A Foundation Guidebook

I receive a lot of emails with questions about foundations.  Is a basement or a slab foundation better?  Will a crawlspace have the space I need to store my stuff?  What is a piling foundation?  With all the questions, I decided to take some time and explain what each foundation type features and the benefits of each type.

I’ll begin with the most basic, slab foundation.  This is the easiest foundation to install.  As the name implies, it is a slab of concrete underneath the home.  All you have to do to lay a slab foundation is find a good piece of land and lay a couple support bars and pour concrete over it.  If you want your house built quick and easy, go with the slab foundation.

Next, we have the basement foundation.  Now, technically, there are many sub-categories of the basement foundation.  A basement foundation, in and of itself, is pretty much an extra story of living space.  Many times house plans come with an unfinished basement.  This allows you to do the finishing touches by yourself.  They are great for large families.  You can fit extra bedrooms down there or convert it into storage space.  A basement is a perfect for places in warmer climates.  Being underground, the basement naturally stays cooler than the rest of the house.  If you ever get hot you don’t need to turn up the AC, you can just head downstairs and chill out, literally.

Now let’s look at the different kinds of basements you can add to a home.  The first, and one of the most popular basements, is the crawl space.  A crawl space is a smaller basement and an average adult is unable to stand up in this type of basement.   These basements are used to keep pipes and substructures easily accessible.  Most crawl spaces have enough space to be able to store items that aren’t used very often.

Lately, many people are building homes with daylight basements.  They are the obvious choice for homes built on a slope.  A daylight basement has at least one door that exits to the outside.  These basements also help with air circulation and bring more natural lighting your house.

Another foundation type  is a pier foundation.  A pier foundation is mostly used in tropical or flood prone areas.  It consists of a lot of posts around the perimeter of the house and a few posts located in various spots underneath the house to give the floor support.  This foundation is used because it elevates the home and eliminates flood damage to the living space.

The last type of foundation that we have is the piling foundation.  The piling foundation is a lot like the pier foundation.  It is made up of many piles, or big posts, that have been embedded into the ground.  They are very strong and allow you to have more space under the house to put a carport or other features.

That’s a quick explanation of what types of foundations you can find for your houses.  It isn’t really that complicated of a subject once you learn the basics.  I hope you’re set now and happy plan hunting.