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With a crawlspace, if you want to make any changes, additions, or repairs to plumbing, wiring, baseboard heating, etc etc .... you have access underneath the room(s) in question.
With just a slab foundation you have no choice but to have to go either through the walls (by either snaking or cutting open, whichever can work) or up walls to the attic, through the attic to the rooms needed, then down the walls again. Costlier and more complicated.
Slab foundation is also usually colder than flooring that's suspended above grade. Slab is also definitely tougher on miffy or aging body parts (legs, feet, spine).
If you're looking at a house with a slab foundation, make sure you find out whether all the plumbing was run (a) through the walls or (b) through the slab. If through the slab, walk away because if you get a leak you'll have an expensive repair either with or without the use of jackhammers.
If the question is what type of foundation in lieu of a basement then my vote goes to crawlspace for accessibility.
Agreed!
I definetly miss not having a basement. All the things we used to have in a basement like the laundry, storage, hobbies, fish tanks, cat litter boxes, model trains, ping pong and pool tables, kid's toys etc now has to go in the garage or even in the regular part of the house.
Not to mention the safety factor, you can go there in a REALLY BAD storm --- granted its not likely.
i like my basement, but miss my slab on hot days(which we havnt had this year). the slab helps keep the house a bit cooler. But i love the option of living space if i need it.
I definetly miss not having a basement. All the things we used to have in a basement like the laundry, storage, hobbies, fish tanks, cat litter boxes, model trains, ping pong and pool tables, kid's toys etc
Basements are great for storage, etc, as long as they are dry ... no dampness, mold, mildew, etc. Unfortunately it's hit or miss here on LI as to whether that'll be the case with any given basement. From what I've seen in my various househunting forays over the past 30 years, my guess is that no more than 50% of basements (overall) probably qualify as dry enough for things stored there longterm to not get that yucky mildewy smell (without having a dehumidifier running 24/7).
Also, IMHO there's a significant difference between a full-height enclosed (poured concrete floor, either cinderblock or poured concrete walls, and 4-foot height) crawlspace and a dirt-floor/cinderblock wall/2-foot high crawlspace. The first is fine, the second .... well, IMO its barely a step up from a slab foundation and that only because the accessibility is there.
Quote:
No leaks like in a crawl space
What type of leaks do you mean? From cinderblock walls? Granted that a dirt floor crawlspace can be pretty yucky with bugs, various creepycrawliies, and groundwater issues if in a high water table area; but a crawlspace with a properly installed concrete floor should not have any more of a leak problem than a basement would do in the same location.
I've only once owned a house on a slab foundation. It was a 1960s highranch with the utilities on the lower level. The builder of the development ran all the plumbing and heating lines for the lower level, AND those going to the two upstairs bathrooms at the opposite end of the house, through the slab as it was being poured, rather than going to the extra expense of putting everything in the walls. When one of the hot water lines sprung a leak 20 years later there were only two choices: Jackhammer up the slab lengthwise under the 12x35 den to repair the leak, or run entirely new hot water lines through the walls and ceilings thereof. I couldn't face the destruction entailed in the first option, and so it cost mucho dinero to replumb. Especially since I was then so paranoid about the heating baseboard lines doing the same thing, I had those re-plumbed as well. $$$$$$$$$
I would never buy a house without a full basement. Relatively speaking one can double the sq. ft. of the home with a basement for 20-30K.
Nor would I.
It takes at least half of the prospective buyers right out of the market on the resale.
Crooks
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