Looking for opinions on building houses without a foundation. Putting it on Either a slab or a frost wall.
I have a meeting with a potential client and they have expressed the possibility that they don’t want a basement. I’m know I gonna try and pan that idea but I am curious as to the expert opinions here
Edited 6/6/2005 8:47 am ET by TMO
Replies
"Looking for opinions on building houses without a foundation.Looking for opinions on building houses without a foundation."
A requirement for a foundation has been in the codes before codes where called codes.
It is in the Bible and earlier in the Hammerabi (sp?) code.
No, you MUST have a foundation.
But there are all kinds of foundations.
But most foundations need to go be frost levels. And in many parts of the country that means 3 or more feet. Once you do that it is often more practical to go to a basement.
In the south much less likely to have basements because fost depth is zero or near zero. But you still have a foundation. It might be monolithic with the slab, but you do have a foundation.
Also the type of soil, water tables all go into the mix of what kind of foundation.
Also the terrain. Nothing worse than trying to put a slab on slopping lot that is best for a walk out basement or a full basment on a flat plane at the bottom in a low spot with water problems.
Now for colder areas there is frost proof shallow foundation system that uses insulation to keep the foundation from freezing without going deep.
So the first question is to ask the client WHY.
um er, I meant with out a basement. Duh silly me.
In the building plot there won't be any problems with the water table and since we have to get below frost anyway to me it makes sense to build with a basement.
The why would be that there is only one bedroom in the basement and they don't feel right sticking one kid down there while the other two get to room upstairs. So they want a bigger one level house with no basement.
As for pilings, I'm a bit uncomfortable with them, even though my house is built on them.
Edited 6/6/2005 3:51 pm ET by TMO
It might make sense to build a partial basement, for utilities. You can save a lot of space upstairs if you stick the furnace, water heater, water softener, etc down there. Plus sometimes it makes sense to have the washer/dryer in the basement (though housewives usually prefer to not climb stairs).
Another option is to put the house on pilings. This makes BIs more comfortable than "exotic" technologies, when you're building in ####frost-prone area.
---
OK, what did I say to get the censor mad???
Edited 6/6/2005 12:04 pm ET by DanH
See "Frost-Protected Shallow Foundations" by Christopher R. Kendall. It's in "The Best of Fine Homebuilding" book series called "Energy-Efficient Building." The article in the book is a re-print from #107 Fine Homebuilding, Feb/March 1997.
Believe it or not I actually have that very issue. Thanks for the reccomendation. I was just thinking about rereading it for this situation.
90 % of all houses in the south are built without basements
Slab might be somewhat cheaper, though there are many considerations in a cold climate.
Once you goto a crawlspace, the extra money for a full basement is not that great. A bargain considering the utility of it.
Whatsa basement?????