Replies

1. 
   gfretwell | Oct 12, 2008 04:10am | #1

   The piling house does use well anchored piles. The engineer will tell you how deep, depending on soil conditions.
   The stem wall house has the "box" full of dirt so it can't blow out. When you have a house over empty space the walls are designed to equalize, either with vents or the wall blows out only leaving the piles..

1. 
   edwardh1 | Oct 12, 2008 04:24pm | #2

   is the box the area under the house/ seems a gargare opening would let the dirt wash out?

1. 
   gfretwell | Oct 12, 2008 07:17pm | #3

   "111224.3 in reply to 111224.2
   is the box the area under the house/ seems a garage opening would let the dirt wash out?" Separate boxes. The footer actually encompasses all of the block walls. so the dirt filled box under the house is separate from the "at grade" garage floor. The garage itself may have a couple of feet of water in while the house, 4 or 5 courses of block higher, stays dry.
   I may have some better pictures of the stem walls from the series I took to show "Ufer" ground electrodes. When I get a minute I will look.http://esteroriverheights.com/electrical/ufer.jpgThe Ufer is in the garage wall (where the panel goes) and you can see the vents in the middle picture.

1. 
   edwardh1 | Oct 12, 2008 07:43pm | #4

   still having mental problems-
   foundation down in the dirt (I guess it has to be deeper in a flood zone than a non flood zone foundation??)
   block wall sits on the foundation
   house sits on the block wall like 8 ft above ground if you wish to park under it?You'd think in soil (not rock) the piling would be better, as when the Foundation is under water any shift at all would cause cracks in the brittle block walls?

1. 
   gfretwell | Oct 13, 2008 01:25am | #7

   If you are parking under a house it is a piling house. If there are walls, expect them to blow out. If your garage floor is a "split level" kinda thing (3-4' down) it will usually be a stem wall with the box under the house full of dirt. The garage may flood but it is not supposed to be above the "FEMA" level of the house FF.
   That Gilchrist texas house (last house standing) is an example of a properly built piling house. The under house garage is gone, the porch is gone but the "house" is still there.

2. 
   gfretwell | Oct 13, 2008 01:27am | #8

   BTW look at all the steel coming up out of those footers and the steel in the hole. The wall isn't going to be "brittle". There is a solid concrete cell with a #5 in it at least every 4 feet or so and around every opening.

2. 
   mizshredder2 | Oct 13, 2008 12:05am | #5

   There's another type besides the pile driven poles or the Concrete block placed on the footer.  The type my XDH and I used on our floodplain home we built in SC was a poured footer which was 36inches below grade at its TOP horizontal; and rebar reinforced (of course) but from that footer in 52 locations were poured in place concrete piers - with steel rebar and collars tied before wrapped with 4 form panels, then came the pump grade concrete and vibrator...then the angle bar insertion for tying to the joists later.

   Anyway- the footing is, or was, below grade.  The piers were each attached to the footing and rose thru grade and upwards to 15' abv grade. 

   Once the house was done - We went ahead and poured a concrete slab at grade for underneath parking and at same time as we poured the driveways.  Installed "breakaway" wall panels underneath at center section's part of that underneath house space, so that we would have some "lockable storage" for all the tools that hung around at the house instead of going in/out of comm'l storage locations to jobsites.

    

    

    "Be yourself...everyone else is 
   already taken." — Unknown author

3. 
   gb93433 | Oct 13, 2008 12:38am | #6

   Huge bridges have been built on piles. Piles placed correctly can support a huge load.