Block basement walls or poured?

[Highbeam]

I would always prefer a poured structural steel wall over a block wall. How many times have you seen a crumbling block wall that had those cracks and shifting between the blocks. I've also seen some that didn't move over time but it just seems hokey. I like the smooth face of a poured wall with continuous bar in both directions. We build warehouses here with tilt up walls that are poured flat on the floor slab and then lifted by crane into place vertically. We also, though rarely, build cmu block walls that take an army of masons to assemble.

 

[JRobyn]

Just had my new foundation walls poured. Don't know the exact cost difference, because to me, the poured walls are much stronger and much less water-affected. So I would have gone with poured even if they had been substantially higher cost. My builder confirmed that the price difference for a well-constructed block wall was only slightly less, and could even be more. We used a pumper (extra $1400) because some areas were impossible to get to, plus the long snorkle on the pumper made filling the forms much easier and uniform.

First pic is pre-pour. Second one is after the exterior sealing (Bondex), french drains, and initial backfill.

- Jay

 

[dave1949]

MossRoad, thanks for mentioning the pumper, I don't know how far they can pump. I'm gonna be about 550-600 ft from the closest road shoulder.

MotorSeven, thanks for the $$ info, I appreciate it.

The pump truck can easily reach 70-80 feet. A regular concrete truck offloads into the pump truck's back end. Either way, you need to get a concrete truck reasonably close to your foundation site.
Dave.

 

[NSBound]

I opted for poured formed walls rather than block. They look great and went in easily with the pumper truck and about 4-5 guys making sure it all went down to the bottoms of the forms with those cement vibrating wand things. My basement has now been in place for 2 1/2 years and it's dry as a bone. Make sure you get a proper perimeter drain, properly covered in crushed gravel and landscape fabric, to carry away any water that gets down there. And finish grading away from your foundation. Lots to think about at this point!

 

[2manyrocks]

I think you need to price it both ways. By the time you pay for blockwork and then fill with concrete, are you really saving any money? You could also get some voids in the block. The concrete block are going to be more porous than the concrete, but both will soak up moisture.

Seems like much of this is area preference. I think I heard once that the foundations in Oak Ridge tend to be poured because the contractors were more accustomed to poured foundations.

What you backfill with also is very important. If you backfill with gravel wrapped in geotextile with a proper drainage system, you avoid a lot of the pressure you'd have with heavy, wet earth.

You might be able to find a portable concrete pumper if you can't get the big pumper to your site.

 

[MotorSeven]

Thanks for the responses. I would prefer poured, but I need to stay under 10K for the whole basement including slab....it's gonna be close.
I called two places locally that specialize in on-site pours and stopped by a place that does the Superior walls. No one has called me back yet....maybe tomorrow.
I have no access issues, the truck can drive right into or above the
basement. My biggest issue right now is the inbound Mr Winter.

RD

 

[Tig]

Never really thought about one being drier than the other. I've seen wet basements but in my opinion they were poorly built. eg, below lake level, badly landscaped, poor drainage at the footing, not properly wetproofed. Any one of those things will get you a damp basement. Up here even poor airflow can make a basement funky in winter.
As for strength they are built to the same engineering standard for any given wall. I don't know offhand how that translates into thickness differences between the materials.
That being said if I contract out my next foundation I would lean towards a pour. If I decide to do it myself I will probably block it to save the hassle of setting forms.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I did mine poured with rebar both ways. The basement is a solid block. It cost me $1000 more to pour solid than to lay block, but I thought it was worth it.

 

[Highbeam]

The line pump trucks can pump way more than 80 feet. I used 60 feet on my patio last week and the operator said that that morning he had to string out 200 feet of pump hose.

 

[Wis Bang]

MossRoad, thanks for mentioning the pumper, I don't know how far they can pump. I'm gonna be about 550-600 ft from the closest road shoulder.

MotorSeven, thanks for the $$ info, I appreciate it.

I watched a bridge job where the contractor had two Putzmeister concreet pumping boom trucks. He placed on on the riverbank and one on a barge to pump concrete to a cofferdam in the middle of the river, about 200 yards out...Of course he owned both of them, I can't imagine what the rental would be for all that.