Foundation

After much more research and pursuing options, we settled on a post and beam foundation and a stick built house. The major advantages we liked about this option were the crawl space (it will make repairs easier), a wood sub-floor (easier on our feet and knees), much cheaper than a basement (an above ground storm shelter will be installed once the garage floor is poured and cured), and it gives us a very stable base while allowing windows to be installed anywhere I want them!

The builder, Steve, dug holes 60 inches deep, poured a concrete base, placed the beams, filled in the holes with rock and then cut them all off level. These beams are down below the frost line, so movement and settling should be minimal.


LDLs (no one has been able to tell me what this stands for, but they are extra sturdy, stable boards used in construction) were then attached to make a frame for the floor joists. Forty foot joists were hung on 16 inch centers over the top of the center LDLs. Then the whole surface was decked with osb (oriented strand board) as the sub-floor.


A view of the crawl space under the decked foundation...ready for walls and plumbing! This area will be insulated and closed off with two access points when construction is done. Landscaping will also be done and when completed, the crawl space/foundation will not be visible.

Stay tuned for more details...