BENEFITS AND DRAWBACKS OF CRAWLSPACE
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FOUNDATIONS
While living spaces such as halls, kitchens, rooms, and main floors are critical when owners sell or buy a house, foundations are essential for home construction. Indeed, the well-being, safety, and life quality inside a home depend on the type of foundation because it is the most critical loadbearing element of the structure.
LOADS
According to construction experts, the foundation must withstand the dead and live loads of any building. A dead load is the weight of the basic structure itself, and it remains constant. On the other hand, the live load is the weight of people and other objects within the house or building. Therefore, the foundation must be stable and channel the total weight of the entire building to the ground. And the ground conditions, location, and budget determine the type of foundations that best suit the owner’s needs.
TYPES OF FOUNDATIONS
There are three types of foundations commonly used in modern residential constructions: Slab Basement Crawl space The crawl space includes some structural characteristics that have their benefits and drawbacks.
WHAT IS A CRAWLSPACE FOUNDATION? A crawl space is a shallow basement that raises your home 1 to 3 feet off the ground. The name crawl space is because it allows only enough space to crawl but not to stand. The purpose of this type of structure is to offer access to some installations as plumbing, air conditioning, heater, ductwork, insulation, wiring, and other mechanicals at home.
PROS OF A CRAWL SPACE
They are designed for sloped lots. Crawl spaces are excellent options for floodprone areas and locations prone to earthquakes. They offer better access to plumbing, wiring, and HVAC systems. The first floor of a home built on a crawl space tends to be warmer if this area is conditioned.
Drawbacks Insulation can be challenging when it comes to conditioning a crawl space. Crawl spaces are prone to moisture, mold growth, pests, and rodent infestation when they are poorly insulated. Crawl-space foundations are less energy-efficient than slab foundations. Crawl-space foundations are more challenging in terms of mobility, and they require stairs.
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