Raised Floor Foundation
By: Amanda Campbell
Updated: August 13, 2010
To support this year’s project house - a 4,000 square foot, brick and stone, Old World style home - we chose a raised floor foundation. A raised floor system’s design versatility offers a tremendous advantage for today’s complex, sophisticated homes.
Our foundation is supported by steel rebar reinforced concrete piers set twenty-two feet into the earth. All of the lumber used in our foundation is Southern Pine treated with an environmentally friendly, copper-based preservative, called Alkaline Copper Quat or ACQ. This treatment, from Chemical Specialties, Inc., is designed to protect against termites and decay. Our raised wood floor foundation was engineered, designed and manufactured by American Truss Systems, Inc.
Next, the crew installed the glue-lam beams from Anthony Forest Products Company. Glue-lam beams are extremely dense beams of premium grade Southern Pine lumber that have been glued and laminated together. These beams provide support to load bearing walls and high stress areas of the house. Then the crew installed open web trusses and topped the foundation with Plytanium Sturd-I-Floor from Georgia-Pacific.
American homes have been built on raised wood floor systems since Colonial times, and the reasons for building a raised home still apply today. A raised floor can be a cost-effective solution when building in poor soil conditions, where movement of expansive clays or the subsidence of organic soils is a concern. Also, a raised floor system provides a practical and affordable solution for meeting code requirements in flood-prone areas. Installation, maintenance, and modification of utilities such as water, sewer, and electrical are comparatively simple with a raised floor and changes to the floor plan, such as relocation of a toilet or lavatory, are economical because it is very easy to get in the crawlspace and move the plumbing.
In addition, wood is a natural insulator. A properly constructed and insulated raised floor system isolates the home from potential moisture problems and provides a warm, comfortable walking surface. And since most pests are ground dwellers, with a raised floor system, your home is up off the ground away from pests. Landscaping can also be located near the foundation without inviting the risk of termite infestation and rot. Furthermore, root-severing slab construction often demands the removal of existing trees in close proximity to the structure. Near a raised floor, shade trees can be preserved because footings of a raised pier and beam structure only penetrate the root system, allowing trees to thrive.
Our foundation is supported by steel rebar reinforced concrete piers set twenty-two feet into the earth. All of the lumber used in our foundation is Southern Pine treated with an environmentally friendly, copper-based preservative, called Alkaline Copper Quat or ACQ. This treatment, from Chemical Specialties, Inc., is designed to protect against termites and decay. Our raised wood floor foundation was engineered, designed and manufactured by American Truss Systems, Inc.
Next, the crew installed the glue-lam beams from Anthony Forest Products Company. Glue-lam beams are extremely dense beams of premium grade Southern Pine lumber that have been glued and laminated together. These beams provide support to load bearing walls and high stress areas of the house. Then the crew installed open web trusses and topped the foundation with Plytanium Sturd-I-Floor from Georgia-Pacific.
American homes have been built on raised wood floor systems since Colonial times, and the reasons for building a raised home still apply today. A raised floor can be a cost-effective solution when building in poor soil conditions, where movement of expansive clays or the subsidence of organic soils is a concern. Also, a raised floor system provides a practical and affordable solution for meeting code requirements in flood-prone areas. Installation, maintenance, and modification of utilities such as water, sewer, and electrical are comparatively simple with a raised floor and changes to the floor plan, such as relocation of a toilet or lavatory, are economical because it is very easy to get in the crawlspace and move the plumbing.
In addition, wood is a natural insulator. A properly constructed and insulated raised floor system isolates the home from potential moisture problems and provides a warm, comfortable walking surface. And since most pests are ground dwellers, with a raised floor system, your home is up off the ground away from pests. Landscaping can also be located near the foundation without inviting the risk of termite infestation and rot. Furthermore, root-severing slab construction often demands the removal of existing trees in close proximity to the structure. Near a raised floor, shade trees can be preserved because footings of a raised pier and beam structure only penetrate the root system, allowing trees to thrive.
