What Type Of Foundation Is Right For You?

When looking at existing homes, the construction materials used may vary greatly. Brick, stone, concrete blocks, or even treated lumber have been used to lay foundations in the past. However, when building your own home, the most common foundation in modern day home construction is concrete.

There are three types of tradition concrete foundations.

Post-and-pier foundations consist of concrete anchors fitted to lumber posts which extend upward to support the home.

Post-and-pier foundations have the advantage of cooling the house by allowing air to pass freely beneath it. Hawaiian homes often take advantage of the trade winds to capitalize on this. Additionally, such construction helps to keep floodwaters, vermin, and other unwanted pests and elements out of your home by raising your home above them. However, post-and-pier constructed houses are more vulnerable to natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes.

Poured concrete foundations are made by creating a wooden frame for the foundation, pouring concrete into it, and removing the wood for a one-piece foundation.

Poured concrete gives the homeowner the advantage of heating (compared to the cooling of post-and-pier). Poured concrete foundations don’t have near the energy (heat) loss, and in cold climates are less expensive to heat. Additionally, a basement is impossible with post-and-pier foundations, and a poured concrete foundation offers lower level living space. Also, flooding is rare in poured concrete foundations as they’ve become exceptionally watertight. They are also more durable than a post-and-pier foundation and less prone to damage in fires, earthquakes, and hurricanes.

Finally, a concrete block foundation (similar in form to the poured concrete foundation) is simply built block-by-block with pre-formed concrete.
- Concrete block foundations offer many of the same advantages of a poured concrete foundation. In addition, to protect against leaking that you might be worried about with a block-by-block construction, concrete blocks have hollow cores that act as a drainage system. Also, concrete block walls are usually built wider in order to minimize warping or changes due to ground movements. And, because they are built one block at a time, concrete block foundations can be modified at a later date to add a nook or a fireplace.

Additionally, it’s possible to use poured concrete or concrete blocks without going below ground but as a slab that acts as both the floor of the house and the base upon which it is built. And, of course, one can mix and match types of foundations for different areas of one’s house according to the function of each area.