slab or post & pier

[hilosue]

Will be building in fernacres in a year or so and we are wondering the merits of both types of foundation. We have termites, moisture, etc to consider. Any ideas on which is best?

[jm minica]

If you check the "foundations and floors" thread, there is alot of info from different folks there about this subject. There are pros and cons to any of the numerous ways you can do the foundation and floor system of a house. The first thing I always ask is "what's the budget?", because that will determine how many options you have. Once you've established your options, you can compare that to what you would prefer to do, and try to find a match.
If you would like more specific info on all the different foundation/floor system options, you can email me and I can go into more detail. Also, this forum is full of people with alot of experience in this area, so I'm sure your going to get alot of useful info around here.
Aloha,
Mark

[Hotzcatz]

Aloha Hilo Sue,

Slab floors are pretty hard on the feet! But they are also much easier to install tile on.

Building on a slab is probably easier since you have a big flat area to build your walls on. However, once you've built the floor on a post and pier construction, you also have the large flat area to frame the walls on.

You have to have a flat area to put the concrete slab on, where as if you have "interesting" topography, post and pier may be a much better option.

Personally, I prefer post and pier since the floor is kinder to your feet, you can rearrange the plumbing and electric under the house easier and you have under house storage.

But it is your house, do it how YOU prefer!

A hui hou,
Cathy
Hawaii Drafting Service
hotzcatz@yahoo.com

[leilaniguy]

Here's another consideration about location regarding slab vs post/pier; I'm in the middle of the rift. Last year in May, after a small 'quake I noticed a crack about 75'long X 4-5 inches wide opening on my lot. I notified HVO, who were nice enough to send out a scientist who looked over my lot and a neighbors' who was having the same occurrance. They assured us it was "just slight settling of the tumulus, it happens in rift areas often, not to worry".. but if it had happened under a slab- Big problem.

[Hotzcatz]

Good point, Leilaniguy!

If your building site has unstable soil or has been bulldozed and not compacted (many engineers require compacting between each 12" of soil) then post and pier is much easier to repair if (when) the land settles.

In our neighborhood we have two houses built side by side, both on where the cane company used to put bagasse and rubbish. One fellow built his concrete as a "floating" pad - i.e. strong enough that it didn't need to be fully supported underneath. He watched the contractor build it and counted the concrete trucks as they came and went to make sure there was a full pour according to the blueprints. (The contractor thought it was overkill.) His neighbor has the same house design, but didn't count the concrete trucks (he wasn't on island at the time) and the contractor just did a "normal" slab. Less than ten years later, the foundation was severely cracking and dropping on one edge. Of course, by this time the contractor is long gone so the homeowner spent most of last summer digging and putting concrete under his house.

Not meant to be a horror story, just a chance for some learning at someone else's experience.

A hui hou!
Cathy

[David M]

I'm gonna guess a crack of that magnitude would have been serious if directly under post and piers as well, perhaps more so if under a whole line of them.
JMHO

David


Ninole Resident

[hilosue]

Thank you all for your information. I DID go back to the previous thread on "post & pier" and read all of the entries. Its a lot to think about....Your forum is invaluable though and I find myself reading all of the "building" threads. Mahalo to everyone who responded.

[HADave]

Bringing this forward for newcomers with questions on the subject

HADave

[tada]

I have Big Island fever too actually Honokaa fever but I recall my visceral reaction walking thru a slab house last year. My creeping paranoia told me that house would get flooded out in a hard rain. Then my perspective is having lived pretty much all my life on post & pier house in Honolulu where when you look out the window you look over the community or in the case of the Big Island over the landscape. I didn't know how much of a difference it made until I saw that house in Honokaa at least in my little paranoid mind!

I like the Filipino style houses in Waipahu and Kalihi where the first floor is the garage on a slab covered by the living space on the second floor.
Others call it cookie cutter- I call it FFF- form follows function.

Others want to make friends- I just want to make money.
James Cramer

[toucano]

One advantage of P&P is that the centipedes need to work a little harder to get inside...