A grade beam is a reinforced concrete beam that transfers a wall's load down onto a series of piers rather than resting the wall directly and continuously on the soil beneath it.
A grade beam gets used when the soil near the surface is poor, loose fill, or otherwise unreliable for a standard continuous footing. Instead of spreading the load along the ground, piers are set down to stable, undisturbed soil at intervals, and the grade beam spans between them near grade level, carrying the wall's weight to those fixed support points instead of the soil directly underneath.
On steep lots in the foothills where fill soil or uneven grade makes a standard footing unreliable, a grade beam and pier system keeps a retaining wall or structure supported on solid ground below the disturbed layer, rather than resting it on soil that could settle or shift unevenly over time. It's more work up front than a standard footing, but it's often the difference between a wall that stays put and one that doesn't.
More masonry vocabulary from the glossary.
The services where this term comes up.
Chelo's Brick & Stone serves Hillsville, Galax, Wytheville, Fancy Gap, and Independence, VA. Call for a straight answer and a free on-site estimate.
