Concrete Foundation Forms

2 x 4’s and 3/4″ forming plywood works best. The form will be lightweight and strong. If they will be reused, then use treated lumber. The 2 x 4’s should be No.2 kiln dried pine simply because it is cheap, easy to work with, and holds nails very well. The plywood needs to be of forming quality. Just ask for it at your local supplier. Just know that if you spend too much money on the lumber, then you might as well hired a contractor. Use nails for fasteners. Screws are a waste of time and money.

Height and Length

Most footings are set up on the basis of 8″ step downs. This is so block layers do not have to saw there blocks. Even though we are not dealing concrete blocks, always base the height of a concrete wall form on a multiple of 8″. It would be advisable not to build the forms any taller than 4′. For taller walls build shorter forms to add to the 4′ sections.

Since plywood comes in 4′ x 8′ sheets, the forms are better off 8′ long for the most part. Its simple, just build them all 8′ long and saw them to length during assembly. That’s another advantage to using nails over screws, they don’t do near as much damage to a saw blade when you hit one.

This is the third time we’ve used these 16″ tall forms. They were originally made to add to 4′ Forms to get 64″, but here we stacked two together for 32″