Pier and Beam vs Slab Foundations | Which one should you choose?

Two popular types of foundations are pier and beam and slab foundations. In this video, we’re going to look at how they are made, their upfront costs, long term costs, protection from the elements, where they should be used and whether one is better than the other.

Chapters
0:00 Introduction
0:54 Pier and Beam
2:05 Slab-on-grade
3:15 Upfront costs
3:46 Long term costs
6:22 Sponsorship
7:13 Protection
8:30 Where to use
9:06 Conclusion

Pier and Beam: A series of holes are dug in the ground, 5 to 10 feet apart. These holes must hit bedrock, which can be 4 feet below the surface or 50 feet. Large cardboard tubes are sunk into the soil. Plastic bases can be added to the bottom to increase the size and carrying capacity of the piers. This helps to ensure the piers won’t shift. Circular rebar cages are placed in the middle of the voids. These tubes must be perfectly straight and level. Next, the voids are filled with concrete and a base connection is embedded in the top of the pier. Beams are extended from one pier to another. These will support the joists and flooring of the home.

Slab on grade or monolithic slab foundations are a newer construction method. First, the surface is leveled and a perimeter form is created for the foundation. 4 to 6 inches of gravel is spread inside. A layer of plastic sheathing is laid down to act as a moisture barrier. Engineered steel rebar reinforces the concrete foundation. Concrete is poured over the gravel and plastic sheathing and allowed to cure.

Pier and beam and slab on grade foundations are mainly found in the southern parts of the US. Northern states have conditioned crawl spaces and foundations with basements. The reason slab on grade foundations are so popular nowadays is because it is easier to construct and it has a lower upfront cost compared to pier and beam foundations.

But the lower upfront costs of slab foundations means higher long term costs, like foundation repair. Pier and beam foundations have individual piers and beam members, so it is easier to isolate foundation problems and it’s cheaper to repair. Slab on grade foundations can shrink, crack and even sink. They are more difficult and expensive to repair.

Repairing electrical and plumbing issues is also easier and cheaper when you have a pier and beam foundations, thanks to the crawl space underneath. With a slab foundation, repairing any electrical and plumbing issues is a messy, destructive and expensive process. You have to jackhammer the slab and cut steel rebar to access any pipes. The lifespan on the concrete slab is lowered to get to the utilities underneath.

Another feature to consider is the ability to add levels or stories to your homes. You could technically add additional piers and beams to support another level. You could also detach your pier and beam home from the foundation and move it to a completely different site.

Unvented pier and beam foundations can be insulated with fiberglass or spray foam. This can help lower your energy bill and make your home feel more comfortable. Slab on grade foundations don’t have this problem. However, if you don’t use a vapor barrier underneath, moisture from the ground can seep through the concrete.

Pests and rodents often seek shelter in crawl spaces and can build nests beneath your home. Slab on grade foundations don’t have this issue, but termites can enter through any cracks or openings. In terms of comfort, floors on pier and beam foundations sound hollow and squeaky. But, they are easier on your feet because they can flex. Concrete slab foundations are solid and quiet, but standing on them all day long can be tough on your feet.
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#foundation #pierandbeam #slabongrade #foundationrepair #construction

[BelindaCarr]

LINK TO MY WEBSITE: www.carrbuilds.com

[AquaMarine]

Knowledge and modesty is rare, this is why viewing this channel is a pleasure. Cheers from Australia

[jonathanandrade]

So I am not a builder nor do I plan on getting a house built. But your videos are so instructive and easy to digest. Thanks fo re all your hard work. Slab basements would be a cool topic.

[tobiashoogers]

I really enjoyed this video!
I'm an construction/engineering student in the netherlands. 👷👷‍♂️I love to see every time that the culture in the usa is wildly different. Here in the Netherlands mostly we make a foundations very different because the soil everywhere is entirely made out of clay in the ground with sandlayers instead of bedrock.

Thanks for al this content i can enjoy every day! 😃😄

[joshpit]

I found Pier and beam to be the best for super-insulated homes.
It allows for monolithic connections between walls and floor. You can achieve a perfect fluid-applied wrap, as well as a near-perfect insulation connection.
Also: As mentioned in another comment: You don't need to go down to bedrock, you just need to get your footer below the frost line by X amount, and have an engineer sign off on loads. And lastly: Pier and Beam is very Do-It-Yourself friendly.

[theflip]

I would really enjoy a video on basement foundations! A video explaining about the ways the pitfalls of a particular foundation type can be navigated would be really good as well. I am thinking of building my own house one day and videos like these are very useful.

[GoCoyote]

Some thoughts on your information about pier foundations: In my area they do not need to reach bedrock unless the load design requires it. The engineer will evaluate local soil conditions, and the pier will be designed to provide support to the building through friction between it and the local soil. It is in fact rare for them to reach bedrock in valleys with deep alluvial soil. The piers will be the correct size and spacing to meet the loads and uplift of the building given the local conditions. I once worked on an interesting home that had a slab on grade foundation, but then had a post and beam crawl space built on top of it. Best rat slab ever!

[travisfinucane]

You can insulate crawlspace with fiberglass rolls between the joists (source: helped my dad insulate our crawlspace when I was a teenager, it was huge pain in the ass). The moisture will eventually degrade the insulation, but the immediate improvement was apparent.

Regarding termites, they build mud towers in the crawlspace to reach wood, so maybe that's a wash, too.

I live in earthquake country and once owned an on-slab home that had been damaged in the 89 Loma Prieta quake. The plumbing cracked beneath the concrete and had to be rerouted above the living space.


Upshot is, nothing works, and we should all move back into pole lodges :).

[brianjonker]

Slabs that settle unevenly can be hydraulically jacked back to level. The process is drill a hole in the slab near its low point then pump concrete mix under the slab until it gets level again.

[laurencehebert]

Wonderful content as always! PLEASE DO BASEMENTS PLEASE! I'm in New England and am going to build my own home. It seems more information I get the more confused I am. So please cover basement so I have all the bases covered. Thank you for all your amazing work!

[Tanstin]

Thank god. Without this video, I would be unable to identify the type of foundation used in my ex-wife's home. Thanks to Belinda Carr, I can now comfortably live in the crawlspace within her walls.

[joanmcerlean]

I’d love to hear more about vented vs unvented pier and beam construction. Whether and how to take a vented version to unvented. Thank you, I love learning from your channel.

[izziereal]

Thank you for this video. The topic was very well explain and I'm sure you spent a lot of time preparing for this video. Great job.

I live in a home that was built in 1958 in California. The house sits on a pier and beam. My family and I moved into the house in 2018. There was no gas line installed for my wife to have a gas stove in the kitchen. We hired a plumber to install the gas line and was able to enter the crawl space and installed it within 2 hours. I gladly paid the bill of $475 and my wife and I now have a gas stove. I really like the easy access to the pipes underneath the house, but I'm sometimes annoyed with the floor squeaking in some areas in the house. Thanks for reading my experience.

[rickyoudekerk]

I just discovered your videos and love how thoroughly and succinctly you break things down. I'm a foundation repair, waterproofing, crawspace encapsulation and concrete lifting and stabilizing professional in MN so would love to see more related content for us northeners!

[honeylanham]

Hello Belinda, Well done, as usual. My parents built a house in North Dallas in 1953. It is still standing but not for long. Every house in the area is now a teardown because the land value and taxes are too high to merit a house so small. It was built on what was called pier and beam. But, the foundation was really a floorplan of the house with concrete forms indicating the exterior edges and the interior walls of the house. Forms were built a few feet deep along those lines--they may have hit a limestone base but the limestone is very soft. You can see it along the sides of the North Dallas Toll Road as it dips below grade at underpasses. To this day, there are no cracks from shifting. And the right angles of the walls and ceilings have always amazed wallpaper hangers. One of the main issues is that it was not built on fill dirt.

[sajbuckby]

Great video. I love comparing US and Australian building techniques and practises Traditional construction in Queensland was wooden piers with houses 1.8m above grade. When we renovated our place we had 43 100x100 RHS steel posts that were founded into 1.8 X 450 dia concrete piers. But most new houses here are slab on ground. But we also have highly reactive soils. And people plant eucalyptus too close to the house and the tree roots sap moisture from below the slab that can't be replenished. Common for 80's era slab on ground to crack from the foundation to the soffit.

[rogerhache]

Just discovered your channel, Wow, what a wealth of knowledge and useful information! And your unbiased opinion is much appreciated. Thank you for your hard work, I am sincerely grateful.

[theStormWeaver]

I live in Minnesota and would love to see a video on basements.
Love your work, always watch your videos :)

[petersatzer]

Maybe something to add, I'm not sure if this is more a european style of concrete slab contruction, but that is what I'm familiar with: It is kind of a combination of the two you mentioned, but relates more to the frost line and going down to bedrock is not possible in many areas in Europe: A perimeter rebar reinforced concrete stripe going down into the ground below the frost line in winter with a thick gravel drainage below (that was 2 meters deep minimum in total in my case). The slab is then poured either at the same time or later, the perimeter concrete is water insulated by tar (there are various products, but essentially it is a water barrier on the outside).
This prevents any damage to the concrete foundation due to moisture, prevents movement in the foundation due do expansion and contraction of soils due to frost, doesn't need to go to bedrock, avoids movement due to moisture below (due to the drainage gravel) and only cracks with very extensive movement of the soil (if you are on a slope and the whole ground starts moving for instance).

This adds higher upfront cost due to more concrete and more preparation work being needed, but these kind of constructions typically don't need any maintenance at all, as the perimeter concrete stripe goes deep enough to not be effected by soil movement.

I always wondered how these (from my experience in my country) weak foundations made in the US hold up over time, your mentioning of constant repair being needed clears that: Not very good it seems.

[lIII]

This is sooo perfect thank you! I'm building a home and have looking at this exact thing. Peer & beam it is!