Long Post- sorry. Never thought much about masonry/concrete construction until I saw a major developer (120 homes/year) using it. I bought a lot in rural part of county that had already been graded, partially developed. Owner changed his mind and lot sat vacant for 2 years. I considered regrading-digging out for basement, but I didn't like the numbers. Considered crawl space, but spouse wanted 2 steps into the front of house, 1 step out the back, and I've seen a bunch of crawl space homes with standing swimming pools in the crawlspace. Decided to do masonry/concrete construction on foundation. (That is, we put in a conventional footing and masonry walls, put down gravel, poly, insulation and poured the concrete floor on top.) Good- don't have to worry about placement of interior walls. Always plenty of support from the concrete. Easy to use radiant floor heating in the concrete. Great floor for tile. You bolt the outside walls to the concrete, so with hurricane straps on the top of stud wall, and bolts in the bottom plate, that wall isn't going anywhere. Neutral-you have to be very exact when placing the plumbing/drain lines as it is under the concrete. Negative- if you miss with the plumbing, you have to either move the wall to match the plumbing or get the concrete saw, so you better have a plumber who can read a plan. If your concrete pour is a little off level, you have to use leveling compound in those places. You can't fix the problem by trimming the band joist to level the floor. The electrical is run through the stud wall or in the ceiling and dropped down stud wall instead of up through the floor into the stud wall, so no real difference there. We used engineered hardwood (floating floor) and tile. I can't tell any difference in the feel of the flooring when you walk across it, only there is no bounce to the floor. The floating floor sounds a "little klunky" when you walk on it, but the hardwood sounds exactly the same on my 2nd story floor, which is floor truss and subfloor as it does on the masonry/concrete 1st floor. Would I do it again? Yes sir. Do I think it will be standing 100 years from now? Yes sir, long after I'm gone. I am a huge supporter of remodel and renovate. I do not believe in "trashing" any worthy structure, and I really get my nose out of joint when I hear our leaders yelling for new schools, new city/county buildings, because they claim the old buildings have "outlived their economic usefulness". I say B$. I think it is absolutely foolish to not consider renovation first in any building. But,... I have seen some amazing house building products come to market in the last 40 years. Whoever thought we would be using cement siding? Benefits: Rigid construction, can't visually tell the difference between crawlspace or masonry/concrete except masonry/concrete allows you to build closer to the finished grade. August elec bill with both heat pumps cooling= $120. September elec bill $117. Everything electric except water heater. I would further respectfully point out that I used to know a man in England who lived in his family's masonry/concrete and stone house that was built in 1019. And, he thought we did't know anything about "real building because our oldest structures are only 300 years old". Go figure!
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Today's Featured Article - Restoration Story: Fordson Major - by Anthony West. George bought his Fordson Major from a an implement sale about 18 years ago for £200.00 (UK). There is no known history regarding its origins or what service it had done, but the following work was undertaken alone to bring it up to show standard. From the engine number, it was found that this Major was produced late 1946. It was almost complete but had various parts that would definitely need replacing.
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