Building a Basement

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Building a Basement

• Luke Rhine
• Reservoir High School
• Advanced Design Applications

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Footers
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Concrete Block Basements

• Most common type of basement
• How it is made
• Concrete blocks stacked on top of each other
• Sealed with a concrete bonding material
• Concrete blocks can be hollow or solid concrete
  depending on the application of the block

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Concrete Block Basements
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Benefits of Concrete Block Basements

• Benefits
• PRICE
• Cheapest basement to construct
• Lower bill for customer
• Much less concrete is used versus poured concrete
  basements
• TIME
• It takes much less time to stack block walls than
  it does to pour them
• Contractor saves time and energy
• DIFFICULTY
• Not as difficult to install concrete block
  basements versus poured concrete basements
• Contractor spares expense when hiring crews

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Drawbacks of Concrete Block Basements

• Drawbacks
• If the basement used hollow blocks the foundation
  can hold about 5 times less than solid poured
  basements
• Water leaking is more common due to seams in
  construction
• Must take waterproofing measures

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Concrete Block Basements
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Insulated Concrete Form

• Fairly new to the market
• May not be provided by some contractors
• How it is made
• Formed by fitting hollow foam pieces together to
  make basement walls
• Concrete is poured into the foam forms to make
  them solid

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Insulated Concrete Foam
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Benefits of Insulated Concrete Foam

• Benefits
• Reduce energy costs due to entire foundation
  being insulated with thick foam on the inside and
  outside
• Makes a more comfortable dry basement
• Makes finishing a basement easier, no need to
  install stubs to frame walls

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Drawbacks of Insulated Concrete Foam

• Drawbacks
• COST
• Most expensive type of basement to construct
• DIFFICULTY
• Difficult to find a contractor who is
  knowledgeable about ICF basements
• Some contractors have never heard of ICF
  basements

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Insulated Concrete Foam
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Poured Concrete Basements

• Most common type of basement today
• Is a happy medium between concrete block and ICF
• How it is made
• Made by installing temporary forms and pouring
  concrete between them

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Poured Concrete Basements
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Benefits of Poured Concrete

• Benefits
• Extremely strong
• Can hold up to 5 times more weight than concrete
  block
• PRICE
• More expensive than concrete block and less
  expensive than ICF

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Drawbacks of Poured Concrete

• Drawbacks
• Needs to be waterproofed
• When finishing this type of basement it is
  necessary to install outer wall studs

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Poured Concrete Basement