Slab foundation house - are these okay?

[mickeyfan2]

Slabs are used in places with high water tables. A basement is a great place to put utilities, but it can also be a place to keep junk. You will need to have a place to keep holiday decorations etc., so make sure you have enought storage.

 

[kydisneyfans]

Many newly built homes in KY are slabs--the rock is too high and blasting must be done for a basement--the home with basements go for 20-30K more here.

 

[dizagain]

I never owned/lived in a home that wasn't slab until now. We've lived in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Texas in nice houses with slab. Now we're in Illinois with a basement, and I like the storage....but before I always had a big attic - stairs to climb either way! Do keep the slab moist - always had sprinklers. Ours did have some cracking, but was nothing that had to be repaired inspection-wise.

 

[jennyL]

Well I hope so. LOL We just put money down yesterday to build a new house and its on a slab. Its in Cary and our first house. We noticed looking in this area that everything new in our price range was a slab. The resales had alot of crawl spaces but hardly anything had a basement. Are you looking at a new house or a re-sale. Is it in Durham?

 

[Chicago526]

We have a good mix of slab foundations and houses with basements around here. As long as the slab was poured thick enough to be below the frost line (if you live where it freezes in the winter), you should be okay. All foundations settle a little bit but it shouldn't cause you any problems.

The only drawback to a slab foundation is if you want to remodel a bathroom. If you need to move the pluming and/or sewer line you'll have to jack-hammer into the foundation to move it, and fill it with concret again when done. We also had a plumbing leak one time in one of the pipes in the foundation. But the plumber was able to fix it w/out having to dig up any of the floors (not sure how he did it, but it sure did work!).

 

[lecach]

jennyL - yes,its a new house in Durham. We live near Southpoint mall now in a 19 year old house and would like to stay in that area. But the new homes are just so expensive. Slab seems to be all we can afford. I work in Cary but my DH has to be at Duke a lot for work so we cant be far from there.

 

[C.Ann]

We have a mixture up here.. My neighborhood (the house I am in the process of selling) has a full basement - as do all the others..

Here in my DD's neighborhood all of the houses are built on slabs.. I find this house to be colder (especially the floors - I'm a big barefoot person) and my son-in-law is very sorry he didn't buy a home with a basement for all of his tools and such.. And of course with a slab, your hot water heater, furnace, etc., all has to be accomodated somewhere in the actual living area as opposed to the basement..

 

[tar heel]

My husband's objection to a slab was not being able to get to the pipes, etc. I think we also may have been "sold" by the builder we ultimately went with who does not do slabs, or at least didn't at that time.

 

[jennyL]

jennyL - yes,its a new house in Durham. We live near Southpoint mall now in a 19 year old house and would like to stay in that area. But the new homes are just so expensive. Slab seems to be all we can afford. I work in Cary but my DH has to be at Duke a lot for work so we cant be far from there.

We are going into Amberly its a KBHomes community in Cary off of Hwy 55. We are almost in Chatham county but its still Wake. That was one of my requirements. We won't have much land but it looks to be a nice place. My DH works off of Miami and I'm off of Aviation so we will be heading that way in for work. Good luck in finding something. We didn't take too much time but we liked the lot we got so we wanted to jump on it before it was gone. New houses are selling like hotcakes around here.