Slab Homes

[rainyjim]

Holy Moly!

Great link thanks. I certainly wouldn't though!

But it would be amusing to build your house on a floating dock. Like a marina / boat slip.
I guess we aren't allowed to buils ponds though : /

[David M]

Walking on concrete...
So, has anyone really examined this issue? Exactly how much walking (in your home) does it take to make a verifiable difference? How much walking does one actually do just on their floors. Yea, I know we all stand in front of a sink or two, most guys in front of the porcelain throne sometimes, but mostly I find that I'm walking to a chair, to a sofa, to the bed, someplace I'm getting off my feet. If you're into the daily 10,000 step challenge, how many are just inside your house? Of course, there is an app for that. My guess is my daily, in the house average is under 1000, usually way under compared to outside. My own knees started going bad before I lived on a slab, Dr blamed it on my running.
Sooooo, just to be safe, there will be no walking in town on sidewalks, shopping only allowed in the older stores with wooden floors, no Target, Safeway, etc. Let's be safe out there.

David

Ninole Resident
Please visit vacation.ninolehawaii.com

[peteadams]

Have to agree with David M: After eight years I don't see any deleterious effect of walking on a (acid stained and sealed) concrete slab floor at all. Possibly because I don't have any knee problems to start with. Actually I like the cool feel of the concrete floor on a hot day.

[kalakoa]

The relative "coolness" will vary with climate.

It also seems (to me) that the number of steps/day will increase with retirement, which (for most people) coincides with age.

What's worse: most slab construction sets plumbing/electrical directly into the concrete, which seems like a Bad Idea if the ground below moves for any reason (earthquake, settling)...

[David M]

Have to agree with Pete as we too have acid stained and sealed. Combined with our insulated ProTec walls and insulated panel roof, we maintain relatively even temps.

Now about retirement/age... My biggest concern when designing our house was wheel chairability. Post and pier means at least 1 ramp and that depends on topography. We had a ramp at the Ga house, which meant that was the only entrance/exit, the back door and deck sat about 7 ft off the ground and not wheelchair friendly. There is a minimum height above ground to be met, seems like it translated into 3 steps as I recall.
My step count observation is based on my being retired, but then I'm not yet 67.

I very much agree with the plumbing etc in the slab. Hope not to have problems, but also wish there was an easy way to do mods or repairs. Maybe running a raceway type access? Of course running overhead is a viable alternative for many. Not me, as I have open ceilings throughout.

To me, this is one of those decisions with multiple factors, the importance of some vary with the people involved.

David

Ninole Resident
Please visit vacation.ninolehawaii.com

[gogould]

quote:

---

Originally posted by David M

Walking on concrete...
So, has anyone really examined this issue? Exactly how much walking (in your home) does it take to make a verifiable difference? How much walking does one actually do just on their floors. Yea, I know we all stand in front of a sink or two, most guys in front of the porcelain throne sometimes, but mostly I find that I'm walking to a chair, to a sofa, to the bed, someplace I'm getting off my feet. If you're into the daily 10,000 step challenge, how many are just inside your house? Of course, there is an app for that. My guess is my daily, in the house average is under 1000, usually way under compared to outside. My own knees started going bad before I lived on a slab, Dr blamed it on my running.
Sooooo, just to be safe, there will be no walking in town on sidewalks, shopping only allowed in the older stores with wooden floors, no Target, Safeway, etc. Let's be safe out there.

David

Ninole Resident
Please visit vacation.ninolehawaii.com

---

Walking is one of the things we do that is key to what our health, happiness, and longevity. We are not good walkers in my family and it shows up in the course of years. I mention family because your family has more to do with how you walk and what it does to you than any surface does. We learn to walk before we can discriminate the many factors such as inefficient motion, poor posture, poor rhythm, improper breathing, using too much force, and so on. It is an incredibly complex set of moves. We learn by imitating family members which one or ones seems to be the luck of the draw made by the mind of an infant. I have seen tiny children imitating their injured fathers walk and carrying that on to their children.
It is on of the most beautiful things to see when any human being has a fluid efficient graceful walk. We all should be so lucky.

[gogould]

Most construction methods we are stuck with because of the past and cost factors. Just like cars and trucks are still after all of these innovative years simply glorified horsecarts so are modern homes still nothing more than fancy defenseworks,huts,and temporary shelters. The present boxes we put ourselves in are way the hell and gone too expensive. A modern stickbuilt house is a giant headache of layers upon layers of expensive materials and fasteners and still they are prone to all manner of problems. The fancy huts we live in mostly evolved without inside electrical and plumbing at all.
As a way tired out residential,commercial, industrial electrician I may no longer have the fire in the belly to change things but it is easy to observe that many accepted methods are for the ease of the installer and mostly not even good at that. We have come a long way with commercial and industrial. Still when it comes to residential mostly we are literally stuck inside the box.

[terracore]

I don't really buy the concrete ruining joints argument FOR MYSELF because our house is small. Most of the steps I take are outside. Most of the time I spend in my home is sitting on my ass. I don't sit on the concrete, I have chairs for that.

As far as mold goes, I lived 15 years in the rainforest of SE Alaska and in that time I put in new flooring three times (all modern houses). All the wood floors had mold/mildew on them after we pulled up the carpet. Granted I've only owned one house in Hawaii but it is on slab and when I pulled the carpet up the slab was dry as a bone and there was no sign of moisture, mold, or mildew. Before we converted our carport into a stained/sealed lanai we would spill occasional water on the concrete and the water would quickly disappear into the slab and the surface was quickly dry. The wood floors in Alaska would not have dried until the following summer. Maybe not until the one after that if we didn't get a "real" summer.

[oink]

I don't know about ruining, but bad on already bad ones. Slab is ok, it depends on what flooring you put on it. Tacky, but the most comfortable I've ever had was a padded sheet vinyl flooring that was laid down on top of an older padded sheet vinyl flooring. It was just in the kitchen. It was great to walk on. I have tile now and I must wear my crocs inside or I will go lame.

Pua`a
S. FL
Big Islander to be.

[maud gonne]

Our house is on stilts and built in 1972. So although this is merely anecdotal, not "scientific," our experience during earthquakes is the sense of the house swaying or rolling a bit, and we always think that after 41 years of going through innumerable (although small) earthquakes, the house has "proved" itself as able to withstand them. It seems to have the "give" needed to withstand, but of course the Big One might disprove this.