Need advice on purchasing a home with no basement

[cm]

Almost every home in Arizona is built without a basement. Life goes on here.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Tens of thousands of them. Maybe hundreds of thousands of them.

In some locations there is so much ledge it is just not possible to make a hole in the ground. It would be blasting out solid rock. Other parts of the country have high water tables and it would be like building a house over a swimming pool. Those modestly cost houses made the American dream come true for many families.

[benick]

Here in my area in Maine the Ledge is BAD...I have a full basement but it is built into the side of a hill and they poured the foundation and filled in around it on 3 sides...The front wall in the basement is wood with a door and windows...LOTS of fill..You can't dig 3 feet most places around here without explosives...LOL..Lots of slab , and partial or crawl space basements here.....Not a damn thing wrong with it either....Not everyone can afford a macmansion....Me included...Ranch with a full basement here...

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, In Arizona weather is very mild. Been there many times. I know you can have a full basement there if you want to. Cost is the matter. Where I live, not having a full basement is almost unthinkable. There are old houses built during the war which most of them now have dug out basement(like retrofitting one). Our frost line is over 6 feet deep. Right now a friend of mine is building a house and he ran into a big boulder while excavating for basement. To clear the obstacle, it cost him 20K but basement is poured according to plan.

[HeyBub]

I'm in Houston. Houston is built on 500' feet of clay... before you get to sandstone. The tall buildings downtown are constructed on "floating" foundations and not anchored in bedrock.

The tall buildings here have basements - that's what holds them up! But nothing shorter than about five stories has below-ground construction - certainly not residences, three-story condos, apartment buildings.

[bob haller]

basments are standard in most northern climates because the footer must be below the frost line.

by the time you go that deep might as well make it a basement, adds little cost

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Up here in Calgary is pretty similar. Clay or sandstones. No wonder we have kazillion lakes small and big and ponds every where. One reason they can't build subways. Downtown high rise commercial buildings are like yours with mandatory bilge pumps deep in multi level basement(parkade). I am a life time ham and due to the soil condition hams here have problem with poor electrical ground which affects our antenna arrays performance.

[cm]

It would be great to have a basement here in AZ just to escape the summer heat. Several days in July my thermometer read 117. I grew up in Michigan and started sleeping in the basement because my dad was to cheap to run the heat much. I loved the somewhat constant temps down there.

There are always remodeling work arounds if you don't have a basement to run utilities through.

cm

[Paul Oman]

Houston. Recall on a home repair radio show in Houston a talk about basements. Then can be dug and incorporated in houston (for less money than buildiing a second floor!). Just that no one does it...

The former owner of my NH house is a contractor that regularly 'lifts'/jacks up houses and carves out a basement under them.

[Han]

Tony Hwang wrote in news:u9Wem.128653$zq1.22193 @newsfe22.iad:

They built/build subways in Amsterdam. Below ground water level. Most homes in Holland have basements. Below ground water level. I think they just know how to make them waterproof. The weight of the house probaby keeps it from floating away.

The problems with building the subway in Amsterdam have to do with the pumping away too much ground water. damages the foundation structure. The wooden poles in the water and ground start rotting when they get exposed to air, and the buildings start cracking.

[Big Jim]

An American living in a tent is still an AMERICAN and far superior to the mindless hordes who inhabit the rest of the globe!

[Doug Brown]

Where do you live?

How important is a basemnt?

D0 most houses have them or not?