Home Improvement Articles, resources and tips
Foundation
Your home's foundation is probably something you put little or no thought into until there is a problem. The fact is a home's foundation performs several vital functions: It carries the weight of the house, provides a flat base for construction, and keeps wood-based materials off the ground and away from termites.
By and large, concrete is the most popular foundation material, but older homes may use everything from stone to brick.
Because they are created by flowing concrete from ready mix trucks, slab concrete foundations are completely solid. They are also easier to install and helpful to builders because work on the rest of the house can begin right after the concrete hardens. Their major drawback is that many of the pipes and ducts are covered by the slab, so if something goes wrong, it can get very costly. Also, in harsher climates, floors may get colder because the foundation is closer to the ground.
A foundation with a crawl space raises the house a foot or two off the ground. It allows easy access to plumbing and utilities, but a proper vapor barrier placed over the ground is necessary to prevent mold growth.
If the soil is of good enough quality, a full basement can be built. Basements offer additional living and storage space as well as protection during severe weather.
In addition, some homes, particularly in wetter areas, rest on a series of concrete or wooden piers.
It's very important to get the foundation right the first time. While minor settling will always occur, cracks or even worse, instability, in a home's foundation can render it inhabitable and ultimately cost the owner substantial sums of money.
Footing seismic retrofitting is the modification of existing structures to make them more resistant to seismic activity, ground motion, or soil failure due to earthquakes. Let us keep in mind the fact that there is no such thing as an earthquake proof structure, though the performance can be greatly enhanced through proper initial design & subsequent modifications.
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