Brick exterior, tile interior?

[ged_782]

Slab foundations have been used almost exclusively in residential construction in San Antonio & surrounding ares since the early 1950s. I believe the primary reason is cost, and also they are better for supporting brick, stone, or other types of masonry exteriors that are commonly used here.

The downside is that there is no access underneath, without tunnelling. That only becomes an issue if there is a leak or break in the plumbing under the slab. Something to be particularly mindful of if you are looking for an older slab foundation home that has cast iron sewer lines, is that they can deteriorate after many years. PVC sewer piping has more commonly been used for about the last 40 years. Older homes also typically had copper water supply lines running under the slab, but sometimes newer homes have them in the walls and ceilings, instead.

[pobre]

The other thing that may seem strange to you when you come is seeing water heaters in garages...in the NE, that obviously wouldn't work due to freezing temperatures!

[lady katie]

Originally Posted by pobre

The other thing that may seem strange to you when you come is seeing water heaters in garages...in the NE, that obviously wouldn't work due to freezing temperatures!

Haha, yeah, I've never seen that before. I'd rather it be in the garage though, ours is crammed in the laundry closet in our kitchen next to the water softener. I hate having all of that stuff right in the middle of the house like that.

[DerpyDerp]

Originally Posted by pobre

The other thing that may seem strange to you when you come is seeing water heaters in garages.

I wish mine was in the garage; mine is in the attic over a second floor bedroom. It makes me a little nervous and it was quite a hassle to replace it a couple of years ago.

[davidtexas210]

Originally Posted by lady katie

That's very interesting, about the foundations. I don't think I've ever even seen a house built on a slab, just garages. Even my inlaws who live in the Catskills, where you cannot dig a foundation due to the rock and clay ground, built their house on a raised foundation. Interesting. Is there a reason for the slabs, or is it just that it's more affordable? I wouldn't mind a slab, to be honest. We have a crawl space here, and it generally just equals more maintenance. We can't even really use it for storage because of moisture.

I would opt for an engineered hardwood floor over tile or carpet. I don't love them, but it has the look that I'm going for, and I know that you can refinish them twice if need be. We have solid wood here, and I do love them, but engineered would probably be the next best thing for me, especially if we could glue it and not just have it float.

Concerning building on a slab, from what I remember from my classes in architecture, we build directly on a slab in this part of the country because there is no need to dig further down to build basements. Basements are built in northern climates where the freeze line extends many feet into the ground. Foundations for houses have to extend so many inches past the freeze line. Here the freeze line only extends about 18-24 inches if I recall. Therefore, a house can be built on a concrete slab with foundations that extend only a few feet into the ground.

[1234Arms]

There are several reason behind the such type of building made of brick. Like brick is used for giving a stylish look to the building, also they more strengthen then the other type of material building. But the main reason behind the brick house in Texas is that Texas is hot place which makes bad effect on the paint.