Crawl Space vs. Concrete slab?

[fisher33]

hi everyone - i started a thread about this over on the house forum and look at the responses (if you don't mind skimming through them)... why are the opinions so drastically different? http://www.city-data.com/forum/house...oundation.html

as you can see from my op, i'm in search of some good advice and felt like the general consensus was good quality is good quality, but after reading through these three pages and this being a sc thread - would the house being on slab be a deal breaker??

thanks everyone!

[Frankie117]

Interesting arguement.

I have lived with both foundation styles, and more recently moved into my first house with a basement.

It seems to me that a crawl space makes winters so much colder, I guess it is because of the airflow, but my heating bills were always off the charts. Another gripe is that you can definately feel the house settle a lot more with a crawl space.

On the flip side, slabs can be a pain if you need to install new pipes or wiring, but it isn't that big of a deal. I also noticed back pain, probably from the concrete, but a double layer of carpet padding fixes that problem.

I would recommend a crawl space if you lived on a hill and if you live on a more solid area. If you don't then it can be a hassle keeping water, snakes, spiders, etc. from coming into the house. Alternatively, slabs should be better used on sandy soil as to better distribute the weight of the house. I think slabs take weather better than crawl spaces do.. Seems like a house bolted to concrete would survive better than a brick facade and cinder blocks.

[Geechie North]

I was raised in a house West Of The Ashley that had a concrete slab, as most of that vintage did/do. Thought it was superior (yes, you have bugs, ants, the occasaional snake- snakes are rare, though.), but welcome to the Lowcountry. Then we discovered termite damage in our heavily shellacked living room walls. That's when Charlie Ledford ( Ledford's Exterminating) told me that the first crack, and they are inevitable, in a concrete slab allows termites to access the house and have a water source. And that's all they need.
I'm told crawl spaces lessen that problem- as long as the ground under them is properly treated. But then now that the Formosan Termite is established in SC, nothing at groundlevel is 100% effective against the beasties.

[fisher33]

mmm, i think there's no clear cut answer - but this has enlightened me SO much on all the options!! thank you!