My grandmother in central Louisiana has a crawlspace home that needs to be raised occasionally. ($$$$$$$). It is an old brick home and I wonder if her foundation was done correctly.
Some other people in her area have slab homes which don't look as nice to me, but I've never heard of them needing to have their slab raised.
Is it possible to have a crawlspace home that doesn't need to be raised periodically?
2007-05-25 08:41:51 · 4 answers · asked by dstncrawford 1 in Home & Garden ➔ Decorating & Remodeling
The piers in your Grandmothers home are probably not supported properly. This will allow them to sink. The floor joists may also be undersized to hold the load of the floor surface. Crawl space homes have many good points over slabs. The plumbing can be accessed and the floors will not cause back problems are just two.
2007-05-25 09:29:08 · answer #1 · answered by sensible_man 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I was totally unaware that raised foundations ever had to be "raised." My parents live in a raised foundation ranch home built in the '50s. They've been there since '76 and have never had to raise the home. Their house survived the Northridge earthquake wonderfully.
The crawl space also offers great flexibility when laying cable, changing plumbing, doing electrical work...
The only problem they've run into... They put porcelain tile in their kitchen recently. Because of the expanse, they had to have the floor reinforced to support the weight of the tile. Obviously you don't need to worry about that on a slab.
Up front building costs are much greater for a raised foundation than for a slab.
2007-05-25 08:57:04 · answer #2 · answered by momofthree 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes.
If the foundation is designed correctly and the type of soil is satisfactory then you shouldn't have problems. If the soil type is not suitable for that type of foundation there are things that can be done to improve its stability and bearing capacity. A soils engineer can test the site to determine what the bearing capacity of the soil is and if improvements need to be made. This will cost some money but you should look at it as cheep insurance because fixing problems associated with foundations later on is really expensive.
2007-05-25 09:59:10 · answer #3 · answered by Michael C 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
a well engineered properly prepared subgrade prior to placing an adequate re-inforced concrete foundation in conjunction with grade beams as necessary will settle very little if at all, settlement occurs due to soft or plastic soils and inadequate "footing" area at foundation base
2007-05-25 08:52:22 · answer #4 · answered by Richard E 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋