Disadvantages Of Basement Foundation

‘It is not the beauty of a building you should look at; it’s the construction of the foundation that will stand the test of time,’ was a famous quote by David Allen Coe, quote provided by blogger guy (2015). As the quote states, without the great consideration that goes into the construction of the foundation, it would not matter how beautiful the building is as over time the building would collapse. Foundations provide a medium for the loads to be transferred from the structure to the ground, there are many different types of foundations that can be used for various constructions. Therefore, foundations play one of the most important roles in construction and are used very often when constructing buildings, as such, it is key for civil engineers …show more content…
A basement foundation is a foundation which is about a floor below the ground surface and there is space in a basement foundation that could be another room in the building to use as storage space. Typically, basement foundations are made from concrete walls. There are many advantages and disadvantages of basement foundations. An Advantage of basement foundation is that it provides air space under the house, which is useful during the summer as it naturally cools down the building using the cold air space in the basement foundation. This means air condition is not required to cool down the building, saving the owner money and also helps the environment Furthermore, basement foundation would be an enormous advantage in dry, hot regions since there would be no possibility of floods so it can naturally cool down. Another advantage is that it provides an extra space to store material and other goods; also makes access pipes easier when they require repairs since the pipes would be on the top of the …show more content…
Another disadvantage, according to Donegan (2015), shifting of the soil and invasive tree roots can cause cracks to be formed in the slab foundation, these cracks can cause long-term problems (bugs and water can enter through the cracks) and lead to even more difficult repairs. To summarise, using slab foundation to construct a building is ideal for areas of warm climate and the cost of slab foundation is considerably lower compared to other foundations and it is economically more sustainable as well. However, the problems with slab foundations are that pipes are hard to access, when you need to repair them, and any signs of cracks can cause long term problems to the foundation and would cost a large amount to