Why A Pier And Beam Foundation Is Far Superior To A Slab Foundation
Okay, well, that may be overstating it just a bit. Or a lot. I just thought I’d start my day by getting some of you riled up. I’m feeling a bit feisty today. 😀 So yes, it’s a bit of an overstatement to say that a pier and beam foundation is “far superior” to a slab foundation. In fact, the type of foundation required (or allowed) for a house will largely depend on things like (1) location and standard building practices for that area, (2) the climate of a particular area, and (3) the type of soil on which the house is being built. There are so many factors that go into determining what’s best for what area, and those decisions are best left to the engineers in that area.
But since I mentioned the other day that I’d always prefer to live in a pier and beam house, and at least one person was very shocked by that and wondered what my reasoning is for that decision, I thought I’d share my thoughts and experiences in a post rather than a comment.
I happen to live in an area that has both pier and beam houses and houses built on slab foundations. (While basements aren’t standard in this area, there are some houses with basements, so that’s a whole different category.) So we actually had a choice. We could have bought a house on a concrete slab foundation, but I always knew that I wanted a pier and beam house. And I would always choose pier and beam 100% of the time. But before I explain why, let me be sure we’re all caught up on what, exactly, I’m talking about.
What is a pier and beam foundation?
A pier and beam foundation house is built so that the floor is raised up off of the ground with room enough under the floor of the house that a person can get under there and crawl around (hence the name “crawl space”).
The perimeter of the house can be concrete piers, or it can be a solid concrete footing all around the perimeter of the house, which is what ours is. This is an old picture that I found of our house, taken before we had the new sidewalk poured, before I built the new steps and hand rails, and before we had new windows installed. But you can see the solid concrete footing around the perimeter that is above ground level.
But the floor of our house doesn’t start on top of that footing. Because just above that concrete footing, you’ll see vents. Those vents are venting our crawl space under the floor of our house.
So the floor of our house is somewhere above those vents. You can see where our front door is, and it opens level with the floor in the house.
But not all pier and beam houses have that concrete footing around the perimeter. My grandmother’s house in east Texas (Henderson) didn’t have that, at least not at the back of the house. Her crawl space was open to the outside. You could stand outside the house in the back and see under the house. My mom finally blocked it with siding or something like that just to keep animals from getting under there, but it was open.
So with my grandmother’s house, because the crawl space under her house was accessible from the outside, she didn’t need interior access to her crawl space. But because our house has the concrete footer around the whole perimeter, we have to have a scuttle hole inside our house to access the crawl space. That hole is in the home gym floor in the closet area. This section of flooring in the corner of the closet area comes up if someone needs to get under the house. And it’s a tight squeeze to get under there!
So while the perimeter can be done in different ways, the middle of a pier and beam house is pretty standard. There are concrete piers spaced according to whatever the building code requires (or required when the house was built). And then spanning across those concrete piers are big wood beams. And then on top of the beams, perpendicular to the beams, are the floor joists. And then on top of the floor joists are the subfloor and then the flooring.
So here’s a look at what was under our bathroom floor once we took out the hardwood flooring and the subfloor. Pay no attention to the cinder blocks. I have no idea why those were under there. They served no structural purpose at all, and we removed them, so they’re no longer under there. But from the ground up, you see (1) concrete pier, (2) metal shims (explained later), (3) wood beams, (4) floor joists. And then on top of the floor joists would be (5) subfloor (i.e., plywood), and (6) flooring. You can also see another vent below and to the right of the door. It looks like a white rectangle, but that’s a vent with sunlight coming through.
In addition to the structure, you’d also have things like insulation and vapor barrier, according to current building codes.
So that is the structure of a basic pier and beam foundation. Contrast that with a slab foundation, which is a slab of concrete poured at ground level. Now that you’ve seen a pier and beam foundation, let’s move on to the important stuff…
Why I Will Always Choose A Pier And Beam Foundation Over A Concrete Slab Foundation
The bottom line is that pier and beam foundations are far easier to maintain, easier to repair, and offer far more flexibility.
For example, when I got ready to remodel our kitchen back in 2014, I knew I wanted the kitchen arranged in a completely different layout than the original. In the original kitchen, the sink was on the back wall that it shares with the sunroom.
And the gas line was on the side where the peninsula now is. (That room beyond the wall is now the breakfast room/sitting room, with that door leading to my studio)…
I knew I wanted things completely rearranged, so I had a plumber come out and put things where I wanted them. He crawled under the house, and within about two hours, he had the lines for the sink in the area where the gas line used to be in the photo above, and that area now looks like this…
And he moved the gas line to the other side so that I could have my stove on the opposite wall. He also ran a water line for the refrigerator while he was under there.
Again, that work took him and his helper about two hours, and cost us about $500. And then he left, and I was ready to DIY my new kitchen with the plumbing and gas completely rearranged and right where I wanted them.
Now compare that to my mom’s bathroom remodel. Her house is on a concrete slab foundation. When she wanted to remodel and expand her master bathroom and rearrange the placement of the toilet, the shower, and the sinks, that required the contractor coming in with a jackhammer to bust up her slab foundation. This was very hard work. It was work that produced dust that found its way into her entire house, regardless of how much they tried to block off the work area. It was LOUD work. Here’s what that process looked like…
And then once they had the new pipes where they needed to be, they pushed the dirt back into the trenches, covered it with a moisture barrier, added rebar…
And then covered the area with new concrete.
That didn’t take two hours and cost $500. 😀 I don’t remember exactly how long that took, but it was at least a few days. Maybe a week. Maybe longer. And paying for that labor cost thousands of dollars. There’s just far more flexibility and ease with a pier and beam foundation. And that’s true when it comes to plumbing repairs as well.
It is true that pier and beam foundations may need to be leveled every now and then, but again, that will depend on climate and soil conditions. But that’s generally not difficult work. Basic house leveling work is a matter of climbing under the house with some jacks and some small metal shims (which you saw and I pointed out in the photo above of the foundation under our bathroom floor). When the worker inside the house finds a low spot (which he locates by simply using a laser or bubble level on the floor inside), the person under the house uses the jack to lift that beam up a bit and slide a metal shim or two between the pier and the beam, resulting in a level floor.
And slab foundations aren’t immune to becoming unlevel. They can also crack, which is a common problem in our area with our soil and our long, dry summers. There are many slab foundation homes in this area of central Texas with cracked foundations. Some of them have large cracks running clear from front to back down the middle of the house, and fixing a cracked slab foundation is very costly and time-consuming. It can be done, but so many homeowners find it to be totally cost-prohibitive, especially considering that there’s no guarantee that it won’t happen again, that they just live with the cracked foundation and hope that it doesn’t cause serious structural damage down the road.
The bottom line is that pier and beam foundations are more expensive to build, but the maintenance and flexibility with them can save thousands and thousands of dollars over the life of the house. Slab foundations are cheaper to build, but the costs of repair and remodeling can be very costly over the life of the house.
But again, there are pros and cons to both. It’s really just a matter of preference if your area is one in which you have a choice between the two. And if you do have the choice, the decisions need to be made with things in mind that are particular to your area, like the type of soil, the climate, etc. What seems like a clear winner to me based on conditions here in central Texas may be the absolute wrong decision for someone living in very different conditions.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
After $17,000. worth of foundation leveling on a slab, I’m inclined to agree with you. One thing I found out during that process was that many other parts of the country have no idea what you’re talking about when you tell them you’re having your house leveled. Apparently it’s so common here but relatively uncommon in areas where they don’t have the ridiculous clay soil and dry spells (or excessive wet spells some years) that we do.
Yikes! That’s expensive!! As a comparison, leveling our pier and beam foundation house cost somewhere in the range of $1200.
But I had to laugh at your comment about people not knowing what it means to level a house. I remember years ago when we did have our house leveled, and I blogged about it, many people were VERY confused. They thought that we were leveling it, as in, razing it, destroying it, tearing it to the ground. 😀 Since I grew up in this area, and I was so accustomed to hearing about houses needing to be leveled, I had no idea that it wasn’t something that had to be done all over the country!
INCLINED that’s good one. 🙂
Kristi, I feel your frustration, but admire the resilience you display while considering other options. Goodness, girl, you’ve been on an emotional roller coaster for awhile.
It’s no wonder you had a brief meltdown, it our body’s way of clearing out stress, anxiety and disappointment. It’s just a rebooting of your spirit.
Circumstances change, and in a few years, you may change your mind and decide to add-on to your house again. In the meantime, make whatever decisions will best suit your needs now. Give yourself some time to regain a sense of harmony and serenity,
and you’ll move forward with confidence
Right on and you are spot on for preferring a pier and beam foundation or a raised foundation for the reason you stated! I grew up in a pier and beam foundation home, it’s what my parents preferred and my step-father was a trenching contractor that dug the trenches/footings for slab foundations for many home developers and the reasons they preferred the raised foundation was for what you stated but also my mother said that your body does better then standing on concrete as far as developing varicose veins, hemorrhoids, swollen lower extremities and discomfort, etc. Thank you for all you do and as always have a blessed day!
Thank you so much for your detailed explanation and I have a much better understanding of the differences. I live in Florida and slab homes are pretty standard because soil is sandy.
I’m in the FL Panhandle. My 1973 house is pier and beam with an outside entry to the crawlspace which is a wonderful 30″ off the soil and easy to work under. Unfortunately the carport was closed in and another room added as well. There are stairs! At 32 when I bought the house it didn’t bother me. at 75, I’m scared they are going to be the death of me. So I built a slab home that is basically a duplex for my daughter & SIL and me. Even the garage is in it so that I don’t have to deal with steps, just the 4″ drop from the house to the garage. That can easily be transformed into a ramp for a wheelchair. The main thing is that I won’t be trapped inside the house. The exterior doors all have “handicapped thresholds” instead of the usual higher ones. I also made ALL interior doors 36″ wide instead of the usual 30″. EVERYTHING moves in and out easier: furniture, fat old ladies, wheelchairs, stretchers, etc. I also do not have a hallway on my side. Daughter has one but it is 4′ wide. If anyone is building a new house, don’t accept standard contractor stuff. Plan ahead for when you aren’t young if you plan to stay put.
As a 60 year old, I really appreciate you giving us these details about your new home. 75 is fast approaching and I will have to move closer to my daughter in just a few years! I’m going to remember this. Thanks! 🙂
After a lifetime of basements, crawl spaces and two story homes in the midwest and southeast, I really liked our one level slab house in Scottsdale, AZ. It was so solid and noiseless and cool. Of course that climate is different altogether and I also happened to aleady love the floor plan 😉
We viewed a house years ago that had been built with a 30″ crawl space and the crawl space had been filled with a thin layer of fine gravel. It also had LIGHTING under the entire home that you flipped on with a switch by the access panel. We had spent the previous 5 years making MANY plumbing repairs to our hundred year old home that had an 18″ crawl space that was VERY damp and muddy. My husband nearly passed out! If we ever end up building a house you better BELIEVE that will be part of the plan!!
Thank you for the explanation. Living in the north I knew nothing about pier and beam building.
In northern climates, you absolutely would not want an uninsulated floor for living areas.
Very interesting. I grew up in northern NY and never heard of either of these options. Everyone I knew had a full, excavated basement. Now, I live in Southern California and while slab foundations are common, post and pier is uncommon in newer construction on level lots and requires a continuous perimeter foundation with ample bolting and bracing for seismic stability. Plumbing in the slab seems a bad idea in any case!
Well, I live in very different conditions than yours in Texas and I can assure you that NO one builds on slabs here. Everything is with a poured foundation.
Do you mean that no one builds on pier and beam? The terms “slab” and “poured foundation” are interchangeable.
Where I am from (upper Midwest) slab foundation is just that, a slab on the ground. A poured foundation means a poured concrete wall that is at least four feet deep all the way around with a concrete floor, creating a basement. That allows the floor to be below the frost line to avoid heaving. The basement can either be planned to stay at that four-foot depth and the house is a split level, or they dig down eight to nine feet to create a true basement
Interesting! I guess I’ve never heard that distinction since basements aren’t common here. Here, if you’re pouring a foundation, it’s a slab foundation.
Seeing your photo of the breakfast room off of the kitchen I want to say you need that room as it is for the TV. It is so perfect for comfort and so pretty! You would be visiting the kitchen from that room, much more often than using the dining room. Could you put a dining room table in the music room? With your one bedroom design you have a laundry room for now. You could spend the money on your driveway and workshop and garden instead.
I thought the very same thing when I saw that photo! The TV spot looks perfectly located and very comfortable in its current location. And a lovely dining table and chairs in what’s currently the music room would provide a nice space for sit-down meals AND look great from the front entry. Only downside might be limited sightlines to the outdoors. But who’s straining to look outdoors when you’re having a lovely candle-lit dinner?
Excellent explanation on pier and beam VS concrete slab. My Mom lived in North Texas and had a pier and beam. My Grandparents had pier and beam. My grandparents changed their kitchen and later their bathroom during their lifetime in their house. My Mom never did, but had to have some leveling done during her lifetime. My husband and I have concrete slab we purchased in 1974. I have always wanted to relocate our front bathroom, and rearrange our kitchen. Never have done it because of the exact photos you have shown here of your Mom’s home. Sure do wish our home was on pier and beam.
Thank you for this structural lesson! Here in southern California we have a lot of cement slabs and very few basements. Soil composition varies but our property is mostly clay & rocks. When our water pipes break they don’t jack-hammer the slab to get to the broken pipe but connect a new pipe outside the slab and reroute it up through the wall or the attic. If that should break, we have water flowing down through our walls or ceiling…kind of like a leaky roof!
Reading this reminds me that I found a large pile of dirt inside my garage recently and discovered that part of the wall adjacent to the dirt pile is no longer sitting on the concrete slab — it’s hanging over the outside edge of the slab! I welcome any recommendations on what kind of company I should call to find out how to fix this problem. I did a search of “building foundation experts” near my Zip code (in NJ), but all it turned up were companies that repair and waterproof basements or fix crumbling, cracked or bowed exterior walls. I’m thinking that our weather extremes have caused soil erosion under the slab, which led somehow to the garage wall shifting off the slab. If I know who specializes in this kind of work, I may have an easier time finding local contractors to help assess the problem and propose some solutions.
OMG, girl, hire a skinny dude to insulate in between the joists under your floor and then tell us how much your air conditioning bills went down by!!
Just to be clear, you have a 90° day, the vents allow 90° air to flow under the floor in the crawl space. Then two thin layers of wood are the only barrier between the 90° air in the crawl space and the 70° air inside the house. I’m not an expert, but a quick search showed 4″ available space could give you R-21 insulation. Talk to your electric company about how much you could save. There may even be some gov’t assistence or rebates out there. I’m thinking you need a moisture barrier somewhere in the mix. Ask an expert; get a quote. I’d suggest kraft faced fiberglass insulation, which the carpenter can just staple to the bottom of the floor joists. I’d also suggest avoiding sprayed-in insulation, as the fumes can irritate breathing and skin.
While on the subject of insulation, how much insulation do you have in your walls and attic? I promise you, a well- insulated house will stay cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.
Thank you for the detailed and clear explanation of these foundations! That is something I would never think to consider if I ever needed to buy a different house.
I have always lived in houses with basements and the plumbing and electric was just naturally easily accessible.
I’m shocked at how much demolition occurred in your mom’s house. Why couldn’t they cut the line above the concrete slab, install an elbow, and run a new line to where you want it? It looks like the joists were ripped out and I just don’t understand why. Now, I’ve always lived in the country, so I’m woefully ignorant of building codes and all those painful building regulations.
Keep blogging – I’m learning so much! Thank you!
I’ve never heard of a pier and beam foundation here in the PNW. We usually have crawl space foundations, I think they’re called?
I never heard the term pier and beam foundation until I read your blog. Yet, here in eastern Kansas we absolutely have houses with no basements but they have crawl spaces under them like yours. My sister has a house like this. My house has a basement and all the houses I’ve owned here have basements. Is there another name for the type of foundation My sister has?
Maybe it’s called block and base? Or maybe it’s just called a crawl space foundation? It’s called different things in different parts of the country. But also, there are some minor variations. The foundation of my grandmother’s house is technically called a block and base foundation. That’s the kind that doesn’t have the concrete perimeter. Block and base is just a house on top of piers, and you can under the house from the outside. But the rest is built like a pier and beam, and here, we don’t really make a distinction in the name. Anything that is built on piers and beams is called a pier and beam foundation here, regardless of the perimeter.
Interesting post. I’m from Minnesota and almost all of the houses here have basements. The ones that don’t have basements are built like a pier and beam foundation and will have a crawl space that is dug into the ground so the house is sitting level with the ground. The crawl space is accessed from inside the house and is usually tall enough to stand up in if you crouch. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a slab foundation around here (at least for houses – garages are another story) – probably because the freeze/thaw cycle would cause them to crack and become unlevel.
I was one who had questions about why you found a pier and beam superior…this post was very educational and the first thing I learned was that in TX you call it pier and beam and in IN we just call it a crawlspace foundation (which is what I was thinking I vastly preferred!). I also learned that crawls are maybe not so delightfully problem-free in different geographic areas. Shifting enough to require leveling is not something we generally have to deal with. And our soil/climate is such that watering a foundation (which makes me giggle every time I say it…like the foundation is a shrub 🙂 ). Please know that my initial question came from a place of genuine curiosity and I’m sorry if it came off as judgemental or badgering.
P.S. Our crawl is completely enclosed, but the access hole is still exterior to the house, there’s a little removable hatch to slide into the side of the crawl. I’d much prefer the in-the-closet access as the exterior one is always FILLED with spiders!
I didn’t think your question came off as judgmental or badgering at all! I just thought if you had that question, there were probably others who wondered as well, and I couldn’t really explain all of this in a comment.
It’s funny because until this post, and reading comments, I never knew they were called anything other than “pier and beam”. 😀 I had never heard the term “crawl space foundation” until someone mentioned it in a comment above. I guess we all have something to learn from each other! 🙂
In the Addicted2Decorating community I really find this to be true! Thanks for fostering the sharing of experiences and info!