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Discussion Forum

Tacky-looking exterior

FastEddie | Posted in Construction Techniques on December 18, 2005 08:24am

Here in South Texas, slab-on-grade construction is the only game in town.  Basements are extremely rare.  Unfortunately, alkmost all builders have brain lock, and don’t see the advantage or possibility of a split-level or walkout basement. 

When a slab is formed and poured, the top of the slab is set at about 6″ higher than the highest part of the footprint, and then it goes level from there.  this almost always resyults in a lot of exposed foundation.  I have seen as much as 6 feet of exposed foundation.

Saw this recently completed house in a subdivision where I’m doing some work.  Houses here sell for upwards of $350k.  I wonder what the builder was thinking when he failed to drop the brick (stone) ledge down closer to the finished grade line?  But then what you see here is normal.

This pic shows (from the top) stucco over stone over concrete foundation.  Looks very tacky to me.  At least they ran the stone around the side of the house.  It’s also very common here to have stone only on the front elevation, and sometimes only half way up.  Looks very cheap.

 

 

“When asked if you can do something, tell’em “Why certainly I can”, then get busy and find a way to do it.”  T. Roosevelt

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  1. blue_eyed_devil | Dec 18, 2005 08:40am | #1

    Good grief!

    blue

     

  2. Notchman | Dec 18, 2005 10:51am | #2

    This is a little unrelated to your offering, but I've been doing a remodel/addition in an older neighborhood (100 to 120 yr. old homes....old for here on the West coast, anyway).  A lot of these houses were built by the owners;  loggers, fishermen, millworkers, dockworkers, etc., with little regard for engineering or the kind of foundations put down today.

    A couple blocks from my project is an old two story house being worked on by an elderly man and his two sons.  Early on in their effort, before I took any pictures, it was absolutely scary to see what they were doing;  rickety cribbing, excavating with pick and shovels well underneath the structure....I figured a good gust of wind might bring the whole thing down.

    The house in the pictures has been vacant for awhile. It was built on a hillside on a primitive post and beam "foundation" with the posts being an assortment of logs and what I assume were salvaged timbers.  Under the center of the house, one of the girders was supported midspan by a tree stump.

    During the "foundation" renovation, the tree stump was dug out by hand, leaving about 2/3rds of the main floor stucture to visibly sag....until they finally got it jacked into place and new posts in, some setting on 12" concrete pier blocks.

    I assume it is their own fixer upper, because they've been at it for about three months now and it's obvious that, once the understructure is in shape, there is quite a task ahead to restore the rest of the house.

    1. User avater
      razzman | Dec 19, 2005 06:14am | #10

        

      'Nemo me impune lacesset'No one will provoke me with impunity

  3. DougU | Dec 18, 2005 06:36pm | #3

    Your absolutely right Ed, that look is so damn common.

    I live on the southwest edge of San Marcos, where the hill country encroaches. Drive by any of the newer > $300,000  homes and that's exactly what you'll see.

    What I dont understand, and you pointed it out, is when you have a lot that falls off the back side it lends itself to a walkout without that much difficulty, but no one is doing it.

    There is a Pulte subdivision close to Austin that is offering walkouts, I think the're asking about $40Gs more for the them.

    Doug



    Edited 12/18/2005 7:35 pm ET by DougU

  4. Piffin | Dec 18, 2005 06:45pm | #4

    If that is a slab on grade, it's the thickest slab I have ever seen!

    ;)

     

     

    Welcome to the
    Taunton University of
    Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
     where ...
    Excellence is its own reward!

    1. FastEddie | Dec 19, 2005 03:44am | #7

      Go ahead and laugh, Yankee.  I'll just turn the thermostat up a few more degrees and see how you like the price of heating oil later this winter.

      :)

      I'll try to get a pic of a slab being formed.  Won't be hard to find one, but I'm sure all the skilled tradesmen will be suspicious.   I could yell "green card" and then the site would be vacant.

        

      "When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it."  T. Roosevelt

  5. DonK | Dec 18, 2005 06:47pm | #5

    God is that ugly. It looks like an oversized parfait, not a pretty one. The three "layers" are just awful. The least they could have done was painted the foundation to match the stone.

    Don K.

    EJG Homes      Renovations - New Construction - Rentals

  6. WayneL5 | Dec 18, 2005 09:34pm | #6

    Golly, that's awful.  Most builders are quite thoughtless with regard to quality, including appearance.  We need more like those who hang out here at Breaktime.

    It would be one thing if someone tried something new and it didn't quite turn out so well, but there is no excuse for not foreseeing how bad this would be.

  7. User avater
    Matt | Dec 19, 2005 04:27am | #8

    So, is the entire interior of the foundation filled with stone (gravel) or what?

    1. FastEddie | Dec 19, 2005 05:47am | #9

      I'll try to get a pic in a day or two to help explain.  They set the form boards with level tops, with the top of the form about 6 inches above the high point of the footprint.  Most of the slabs here have post-tensioned cables, and at least a basic drawing by an engineer.  The soil is very rocky, so it's not practicval to dig down more than about 6 inches.  The slab is poured monolithic with the footings ... I think it's called a thickend-edge slab ... like a cake pan turned upside down.

      Filling the whole foundation with concrete would be expensive, so the center area is filled with a sand-soil mixture.  Usually they use base material.  Lots of sand small aggreagte and some limestone, it's a naturally occurring product from the quarry.  Light tan color, loose when dry, but get it very damp and it can be packed tight.  And once it dries it's pretty solid.

      This is the hard part to explain:  The center of the foundation is filled with base material and sheets of visqueen, formed into large "pillows" with 12" spaces between them which form interior beams.  Kinda like a waffle slab.  You lay down a shet of visqueen on all four sides of theb pillow (size varies, about 5-6 feet on a side), pile on some base, then fold the visqueen on top and repeat.   When it's finished, the sides of the pillow look like stacked sandbags.  Clear?  Ok, I'll get a pic.

      The fill stops about 4 inches from the finished elevation, and then it gets a layer of visqueen then the rebar and mesh.

        

      "When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it."  T. Roosevelt

      1. User avater
        Matt | Dec 19, 2005 07:43am | #11

        I'm familiar with the concept of post tensioned slabs and got most of the description except the pillows sound like nothing I've seen/heard of... Is the material inside the pillows compacted?  Yes, I'd like to see a pic...  That would be nice.

        The fill material sounds like what we call crusher-run or ABC, which is basically different sizes of gravel - fines all the way up to about 1.5" mixed together.  Packs very well, but is somewhat expensive.  Is your stuff just called "base"?  It's interesting how much aggregate products vary around the country.

        Are the forms for a tall foundation like that steel?  If so do they ever use forms with a brick pattern made into the metal?  Do they ever put brick or stone veneer on the outside of a tall foundation like that?  I wonder why they don't just build crawl spaces?  Maybe the expansive soils is so much that it would crack anything that is not thick concrete - and I guess the cables help with that?

        Here, slabs are almost exclusively used for starter homes. Maybe $90k - 175k.  It's definately a way to deliver cheap square footage. 

        Sorry about all the Qs. :-)

  8. xosder11 | Dec 20, 2005 03:26am | #12

    Aside from the fact that you can see all of that exposed concrete, I think they have the water table too high anyway.  It just strikes me as odd looking. 

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