Looking at building a new home, and the wife and I love old bungalow look story and half. Our lot is basically flat and we would not be able to have much walkout if any. Dont want slab or crawl. The style of house we are looking at is elevated so that about 5-6 steps up to front porch. Is it possible or plausible to basically build house on slab with one foundation wall in front and build grade slightly at front of house. I would then tuck side entry garage in “basement”. seems to me that this could be a money saver? Your thoughts are welcome
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Its done all the time. The issues are drainage and looks - how flat is your site - trees etc. Too tall & you could kill your bungalow look. Your driveway could become a small river into your basement if not planned well. Is there any slope to run drains to?
Also you will need a fire rated ceiling above the garage - just 5/8 drywall and detailing, not a major expense.
"4-5 Steps" is, call it 48" up. You will need some atypical formwork for s-o-g construction. Your best bet will be to "crate" the slab, as well.
Four feet of seperation is not a lot to "tuck" a garage into; even before the considerations your AHJ may have about fire seperation. It also makes for a bit of a complicated transition from the grade-level garage to the 4' taller house floor.
That suggests to me looking at a separate garage, connected with a breezeway or columnade or the like. Disconnecting hte garage "simplifies" the engineering of the two distinctly different slabs.
For four feet, I'd really reconsider a crawlspace,though. A sealed, insulated, c/s will integrate into a well-insulated house in a number of ways (check buildingscience.com for how many, and in how many regions). A nice controled environment for all of a house's utilities can be a very nice thing.
I guess we are picturing something diferent - I see a full basement 4' below grade (w/9' ceilings) and a garage door on the side. Nothing special w/ formwork, and just a set of interior stairs from the laundry up to the first floor.
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I see a full basement 4' below grade
I keyed off "flat site" "no walkout" and "4-5 steps up" to a the front door, looking back at the OP. That and the slab comment.
I see where you are going, except it sounds like a basement with 4' of wall out of the grade. That would make for a driveway down, what, 5'? Or a split level sort of thing (which is not suggested by "story-and-a-half bungalo" to me).
Maybe OP will clarify whether this is an A&C/Prairie "bungalow" or a 'bungalo' in the Canadian way of a detached single house with a low-pitched roof.Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
Sorry I seemed to not be clear in my op. Let me try again.What I envision is basically a basement set on or just below grade, with the walls of the basement being poured concrete on the front wall and the remaining three walls being framed as in a typical walkout. I would then build up the grade at the front of the home to a level of approximately 4 1/2 foot below top of foundation wall. The garage would enter from side at grade. Also, there is some slight slope that would allow for fairly good drainage to one side of the lot (opposite side of the garage).
Edited 7/19/2006 10:02 am ET by jcornell
bad art work, (5 year old at school and couldn't help poor dad)Maybe this will help explain
You might want too repost that as a jpg for the dialupers. Get it in the 50-75kb range.What you propose is has certainly been done. I see lots of house in order parts of the city where the lots where graded to be uniform height while the road slopes.However, it certainly looks artifical.In my opion, "in general", you design the house to fit the lot, not vice versa.But there are trade off in everything.My house is much like that, but due to natural slope of the ground.But something that was done on mine that was partial due to the slope, but I think might be required by the concrete foundation.That is you can't have the one tall wall stand on it's own, at least without much extra reinforcement. The wall needs to turn the corner to act as a butress. I don't know how long it has to be.In my case I have 4 ft high, 10ft long wing walls againts 12 ft high back wall. But the back wall only runs 3 ft until it runs into the grage walls going the oposite direction.
That kind of parking under the building setup is done all the time here in LA for apartment buildings. The whole footprint is parking, which is enough for two or three stories of apartments above.
A friend of mine used to have a condo like that. Theirs had a problem with rainwater runoff from the street overflowing down into the parking. They had a backup generator and pump for that. But most seem not to have a big rain problem.
-- J.S.
I don't know where you are, so I don't know if you need footings below a frost line.
I am in WI - take a look at my blog. YOu may need to go into the archives to see the plans.
My plan is sort of a contemporary craftsman and I am building on a flat lot.
I will be bringing in a lot of fill, but the garage is 4' lower than the house and the foundation goes down another 4' to get below the frost line.
Adventures in Home Building
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