Tuesday, December 5, 2006

What does a pier and beam foundation look like?


Like this. Most people never venture into their crawl space so they have no clue what is under their house much less what is meant by a pier and beam foundation.

Concrete is poured into a tar paper cylinder and when it dries it is capable of supporting a huge amount of weight. The funny looking upside-down metal pan on top of it is intended to discourage termites; sometimes it works.

The pier is holding up a wooden beam and the beam is holding up the wooden floor joists that support the floor that you walk on. [A concrete slab foundation would have been poured directly onto the soil that you see here and therefore would not have been elevated and would have no crawl space.]
An easy way to determine which type of foundation the house has is this: Since a pier and beam foundation is elevated, there will likely be 3 or more steps leading to a porch. A concrete slab foundation will likely have but one step leading to what is called a stoop, not a porch. The finished floors of a pier and beam house will be much higher than the ground outside.

1 comment:

nutrendmedia said...

When you are looking into a building inspection service it is very important to understand what their responsibilities are and why it is an important process.

building inspections melbourne