I have designed my new home to use 2×6 24″ OC as support walls in the basement to support floor trusses for the first floor. Since I want to divide the basement up into rooms, I figure this is an efficent way to proceed. The foundation is designed with 20″ wide 8″ deep strip footings under each support wall. There will be about 130′ lineal ft of support wall ( large basement).
One of the builders I am considering recommends changing back to the usual lally column/LVL Beam approach. He says that my approach may lead to compression of the wall and future out of level floors. He aslo does not want to pour the basement slab until the house is dried in. The 2x approach forces the slab in early.
Any opinions?
Replies
There is a movement floating around in building design that emphasizes flexibility in the use of interior space, recognizing that homes can live for 100+ years, and that the space requirements for one generation are significantly different for another.
What about redesigning the structure so the inside can be completely open instead? You can place the walls where ever you want then, independent of load bearing considerations.
I can't agree with his arguement for why, but there is no reason not to let him do the steel columns and then frame them in later
Why wait on the slab?
I'm not sure what gets gained by waiting until after dry in to place a basement slab.
And, I can thin of a bunch of negatives, such as the decreased access to place concrete either from the truck or with a pump. And, the increase humidity in an enclosed space.
So, why wait for the basement slab?
Reading this again, I wonder why any support walls are needed for a properly desiogned floor sustem using floor trusses. Time to back up....