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I have a semi conditioned crawl space. A plastic membrane on the floor and foundation walls as a vapor barrier. A French drain on the perimeter. Closed cell foam in the floor joists so the floor is warm in the winter. The water table is too high for a basement. The plumbing and forced hot water system are all new PEX and PVC. It's unlikely anyone would need to crawl under in my lifetime.
I'd have no problem with an insulated slab with radiant heat.
My other place has a basement that has accumulated 25 years of debris. I need to do a major purge.
Crawl spaces give me the willies. Spiderwebs, insects, and worse.
My first house was a slab. My second house was 1/2 basement, 1/2 drive under garage. My third house is a crawlspace (except garage on slab), but no crawling is needed as I am 5'4" and I can stand upright in the whole thing. It really isn't all that creepy, but I do plan to keep up with the pest control down there.
If something ever happens to this house, Lord forbid, I will have a slab. While the crawlspace is convenient for some things, like right now my water heater, ductwork and plumbing in under the house, I hate having it. IF my water heater goes out, I have to get just the right one, or it wont fit. The low end of my house is like 2ft high, I cant get back there if I have to do plumbing work, so a simple fix turns into an all day job. I did have my furnace/ac unit changed when the old one went out to a "gaspack" type unit where its outside, vs right in the middle of the crawlspace. When we upgraded our electrical and such, all the wiring was rerouted into the attic, except the water heater.
It depends greatly on where you're building/buying. In our place in North Idaho a slab is not a good idea because the house (and pipes) will be sitting directly on frozen ground for 3-4 months out of the year. Almost every house has a deep crawl space of about 4-5 ft, going below the line where the ground freezes. But in our place in SoCal we're on a slab, and basements are practically nonexistent. Nobody wants to be trapped in the basement during an earthquake...Crawlspaces are like in the movie L.A. Confidential, in older homes. A real crawl-space. Big rats!
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