Does anyone know if it's possible/practical to have a 'crawlspace' over
a slab?

I hesitate to use slab construction for a home I plan to build in
Florida, but that seems to be the way all the new homes are built. What
worries me is the plumbing in the slab. Eventually (20 years or so)
down the road, it'll be very expensive to fix plumbing problems because
the floors will need to be torn up, etc.

Because of the termites, poisonous snakes, and wetness, I may not want
to have dirt under the house. So has anyone ever hear of pouring a
concrete slab, and then having a crawlspace over it? It would be like
having a 3' tall ground-level basement.

wrote in message
oups.com...
Does anyone know if it's possible/practical to have a 'crawlspace' over
a slab?

I hesitate to use slab construction for a home I plan to build in
Florida, but that seems to be the way all the new homes are built. What
worries me is the plumbing in the slab. Eventually (20 years or so)
down the road, it'll be very expensive to fix plumbing problems because
the floors will need to be torn up, etc.

Because of the termites, poisonous snakes, and wetness, I may not want
to have dirt under the house. So has anyone ever hear of pouring a
concrete slab, and then having a crawlspace over it? It would be like
having a 3' tall ground-level basement.

If water table, any design CCRs in your deed, local code, and the house
design you want, all allow it, no reason not to, and the tradespeople 20
years from now will thank you for a dry easy place to work. (Don't forget to
provide a big access door, lights, and power outlets down there.) Most
people don't bother to improve crawlspaces, due to the expense. Once you are
digging a hole and pouring a slab, it costs little more to make it a
basement, if local water table allows. (I realize how uncommon basements are
down south in coastal areas.) More common in hurricane country is a raised
house with breakaway walls on the lower floor, so any floods sweep under the
house, and hopefully don't carry the whole house away.

aem sends...

On 6 Jul 2005 15:55:11 -0700, someone wrote:

Does anyone know if it's possible/practical to have a 'crawlspace' over
a slab?

Not a novel concept. You might better ask "if I have a crawlspace,
can I put a concrete floor in it? The answer is yes.

In your area it may be unusual and may cost a premium because of that.
And BTW, the reason I take exception to how you phrased it, is that
the structural "slab" that they build the houses on, is NOT the same
as the mere "floor" you'd put in a crawl. All they have in common is
being concrete.

A "slab" has a connotation of being much thicker, stronger and heavily
reinforced - may be "post tensioned" or "pre-tensioned" for example.
A mere concrete floor need only be 4 inches thick and only have a
little wire mesh in it, not the same at all. But then you'll need
footings all around, as well as strategically placed piers and footers
inside to take interior loads.


Reply to NG only - this e.mail address goes to a kill file.

Thanks for the info! That's what I'll tell the builder I want...a
"crawlspace" with a concrete floor. This will be a 100% custom house
(i.e., we're hiring our own architect and builder, and building it on
our own lot that's not in any "development". No HOA, no CC&Rs and no
"architectural review board"...so we can do anything we can afford to
pay for!) The water table won't permit a basement...unless I move in 8
feet of dirt and raise the level of the ground.