Pier and Beam vs Slab Foundations | Which one should you choose?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 พ.ค. 2024
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Two popular types of foundations are pier and beam and slab foundations. In this video, we’re going to look at how they are made, their upfront costs, long term costs, protection from the elements, where they should be used and whether one is better than the other.
Link to my Patreon page: / belinda_carr
Chapters
0:00 Introduction
0:54 Pier and Beam
2:05 Slab-on-grade
3:15 Upfront costs
3:46 Long term costs
6:22 Sponsorship
7:13 Protection
8:30 Where to use
9:06 Conclusion
Pier and Beam: A series of holes are dug in the ground, 5 to 10 feet apart. These holes must hit bedrock, which can be 4 feet below the surface or 50 feet. Large cardboard tubes are sunk into the soil. Plastic bases can be added to the bottom to increase the size and carrying capacity of the piers. This helps to ensure the piers won’t shift. Circular rebar cages are placed in the middle of the voids. These tubes must be perfectly straight and level. Next, the voids are filled with concrete and a base connection is embedded in the top of the pier. Beams are extended from one pier to another. These will support the joists and flooring of the home.
Slab on grade or monolithic slab foundations are a newer construction method. First, the surface is leveled and a perimeter form is created for the foundation. 4 to 6 inches of gravel is spread inside. A layer of plastic sheathing is laid down to act as a moisture barrier. Engineered steel rebar reinforces the concrete foundation. Concrete is poured over the gravel and plastic sheathing and allowed to cure.
Pier and beam and slab on grade foundations are mainly found in the southern parts of the US. Northern states have conditioned crawl spaces and foundations with basements. The reason slab on grade foundations are so popular nowadays is because it is easier to construct and it has a lower upfront cost compared to pier and beam foundations.
But the lower upfront costs of slab foundations means higher long term costs, like foundation repair. Pier and beam foundations have individual piers and beam members, so it is easier to isolate foundation problems and it’s cheaper to repair. Slab on grade foundations can shrink, crack and even sink. They are more difficult and expensive to repair.
Repairing electrical and plumbing issues is also easier and cheaper when you have a pier and beam foundations, thanks to the crawl space underneath. With a slab foundation, repairing any electrical and plumbing issues is a messy, destructive and expensive process. You have to jackhammer the slab and cut steel rebar to access any pipes. The lifespan on the concrete slab is lowered to get to the utilities underneath.
Another feature to consider is the ability to add levels or stories to your homes. You could technically add additional piers and beams to support another level. You could also detach your pier and beam home from the foundation and move it to a completely different site.
Unvented pier and beam foundations can be insulated with fiberglass or spray foam. This can help lower your energy bill and make your home feel more comfortable. Slab on grade foundations don’t have this problem. However, if you don’t use a vapor barrier underneath, moisture from the ground can seep through the concrete.
Pests and rodents often seek shelter in crawl spaces and can build nests beneath your home. Slab on grade foundations don’t have this issue, but termites can enter through any cracks or openings. In terms of comfort, floors on pier and beam foundations sound hollow and squeaky. But, they are easier on your feet because they can flex. Concrete slab foundations are solid and quiet, but standing on them all day long can be tough on your feet.
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#foundation #pierandbeam #slabongrade #foundationrepair #construction - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
The first 1,000 people to use this link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare: skl.sh/belindacarr03221
LINK TO MY WEBSITE: www.carrbuilds.com
i was 1300, too slow for free stuff!
It is great that you are in Texas and understand our foundation problems. We have several subdivisions that were built on what were once rice paddies. Some homes have had foundation work every decade! Its sad that people pay so much for these homes and the foundation cracks. I really enjoy your videos. I feel like you honest as you always give pros and cons.
Would love to hear about basement foundations!
I thought I was upset that my home is over a crawlspace instead of a concrete slab or basement until I watched this video. I forgot all about the nightmares of plumbing repairs with a slab. This was a very informative video, thank you. You are quite a pleasant narrator to listen to.
6:22 Belinda, after the 1971 Sylmar Quake, new state law requires all new houses and buildings to be bolted to their foundations.
Knowledge and modesty is rare, this is why viewing this channel is a pleasure. Cheers from Australia
So I am not a builder nor do I plan on getting a house built. But your videos are so instructive and easy to digest. Thanks fo re all your hard work. Slab basements would be a cool topic.
I would really enjoy a video on basement foundations! A video explaining about the ways the pitfalls of a particular foundation type can be navigated would be really good as well. I am thinking of building my own house one day and videos like these are very useful.
I'm also curious if there's much difference between the slab/pier/basement for private homes and the foundations for a larger institution like a school or ten story office building.
I really enjoyed this video!
I'm an construction/engineering student in the netherlands. 👷👷♂️I love to see every time that the culture in the usa is wildly different. Here in the Netherlands mostly we make a foundations very different because the soil everywhere is entirely made out of clay in the ground with sandlayers instead of bedrock.
Thanks for al this content i can enjoy every day! 😃😄
I found Pier and beam to be the best for super-insulated homes.
It allows for monolithic connections between walls and floor. You can achieve a perfect fluid-applied wrap, as well as a near-perfect insulation connection.
Also: As mentioned in another comment: You don't need to go down to bedrock, you just need to get your footer below the frost line by X amount, and have an engineer sign off on loads. And lastly: Pier and Beam is very Do-It-Yourself friendly.
I’m getting ready to build a pier and beam house and she made me nervous. I have quite a bit of clay soil and I don’t know how far down bedrock is.
Some thoughts on your information about pier foundations: In my area they do not need to reach bedrock unless the load design requires it. The engineer will evaluate local soil conditions, and the pier will be designed to provide support to the building through friction between it and the local soil. It is in fact rare for them to reach bedrock in valleys with deep alluvial soil. The piers will be the correct size and spacing to meet the loads and uplift of the building given the local conditions. I once worked on an interesting home that had a slab on grade foundation, but then had a post and beam crawl space built on top of it. Best rat slab ever!
Correct. Soil exerts pressure on piers/piles, and that pressure means friction that supports the weight of the structure. Driving piles into the ground instead of drilling holes and cementing means more soil pressure, more friction, and more support. How far to drive a pile is simple in that if you apply as much force to it as the structure (weight, environmental loads, etc.), then when the pile stops moving, that's deep enough. Piles like this are able to resist millions of pounds of force and anchor massive offshore oil rigs--all in soft silty/muddy soil without cement.
@@theevermind
My engineer brother explained to me that the same principles apply to poured in place piers, indeed to any foundations. Edit: While poured piers are set in the ground rather than driven in like piles, they are still effective for the same reasons.
Wanted to echo this to make sure it is heard. Piers do not need to reach bedrock. There are very simply calculations for knowing the area of a footer required at the bottom of a pier to accommodate the live and static load from the planned building. The frost line is also important as freezing soils can push piers up if they are not below the frost line.
@@johnmellesmoen2202
Echo received, and bounced back!
While the method of installation is different for poured or precast piers, and driven pilings, the same is true for all. Even if you are lucky enough to have bedrock close to the surface, all of the the other factors will still be accounted for, especially if uplift is a major factor.
Yep, maybe that's regulation in some places, but in the three places I've lived around the world, piers do not need to reach bedrock, if, as you say, there's sufficient friction and load-bearing capacity.
Slabs that settle unevenly can be hydraulically jacked back to level. The process is drill a hole in the slab near its low point then pump concrete mix under the slab until it gets level again.
It messes with your plumbing 9 times out of 10 though....
You can insulate crawlspace with fiberglass rolls between the joists (source: helped my dad insulate our crawlspace when I was a teenager, it was huge pain in the ass). The moisture will eventually degrade the insulation, but the immediate improvement was apparent.
Regarding termites, they build mud towers in the crawlspace to reach wood, so maybe that's a wash, too.
I live in earthquake country and once owned an on-slab home that had been damaged in the 89 Loma Prieta quake. The plumbing cracked beneath the concrete and had to be rerouted above the living space.
Upshot is, nothing works, and we should all move back into pole lodges :).
yes but with pier and beam you can see the termites wherever they come up. if you have a crack on the interior of a slab you will have to rear out drywall and pull up flooring to find where the termites are getting through.
Mineral wool insulation will survive much better in this role, particularly regarding moisture.
@@microcolonel How do you think foam would work?
@@mtadams2009 I'm no expert on that, but I would expect EPS (guessing this is what you mean by foam) to risk trapping water above it, and causing rot. AFAIK EPS is commonly used for flat roof insulation, but in that circumstance being water impermeable is a useful property.
@@microcolonel thanks
I just discovered your videos and love how thoroughly and succinctly you break things down. I'm a foundation repair, waterproofing, crawspace encapsulation and concrete lifting and stabilizing professional in MN so would love to see more related content for us northeners!
Just discovered your channel, Wow, what a wealth of knowledge and useful information! And your unbiased opinion is much appreciated. Thank you for your hard work, I am sincerely grateful.
Wonderful video! Great info and simple, straightforward delivery. Thank you for putting so much work into these!
Wonderful content as always! PLEASE DO BASEMENTS PLEASE! I'm in New England and am going to build my own home. It seems more information I get the more confused I am. So please cover basement so I have all the bases covered. Thank you for all your amazing work!
Yes! My first question was: What about basements?
I have lived in 2 areas that have tornadoes often, and in both places, few homes had basements. I want to know why basements are not common in places where they seem to make sense.
@@freethebirds3578 $$$$
@@freethebirds3578 There ar a few reasons why. Slab foundations are less costly than slab. Some parts of the country have high water tables which prevent full-depth basements from being done. Florida is a prime example. And lastly, construction techniques are influenced by historical trends. South Carolina is loaded with red brick homes build over crawlspaces even though full basements might be feasible in areas where the soil conditions & water tables are compatible.
+1 for basements.
I’d love to hear more about vented vs unvented pier and beam construction. Whether and how to take a vented version to unvented. Thank you, I love learning from your channel.
Love your videos. Informative and to the point without idle chat in between. Keep up the good work.
Watching your content is helping me study for the exams to become a residential energy advisor. So informative. Keep it up. You’re killing it. Getting more of this information out there to everyday people is going to be key to the future of greener living.
Maybe something to add, I'm not sure if this is more a european style of concrete slab contruction, but that is what I'm familiar with: It is kind of a combination of the two you mentioned, but relates more to the frost line and going down to bedrock is not possible in many areas in Europe: A perimeter rebar reinforced concrete stripe going down into the ground below the frost line in winter with a thick gravel drainage below (that was 2 meters deep minimum in total in my case). The slab is then poured either at the same time or later, the perimeter concrete is water insulated by tar (there are various products, but essentially it is a water barrier on the outside).
This prevents any damage to the concrete foundation due to moisture, prevents movement in the foundation due do expansion and contraction of soils due to frost, doesn't need to go to bedrock, avoids movement due to moisture below (due to the drainage gravel) and only cracks with very extensive movement of the soil (if you are on a slope and the whole ground starts moving for instance).
This adds higher upfront cost due to more concrete and more preparation work being needed, but these kind of constructions typically don't need any maintenance at all, as the perimeter concrete stripe goes deep enough to not be effected by soil movement.
I always wondered how these (from my experience in my country) weak foundations made in the US hold up over time, your mentioning of constant repair being needed clears that: Not very good it seems.
Excellent info. Thank you for the edification and as always stay safe and please continue to share with us.
I live in Minnesota and would love to see a video on basements.
Love your work, always watch your videos :)
Thank you as always.
You bring so much to the table with your videos.
This is sooo perfect thank you! I'm building a home and have looking at this exact thing. Peer & beam it is!
Great info. I love how thorough you are and clear explanation.
I loved the music at the beginning! I've noticed that (especially for explainer videos like these) it really helps my attention when there is comfortable music in the background. I've love to see it throughout your videos! (Although as long as I'm not on my phone, I can usually add my own, to be fair.)
Love your videos!!! full of interesting data and expertise as always!! Keep it up!!
Great video. I love comparing US and Australian building techniques and practises Traditional construction in Queensland was wooden piers with houses 1.8m above grade. When we renovated our place we had 43 100x100 RHS steel posts that were founded into 1.8 X 450 dia concrete piers. But most new houses here are slab on ground. But we also have highly reactive soils. And people plant eucalyptus too close to the house and the tree roots sap moisture from below the slab that can't be replenished. Common for 80's era slab on ground to crack from the foundation to the soffit.
Loved every second of it!!! Awesome video!!!
I love inspecting foundations here texas, and to me piers is the way to go! Worth every penny from my observation.
very thorough information - impressed at how much balanced the comparisons were. good work
I actually clicked on this videos to go to your channel to see if there was something more akin to my interests but this actually ended up being very insightful, great job. Also I support everything that has anything to do with basements.
Excellent description. Thank you Belinda!
All information on foundation types would be greatly appreciated! You might as well plan out a series, explaining one facet of house design and construction at a time, roofing, plumbing, electrical, etc., with a special section on new and emerging technologies and innovations. Thanks, always good stuff!
Hello Belinda, Well done, as usual. My parents built a house in North Dallas in 1953. It is still standing but not for long. Every house in the area is now a teardown because the land value and taxes are too high to merit a house so small. It was built on what was called pier and beam. But, the foundation was really a floorplan of the house with concrete forms indicating the exterior edges and the interior walls of the house. Forms were built a few feet deep along those lines--they may have hit a limestone base but the limestone is very soft. You can see it along the sides of the North Dallas Toll Road as it dips below grade at underpasses. To this day, there are no cracks from shifting. And the right angles of the walls and ceilings have always amazed wallpaper hangers. One of the main issues is that it was not built on fill dirt.
Always seem to really enjoy your informative videos.
Such a well-made, well-organized video. Thanks!
I wasn't even looking for this and I love it!
Subbed! 🙂
I love your videos. So illustrative. Very pleasant speaking voice as well. As I plan and build out my tiny home/adu, I need information like this on a daily basis. Have you already made a video on converting a tough shed into a home? I feel your perspective would have a big impact on those of us who are struggling with the constraints of budget/which materials not to go cheap on/space/insulation/ventilation/semi off-grid appliances etc. Doing the best I can to make this a home for myself out here in California lol.
Great information and video! Please provide more videos on different types of Piers, thank you.
Thank you for this video. The topic was very well explain and I'm sure you spent a lot of time preparing for this video. Great job.
I live in a home that was built in 1958 in California. The house sits on a pier and beam. My family and I moved into the house in 2018. There was no gas line installed for my wife to have a gas stove in the kitchen. We hired a plumber to install the gas line and was able to enter the crawl space and installed it within 2 hours. I gladly paid the bill of $475 and my wife and I now have a gas stove. I really like the easy access to the pipes underneath the house, but I'm sometimes annoyed with the floor squeaking in some areas in the house. Thanks for reading my experience.
Isn't Cali outlawing gas appliances?
@@willbass2869 I believe you are referring to outdoor gas power tools.
@@izziereal2010 yeah mowers and lawn too but I thought Newsome wanted to have 100% electric houses to reduce "greenhouse gas" ( as if electricity production is pollution free🤔)
@@willbass2869 In not too sure about appliances. I'll need to look into that.
Yes please do the video on the foundations you duggested.thank uou for your well presented videos.im learning a lot
I really enjoy your channel. Thank you for posting.
thanks for the video i found it very informative and useful to help me decide which type of foundation i want to use.
Thank You...as usual, Belinda!
Something to look forward to with great anticipation. :) Pier and beam, as well as materials used in construction, is one of many reasons I bought an existing home built in 1983.
Thanks for the great comparison!
Good stuff, thank you for explaining it in a easy to understand way for all of us non builders and architects
Yes, please make those additional videos!
Another excellent video!
G.L. Hunt did "repair" on our pier & beam foundation; though, even being fully paid (over-paid, actually) they cracked an undamaged part of the foundation in many places, never finished leveling the floors so they sink towards the middle of the house, never did a plumbing test and never had their engineer rubber-stamp their mess, so did not close the permit they opened: forty thousand thrown away!
Thank you for simplifying this.
This was so fascinating!
Allways great videos about various subjects 👍
Great content, I've learnt so much. Thanks a million
Love your videos! If you have not covered the topic already, a video on some irrigation subject matter would be interesting! Thank you!
Having worked in Construction, when given the chance I will ALWAYS choose Pier and Beam. However, I also feel a deep underside is important. A tight crawl space just isn't worth it. Get some space under there if you are going with the Pier and Beams.
Nice video! I miss the simplicity of plain concrete slabs and brick buildings in South Africa. Even with the cracks on clay. But I have to accept and get used to building on piers, insane costs, termite risk, and paper walls here in Australia.
Hi Belinda
I found your videos are very informative.
Could you please make a video explaining Polished Concrete and Epoxy flooring with complete details.
Thank you.
An interesting type of foundation to cover would be the insulated slab foundation for northern climate. Not popular in North America, this system is widely used in Europe.
It seems to be one of the best solutions to meet passive house standard due to its ability to isolate the building g from the ground. 15 inches of Styrofoam are used, and 11 inch slab is poured on top with reinforcement. Optionally a heating system can be embedded in the slab. The thermal mass would mitigate day and night temperature fluctuations. Exposing some floor to southern sun can also act as energy storage. I suppose the key to its longevity us in the subsurface preparation. Plumbing repairs would be a nightmare.
Thanks for the video!
A fabulous explanation.
In my area ( mid south), the most common foundation is a perimeter wall of concrete blocks set on a complete perimeter footing that extends below the frost line, which is relatively shallow.
Same here, not an architect but it feels like it's the best of both worlds
Yup, I work on foundations in Missouri and this is how all of the old homes are done, and if you have to redo a basement wall you have to block up the top couple feet because you can't form and pour concrete all the way up to the floor joist.
excellent. informative. well described. thanks
Thanks for the interesting and informative video, I appreciate watching these. As a Canadian living in the prairie of southwest Manitoba I would love to see a video on the northern climate and foundations.
Great summary and well communicated. Thank you.
Great video. In Australia we have to put piers under our slab on ground houses as we have reactive clay soils too. Perhaps the USA should do that on reactive soils
Thanks! Very informative!
Quite a bit different in Ohio. Trench foundations, below the frost line, are the norm here, even if the house uses a slab floor. Crawl spaces here are about 38 inches high or more on newer homes, depending on local codes.
Thanks for the content. 👍👍
Trench foundations are a variation on pier and beam. They are used in colder climates to get the footing below the frost depth. This video was prepared in Texas where geound freezing is not an issue.
@@rogerhodges7656 you don't say.
I hit play ready to watch with my criticism mode on but this video covered just the right amount of every single topic! Pure great content.
I'd appreciate your report on modern basement foundations here in the Pacific Northwest.
I'm here in the Great Lakes region would love a vid on basements too.
Are basements in your region typically below grade?
Thank god. Without this video, I would be unable to identify the type of foundation used in my ex-wife's home. Thanks to Belinda Carr, I can now comfortably live in the crawlspace within her walls.
🤨
😂
Where you probably belong
😂😂 stay strong in the crawl space buddy, you got this
Isn't that how this whole situation started in the first place?
Just sharing..
Where I live in the Caribbean, we have generally have either rocky or a commonly occurring type of heavy clay soil (referred to as Sapate).
Though we don't have winter, we do have Rainy and Dry seasons.
In the "rainy season" (approx 6+ month of the year) heavy rains saturate the clay, causing significant heaving (soil expansion), whereas in the dry season, it dehydrates it, resulting is significant shrinkage. Both of which have significant movement and put stresses on the foundation.
The solutions to the clay areas, are typically use of a monolithic raft foundation or Strip-footing atop Piles.
The pies range from "Augured Piles" to "Driven Piles" and typical start at a 15' depth and increase based on the data from a Geo-technical survey, building design and structural requirements.
So useful and informative.
Thank you for this!
I really like this series of videos.
Excellent presentation.
@Belinda Carr To re-level a tilted slab I wonder if it could be done by slab jacking to lower the costs of interior piers? Core drill a pattern of small diameter holes where needed and then pump in the lifting medium. Cheaper? Less disruptive than trying to install precast piers?
Here in south Florida lots of people live in manufactured homes. The homes are positioned over a string of concrete block piers under each long steel beam. Tie downs are generally diagonal steel straps attached to the beams and then extended down to earth auger/anchors. There are different tie down specs for each specific wind zone. Much of FL soil seems to be a free flowing type sand (fairly compaction resistant), it's not uncommon that a Florida mobile home will move or settle slightly over time, however mobile homes can be easily/inexpensively releveled/realigned on the piers as needed.
It's advisable to have plenty of air movement under the mobile home to prevent moisture buildup. This free-air-flow 'skirting' can be screen or slats. BTW, under the home is a good space for geckos and common black snakes to do their thing (bug and rodent 'getters'). As with any home, it's important that the mobile home site is well drained, and the soil beneath the home needs to be covered with an effective vapor barrier.
Very informative video. Thank you!
Another great video thank you. IMHO, I would always build with pier and beam versus slab as I would want to do it right the first time no matter the cost. Stability of the home is most important to me and I would be able to deal with the other ancillary issues that come with this type of foundation. But, in the long run I think it’s a better investment.
Yep, you can always level up a house easily, have access to your services and have a place to store your junk.
Really concise video, enjoyed it.
thank you for very important knowledge ^^
Nice! Liking your presentation method the soil horizon image!!
Thank you for another wonderful video. I'm from The Netherlans, and we mostly have a different kind of foundation, called "pole foundation", where poles are driven in the ground and mostly just float on the ground. Fun fact: My grandfather was a water engineer, and in his building days (around the Second World War), they drove the wooden poles in the ground with sledge hammers. They would measure how far the pole would get into the ground with each hit, and when this became smaller than a certain number (depending on the situation), they would consider it deep enough, and the remaining part of the pole, would be cut off
HiBelinda, so glad to find you on YT. Have you done a video on geothermal heating?
Thanks for teaching me something new.
excellent explanation
This is EXCELLENT information. Thank you so much for sharing this. Plus, I will investigate this SkillShare thingy!..
I bumped into this video by accident lol, I just subscribed tho. Great info. Very professional. Gonna check out some more of your video now. Bless
NICE! I've been considering these to types of foundations.
There were several generalizations that I wasn’t expecting. Texas is a large state and the soil isn’t the same everywhere. It can be significantly different in just a matter of miles. It’s important to get a geotechnical core drilling sample and report done and evaluated by an structural engineer in order to determine what would be best for any given area. In some instances the geotechnical report could recommend piers under a slab on grade, void forms or that soil be brought in to stabilize existing soil or some combination. The engineer would design the slab and what beams would be needed and how much rebar would be needed based on the soil test recommendation and the loads required by the specific structure being built.
very helpful I love your content.
Very informative!
The UK switched to slab on grade a couple of decades ago for new builds and there's been nothing but trouble. I've seen entire sites demolished before getting to the second story to be swapped over to pier and beam or the slab thickness increased to deal with the soil conditions in what is predominately a rainy climate. On the same instance when I was in Texas I saw many slab on grade foundations dip only slightly and due to the incoming water main being laid in or below the slab, it had broken and released thousands of litres of water (in one case 90,000 ie 90 metric tonnes) eroding what soil was under the slab and tilting it even further out of level.
It has benefits used in the right climate with decent though put into services beforehand but too many times there isn't enough forethought and planning.
You are one of the best bloggers.
Nice general introduction for the layman and i feel that this is generally more applicable for smaller/lighter structures (1 to 2 storey things). Depends on the project objectives, specifications and ground conditions, consult with your structural engineer for most cost effective solution. In more challenging ground condition and large foundation loadings, the foundation designs are typically beyond the skillset of a structural engineer (not many understand the soil/structure interactions well) and design advice should be referred to a geotechnical engineer / foundation specialist. I come from the building and infrastructure industry, generally slabs and shallow footings are the cheapest way for foundations, if the ground can handle it.
Great content!!
You know your stuff. Thanks for the info.
You are awesome! Thank you for the video
I'd be very interested in seeing a video on Basements vs. Frost Protected Shallow Foundations for cold climates.
This is a good information. I use this in my construction to
Great Content as Always Thanks 👍
I have done the pier and beam, with an adjustment I pour concrete after the piers are poured, I learned this from another builder then you can either have brick on the outside. There is so many different things you can do to improve the loss of heat , Thor cold air from the a/c in the summer. The poured slab you can now dig down just a little deeper and they have foam insulation that can have concrete pour on it which will help with temp control in the house. This two she talks about are simple foundations, that if you add to them can make your home so much better in the long run.
Hi Belinda, I love your videos. Very intuitive. I have a question though. We are planning to build an outdoor Pavillion with a roof but no walls, 25' x 50' for a community center in Connecticut. What is the best foundation option for this type of project? Your advice is valuable. Thanks
I'd like to see a video on basements made with ICF vs Pre-Cast concrete panels, like Superior Wall vs conventional poured concrete.