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Weber says builders are paying more attention to detail to bring green results. He sees homeowners learning about issues like water management, from gutters to ensuring the hard grade around a foundation drains water away. But he still sees a lack of awareness about radon.
Changing Perceptions
Building expert Lstiburek says that if people truly want to go “green,” they may want to consider slab foundations. “Slabs use less energy and fewer resources than crawlspaces and basements,” he says. “They also cost less. And so at the end of the day, they will eventually win out economically.”
He commented on these often-heard statements regarding slabs versus crawlspaces and basements. He offered these thoughts about why slabs make a green foundation.
- Siting of services. Constructing a basement or crawlspace in order to run plumbing lines and to locate services is expensive and wasteful of resources. It is far less expensive to construct a conditioned attic than to dig a basement. With a conditioned attic (an unvented attic with insulation installed directly on the underside of the roof sheathing), services are located to the interior. No one has to move insulation around. If a vented attic is the choice, services should be and can be installed beneath the ceiling line. In a two-story slab on grade with a vented attic, services are located between the first and second floors. With a single-story slab on grade, all services are located inside within dropped ceilings. This works best with efficient building enclosures because the services are all much smaller. They further get smaller because they are inside, called a “cascade” effect.
- Remodeling. The bias against slabs is not an ease-of-remodeling issue. Buildings on slabs are remodeled all the time. Think it is easier to extend a basement rather than a slab? It is pretty easy to tap into systems wherever they are located.
- Decay. There is no difference in decay potential between a slab house and a basement house. The decay potential is all about how close to the ground the top of the slab is compared to how close to the ground the top of the concrete foundation wall is. Slabs should be located at the same height above ground as the top of a projecting concrete foundation wall. The distance above grade is now identical. The "splash back" is identical. It is much more economical to have a raised slab than a foundation. It is a lot easier to keep a sill from rotting on a slab than it is to keep water out of a basement. It is a lot easier to keep a sill from rotting on a slab than it is to construct a dry crawlspace.
A basement merely to plumb a house, to run ductwork and to make it easy to remodel a house later is “a waste of enormous resources for convenience that is not really convenience because there are other ways of doing it that they have not considered that are also convenient,” Lstiburek says.
“At the end of the day, folks will build basements because it is an emotional response not a logical response,” he adds. “And the response is more emotional the more regional. But the costs of materials, labor, energy (resources) are pretty brutal in favor of slabs over crawls and crawls over basements.
Read other Green Homes Special Series articles here.
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Text by Maureen Blaney Flietner
© 2008 BobVila.com
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