Doing a walkout on my new home, when I frame the back wall (the shorter poured wall section) will I need to have the basement slab poured so I can attach the wall to it, or can I puild the wall directly on top of the top of the back (mainly buried) 4 foot wall then pour the slab lower at a later time.
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Details matter, but life can be simpler if you don't try to sandwich the floor slab into the wall.
Just plan ahead and know the elevations where you will end up and all will be well.
What kind of door are you planning to install? and where do you plan the threshold to end up related to the floor?
I want to have a patio door in the walkout and one window. I guess my primary question would be can I frame directly on top of the foundation wall on the walkout side, or do I need to pour basement slab first then frame/place door on top of the slab.
You can do it either way.
You can frame the wall on the foundation (which you should do in any case to ensure loads above are passed to the foundation)
If you want the basement slab to continue out the door to provide a sill, you just have to plan for it. If your poured walls extend higher than the top of your basement slab, you can wait to install trim boards after the slab is poured, (and make them treated), assuming you leave enough room for these trimmer boards, and the sliding door frame, between king and jack studs for the headers above.
You can also plan to install the sliding door only on the wall, and plan to install the slab later. The sill would have some different details and still needs to be on a solid base. (you will always want the sill to extend past the outside edge of the outside wall, so that water flows past the wall before heading downhill)
(if, for example, you want to get sealed up and want to postpone slab installation for some reason.)
How does the foundation wall relate to the outside final ground level?
Sorry was out walking the property. The top of the short wall (lakeside wall) would maybe be just a few inches above outside grade so we can take advantage of making the basement as deep as possible so we dont have a high wall on the opposite side of the house.
Hi there,
Typically framed exterior walls land on top of the foundation wall and not the slab. The top of your poured wall should be at least 8" above grade. The "door depression" or dropped section of wall should be only where the door itself will be. We usually make/form the door depressions the door's rough opening width plus 6". This allows for 2 studs on either side of the opening that will land on the future slab. These studs are merely "pads". The structural studs land on the poured wall. I think I'm answering your question, but maybe not? It sounded like you were planning on having the entire length of wall at the walkout at or below grade, which you don't want for weather and rot...