Slab house? (Cincinnati, Fairfield: new house, crawl space, buying)

[BigA]

I am considering buying a new house, one of the houses I'm looking at is a brand new house on a slab in Fairfield area, I like the location of it best. I have never lived in a slab house, I always had a basement growing up, this is a first house and don't necessarilly need the room. I've heard bad things about slabs but then again they seem to be building a lot more of them lately.

[Wilson513]

Nothing can be done to have warm floors in a slab house. You can put two feet of insultion in and that will still result in cold floors all year round. Radiant floor heat is the only solution and you rarely see it in a slab house because of the cost.

[BigA]

Yea I know the floors will be colder, but honestly I don't walk around barefoot that much, I'm more concerned about issues with plumbing, and the solidness of the house.

[progmac]

cincinnatians love their basements. it can be hard to sell a house around here without one. this even goes for older homes. basements are all over the city, and most have a toilet haha

[kjbrill]

Originally Posted by BigA

Yea I know the floors will be colder, but honestly I don't walk around barefoot that much, I'm more concerned about issues with plumbing, and the solidness of the house.

I would think the biggest potential problem to be with water vapor invasion and the resulting mold, etc. Unless the slab is adaquately isolated from the ground via a real solid vapor barrier this would be my concern. As far as cold floors, this at most would be isolated to several feet from the outside periphery since the interior would be shielded. Earth is just not that great of a thermal conductor, in fact it is more of an insulator.

[Wilson513]

If its slab on grade the plumbing will not be a problem but you may have moisture problems. If there is a crawl space the plumbing will never work right.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by BigA

I have never lived in a slab house, I always had a basement growing up, this is a first house and don't necessarilly need the room. I've heard bad things about slabs but then again they seem to be building a lot more of them lately.

Neither had I until I bought my current place.

Even though I live in an area much colder than the Cincinnati area, the floors are NOT cold. We carpeted the area and the carpeted keeps the floors fairly warm. The small area which is tiled does get cold. We were going to place a heating unit underneath it but decided against it as we spend very little time on the tile.

[goyguy]

I'd never live in a slab house that's in tornado territory, no way no how!

[Sarah Perry]

Originally Posted by wilson1010

If its slab on grade the plumbing will not be a problem but you may have moisture problems. If there is a crawl space the plumbing will never work right.

I'm a little curious about plumbing problems with crawl spaces. What's the inherent problem?

This might not be the type of thing you're talking about, but I lived for 20+ years in a 1960 split level--on a slab on the bottom level, third level above that, and a crawl space under the middle level that was on grade. The bathrooms were on the bottom and top levels, the kitchen and laundry were on the middle level. There was never a problem with the plumbing except the usual stuff of owner-caused clogs, etc.

[Wilson513]

With a crawl space the bad stuff has to get from the house to the ground. The good stuff has to get from the ground to the house. Either way, when its -10 F. out, the pipes in the crawl space have to be heated to 30 F or nothing works right. The waste water freezes in the pipes, same for the supply line.