed you have changed many of the default settings for the foundation in that area, which is understandable but is possibly contributing to this glitch.

 

You've had 15 downloads and no solution, and I'm sure some of the better troubleshooters have taken a stab and not posted. At this point I would assume a software glitch and send the file in to Chief for technical assistance. Good luck.

[BerthaLee]

2 minutes ago, Chrisb222 said:

Since the issue occurs in one area of the wall, and not in another spot on the same wall, I suspect some type of issue with the software not understanding how to create what you want. I also noticed you have changed many of the default settings for the foundation in that area, which is understandable but is possibly contributing to this glitch.

 

At this point I would send the file in to Chief for technical assistance. Good luck.

Thank you for this. I was thinking the same over the last couple of days. I've done this stem wall and garage floor in X15 and X16 and never had this problem.