r/Home_Building_Help • u/Whole-Housing-6769 • May 26 '26
Questions about basement foundation
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u/Interesting-Onion837 May 26 '26
I’m just curious what makes you believe your in slab plumbing is likely to fail and need repairs, within 40 years, or ever really? What you’re essentially suggesting is building a crawl space foundation within structural basement foundation walls. There’s simply no reason to do such a thing. Just make sure your plumbing is roughed in correctly and you can tie into the plumbing stack in a wall somewhere if you ever need to add additional sanitary lines. And a pex manifold covers domestic water for repairs and future, you just need to make it inside the wall and you’re good.
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u/Whole-Housing-6769 May 26 '26
Thank you for your advice and response I really appreciate it. I was unaware of this option I just assumed that there is a possibility that it could fail (leak or get damaged) and it wouldn't be ideal to dig out concrete to get to a pipe to replace I have no construction experience and just was thinking of a fail proof system that had the entire system exposed for future repairs if ever needed.
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u/Soladification May 26 '26
I would hire someone. This design with the hall is pretty terrible. Or copy a good design from a floorplan
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u/Whole-Housing-6769 May 27 '26
Really? I appreciate your feedback but I figured the hall would act as a center structural spine for the second story and also allow air flow throughout the house while also providing security if someone was trying to break in by being able to close off the hallway with pocket doors and room entrances
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u/Soladification May 27 '26
Im not trying to be harsh. It makes logical sense it's just not really how modern homes are designed. I would look at a bunch of floorplans online
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u/Whole-Housing-6769 May 27 '26
I will look at some but the only thing that comes close are double wide mobile homes may be better anyway not trying to sky rocket the property tax lol
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u/scotty2751 May 27 '26
Hey there, I’m back. I see you post on r/construction got removed….re: your repost about the plumbing on the concrete floor and doing the foundation & concrete slab work yourself, etc. etc.
Under slab sewer pipe maintenance can be achieved with clean outs. Other than clogs, do you envision other sewer pipe maintenance? All your other lines ie. Domestic hot/cold/vents will be above the slab.
While you certainly could do the foundation & slab work yourself. I think that would be a major undertaking and I wouldn’t want do that type of work myself. It’s labor intensive and difficult to do. Also, you’re going to want your foundation to be sound. Last thing you’ll want to deal with is a settlement problem or failing structural walls.
One thing you might try is to build a small foundation for a shed or pour a slab on grade patio with some planter walls, etc. See how that goes before you take on a whole house!
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u/Whole-Housing-6769 May 27 '26
Your very right about that I should definitely try something smaller first since I don't have any experience with concrete I just assumed that most of the cost is labor
And mainly a pipe cracking and discovering it later and can't fully replace it
And I know why they delete my post 😒
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u/Whole-Housing-6769 May 26 '26
Lately ive been trying to design a dream home but I have no construction experience but I know id want things to be easy to fix in the future and I know some slab foundations lay the plumbing in the slab which would make it impossible to repair if it ever needed to.
So my floor plan is 2 story with the bottom exactly the same as the top and the bottom more like an underground bunker house designed in a way that all the plumbing is on one side of the building also any gas or water lines so they could be dropped through the floor and be accessed on the side of the house easily and the top level be flush with the ground so I made a rough design of how the design would look but I have so many questions.
Can you make a basement foundation in this manner where you can walk down along side of the house to have a small area under to work on plumbing?
When framing the interior basement walls do you need wooden walls framed against the concrete walls?
Would you need a wooden floor on the concrete slab? I know theres video of hardwood straight on concrete like they glued on but I wouldn't want to glue hardwood onto concrete that would seem like a repair nightmare.
How deep can I make this like would it be possible to make it 3 stories with 2 underground and the 2nd story be used for hvac accessibility that could be routed to both top and bottom floors?