wrote in message
...
On Fri, 5 Nov 2010 00:15:34 -0400, "Robert Green"
wrote:

"Edward Reid" wrote in message
.. .
On Wed, 3 Nov 2010 10:35:49 -0400, "Robert Green"
wrote:
I am now thoroughly convinced NEVER to buy a
house without a basement.

You're not moving to Florida, then. (Might be a good thing for those
of us already here as well as for you. My mom used to have a bumper
sticker "leaving Florida? take a friend".) Basements are rare in
Florida, and pretty much non-existent in residential building.

No worries, I'm not moving to the Hurricane Belt. Got socked in with
Opal
in Montgomery, Alabama. Once is enough.

I've never been able to figure out why some areas of the countries
don't
have basements.

High expense when it's not needed to get below the frost line. In
north Florida, the frost line is about 1/4" below the surface. In
south Florida, it's at the top of the grass. Plus the water table is
almost never 8' down, so a basement has to have a floor and the walls
and floor have to be not only watertight but keep out 2 to 4 psi.
Basically you have a houseboat.

That makes sense. Another mystery of life revealed.

If you don't like repairing something in a crawl space, try repairing
it when it's embedded in a slab.

On the one hand, the slab would keep critters from chewing on wires, but
on
the other hand, when you need to do something, it's a hell of a mess.

That depends how it is built. In a slab, wires can run in "ducts" or
"conduits" - no strapping required - to replace just drag the new wire
in with the old in a conduit, or remove the duct cover in the floor -
but MOST utilities in on-slab are run overhead.. MOST on-slabs are
also only single storey construction (bungalow) so all the utilities
are in the attic - and very often also the furnace and central air.
Forced air heat requires significant pre-planning if you want floor
mounted registers, but in-floor radiant heat is very common in on-slab
homes.

What about the toilets, sinks and tub drains? They surely can't run *those*
overhead. (-"

--
Bobby G.