Basement Types

[GlueGuy]

<font color=blue>consider pre-cast concrete</font color=blue>

The portland cement association's web site talked extensively about this. They call it "ICF", or Insulated Concrete Forms. Consists of a thick sheet of foam insualtion, with a wire mesh embedded on each side, plus concrete shot over the wire mesh on both sides. The resulting structure is "extremely strong", plus has a large thermal mass on the inside. The materials used should last 100 years, if not longer.

This is a sort of "composite construction" that has become popular in the aircraft industry.

 

[kiphorn]

I'm building a new house in the spring and plan to use precast walls. Around here precast walls are becoming very popular. I visited the factory and watched them pour the walls. Its a pretty slick operation. The concrete sets up to 5,000 psi (I think). The high psi concrete and the foundation drainage are supposed to eliminate wet basements. They tell me they can set an average basement in about four hours.

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.superiorwalls.com>Superior Walls</A>

Kip

 

[cowboydoc]

Just make sure that you have a VERY knowledgable person that can do the SIP or precast. I have seen some guys that didn't exactly know what they were doing and blew out the forms from this type of wall. The one contractor even came back and tryed to charge for the blow-out to my friend that was having the wall done. But this is the same guy that put up the trusses and didn't have them anchored good enough and they all blew over. Again charged my friend for that too.

 

[webbmeister]

All these posts, and not a word about Permanent Wood Foundations. Anybody heard of 'em? Good experiences? Bad?

 

[beenthere]

Just recently I posted information about PWF. Search of PWF will give valuable information, and these foundations have been doing well since their beginning in the early 60's. Not a lifetime yet, but I think there are advantages worth looking into.
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.tractorbynet.com/cgi-bin/compact/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=rural&Number=99241&Search=true&Forum=All_Forums&Words=Permanent%20Wood%20Foundations&Match=Entire%20Phrase&Searchpage=0&Limit=50&Old=allposts&Main=99232>http://www.tractorbynet.com/cgi-bin/compact/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=rural&Number=99241&Search=true&Forum=All_Forums&Words=Permanent%20Wood%20Foundations&Match=Entire%20Phrase&Searchpage=0&Limit=50&Old=allposts&Main=99232</A>
This is the thread (search on Permanent Wood Foundation) I posted.

 

[webbmeister]

Maybe it's age (I hope not, I'm only 45) or too much Diet Coke, but I read every post in that thread just last week. I did not remember until your wrote this reply. Thanks for the reminder!Jim

 

[GlueGuy]

One of our neighbors built a house with PWF around 1973. They had a fire about 5 years ago, and had to restore part of the house. They mainly had smoke damage, but the restoration allowed himto inspect the wood that had been out of site for over 20 years. He said it looked as good as the day he put it in.

 

[RPM]

Re: <font color=blue>Superior Walls</font color=blue>

Those were the walls I was thinking of - thanks for posting the link! (Lancaster County where the business is run is one county over from me).

Patrick

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I could not agree more with this statement. Real reason builders go with poured wall is once forms are up concrete contractor wants to get it pourd and his forms freed up so he can use them on his next job. Mason can tie up several jobs in various stages of completion and have little incentive to finish up other than wanting to be paid. Concrete tends to be more expensive but both materials will do a good job if properly installed.

PS: I am a bricklayer by trade and sometimes we are our own worst enemy.

 

[patrickg]

Buckeye,

Like the GlueGuy, I'm sneaking up on an earth sheltered design for my new home, although I am considering a hybrid design, i.e. some earth sheltered spaces with 3-5 feet of dirt cover over elipsoidal domed "cathedral" ceilings and some conventional appearing spaces that are not conventional stud walls but instead are steel reinforced concrete using ICFs (Insulating Concrete Forms). I have looked into ICFs and followed their increasing popularity for years. I strongly recommend a poured basement using ICFs. Many advantages. You can easily do it yourself as the ICFs are light and easily cut. They are made of EPS (Expanded PolyStyrene).
Like the GlueGuy said, you can get someone to do the hard part, foundation/footer, pouring the floor if you aren't into large cement finishing jobs (I have a different take on that, see below...) Placing the ICFs is easy and suitable for DIY. Placing the rebar is easy and with bar ties and the twisting tools there isn't anything requireing beef. An angle grinder with a cut off blade will cut rebar if you don't happen to have a handheld electric/hydraulic rebar shear as I luckily do. Given the volume of concrete you will use, you should get a good deal on on a concrete pump for filling the ICFs. Do use a vibrator to avoid voids but don't get too agressive as a blowout is possible.
I've done concrete with conventional forms. I've done concrete by dry stacking blocks and 100% filling them with concrete but with luck I won't start any large projects via either method ever again. They are labor intensive. In the last couple weeks I have stacked nearly 10 tons of 40 pound blocks complaining the whole time that I was too stupid to get custom ICFs for the wall thickness I wanted (miminum of a foot thick). Half way through I noticed an offer by a ICF maker to provide custom widths.
Anyway, whether it is purchased labor or yours, there is a lot less of it with ICFs and you don't have to pull the forms as they stay behind as insulation. This is a GOOD system. There are even companion ceiling methods for pouring ceilings. GRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!! Tomorrow I get to start forming up to pour a foot thick ceiling. I will have a virtual railroad trestle of braced and cross braced wood to hold it up.

One last thought... Consider poured walls using ICFs.

Patrick