Micheal Holigan : In some situations, you cannot do a slab foundation and we happen to be in that area right now. We're on the side of the hill.
Al Carrell: What we have to do here is use a pier and beam foundation, and in this one they're using blocks to build the piers with, and they're really doing a good job and it goes up so quickly, I'm amazed.
M.H.: This is very quickly. This is one day's work. They came in and they set their corners. They shot it with an instrument to make sure that the whole house is level. The front end is just a few inches above where our finished grade's going to be. The back end is up in the air, but that all was determined by where the front end's going to be.
A.C.: And as they start working, they use a string level across each row, so that they end up with everything being on the level.
M.H.: Yeah. You don't want a warped floor. They're going to have to come back in and put a wood floor in here. Now this is two far to span across, so we're going to come back in just a minute and add some piers. The crew's already finished out piers throughout the whole foundation. We're going to run our wood from the walls to each one of the piers to form our whole floor system and you can already tell that we're going to have a lot of storage space below the house.
A.C.: And if you wonder how you get to this storage space, come over here and take a look. There's an entryway that'll allow you to crawl in here. That's why they call it a crawl space, because there's certainly not enough room to come in here and shoot baskets, but it really does allow for an awful lot of storage.
M.H.: That's right Al. And right next to it here we have a vent and we place these around the whole perimeter of the foundation. This is to let the air infiltrate and keep the moisture out below the home. We don't want any moisture because it might damage the house, the wood floor, the walls, the windows, anything, plus keep all of the moisture out of the house.
A.C.: And remember, as you build your new house, ventilation is really a very important part of it. You know Michael, I see something else that's a big advantage for this type of foundation. Here's this plumbing supply line coming in and that's the only pipe that's under ground. All the plumbing connections are done up here where you can get to 'em.
M.H.: That's right. And what does that mean to you? Well, if you ever have the misfortune of having the plumbing leak, the plumber does not have to come in with a jackhammer and break up your foundation. He can come in over there at the crawl space. Come fix the leak, head on out, which means a very small bill.
A.C.: Yeah, I hate breaking up a slab, because breaking up is hard to do.
M.H.: Can you believe that? Let's go over to a house where they're putting the floor on the pier and beam foundation. After the beams have been placed on top of the concrete piers, it's time to put down the flooring. In most cases, as they're doing here, wood flooring is nailed down to the beams, care to fit the plywood together snugly ensures a good seal.
Episode 002 1995 - 96 Season
| Post Tension II | Regular Slab | Pier and Beam | Block and Slab | Watering Foundation | Basements | Radon Gas | How Much Down? | Faucet Replacement |
To order a Video Tape, call 1-800-TO-BUILD and ask for Episode #002.