Why aren't basements built in the south?

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Why aren\'t basements built in the south?

I live in Texas and am wondering why basements aren't built around here. Maybe due to too much clay???

 

[Bird]

Re: Why aren\'t basements built in the south?

Kyle, did you ever notice that a lot of the more expensive, but really old homes do have basements? Now I'm certainly no expert on the matter, but I think it's very simply because we don't have to worry about getting a foundation down below a frost line and it's cheaper to not have a basement. And then there are just a few, very few, of the newer homes built with a basement of some sort. When we built my brother's house, it has a 4' crawl space under the house, but no one would guess that from looking at it from outside. But that's mostly because my brothers used to build houses like that in Alaska, so they knew how, and they didn't know how to build a slab foundation./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[JJT]

Re: Why aren\'t basements built in the south?

Kyle, I'm with Bird on this one. Up here we need to go below the frost line for our foundation footers. A basement is an expense dark damp hole in the ground. For the same amount of money you can have twice the floor space above ground. I'd trade my basement woodworking shop in for an above ground shop any day of the week. JJT

 

[TresCrows]

Re: Why aren\'t basements built in the south?

Well, the question I ask up here is why the heck do you dig a big hole under your house? I suppose tornadoes are part of it. Some of it may be frost depth. Frankly I would much prefer a brick surfaced home built on a level slab, ranch style than some pile of siding perched over a hole. I suspect the hole is for the house to fall into after the wind blows it over. Further, in the South, we like spacious homes, the water table is often at the surface, and digging holes can be expensive. In Arizona around Phoenix and other desert areas basements are rare cuz of the lime soil being diffucult to dig in. I hate basements. J

 

[MossRoad]

Re: Why aren\'t basements built in the south?

In Indiana, basements are warm, dry holes in the ground, and, by all means, they are a great place to hide in a tornado. Whenever we see footage of housing developments scoured clean to the ground out in Oklahoma or Texas, we all turn to each other and ask, why are they all slab houses? Where's the basement?

Have I ever been hit by a tornado? No. Do I know anyone that has hid in their basement while a tornado wiped their house off the face of the earth? Yes... several for that matter. They are lucky to be alive and it is only because of the hole under their house.

On a lighter side, a basement is a great place to accumulate stuff that your kids will have to deal with when you die. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

They don't cost much more than a crawl space either. If the foundation has to be down to 4' the guys still have to dig the hole and they still have to set the forms, whether they are 4 footers or 8 footers. It is only a few thousand more for double the floor space.

Plus, with the new engineered lumber, like I beams and laminated beams, you can have incredible spans so there are few to no posts in the basement. Makes a great recreation room, home theater, wood shop. etc...

 

[ScottAR]

Re: Why aren\'t basements built in the south?

In Arkansas, the frost line is around 18" if I remember, so there's a much larger expense for 8ft or more of digging. Humidity and water table usually make for a damp area that breeds mold and mildew which generally smells bad. (subjective, I'm mold sensitive) Land is a little cheaper so building out is easier than up or down. Besides storm shelter, that's about the only reason to have one unless it's a diffcult site (hillside) to build on...

 

[BrettW]

Re: Why aren\'t basements built in the south?

Dont yens no that is them thar darned far ants thats a keepin youngins like miself frum buildin a house with a basement?

 

[Egon]

Re: Why aren\'t basements built in the south?

I agree:

But slab floor homes can be built even in the colder climates with a properly designed footing.

To me basements are a very expensive hole in the ground that people try and make into dark damp family rooms/bedrooms etc. that are not conducive for proper living. A walk out basement on a hillside is a different matter.

Egon

 

[Egon]

Re: Why aren\'t basements built in the south?

Bird:
You never want that permafrost to even think of anything over -32 degrees farenheight.

Egon

 

[crb478]

Re: Why aren\'t basements built in the south?

In the south the frost lines are usually under 24" , 12 " in most of NC so it cost a good deal more to dig a basement unless you have a lot that will support a daylight basement. If you don't have a sloped lot you basically are digging a swimming pool under your house because of the relatively high water tables and clay soils which hold moisture. Up north the frost line might be 5 or 6 feet deep so a basement really does not cost much. Slabs are the cheapest way to build so they are the most prevelant around here.