Newly instituted requirements demand a concrete foundation for double-wide homes in our area. In the past, it was common to set the units on a compacted clay pad which seemed to serve its purpose. During the past four years, we have not noticed any settling problems except for a one mm crack along part of the marriage-wall in two homes. The concrete foundation consists of ‘runners’ across the width or the length of the home. The requirement actually makes sense to me, but adds about $2700- to $3000.- per home to the construction costs; that increases the cost of the final product by an additional 10%. Bank employees like concrete foundations also. I assume that this requirement must be common in other areas and would welcome your comments and suggestions based on your experiences.
Bernd,
Are you building homes for sale as your primary business?
I am assuming the rules apply to everyone in your area so the competition will have to step up to the new requirements. Is that correct?
Yes Bernd,
Concrete runners have been required in Ohio for the 9 yrs I’ve been involved. Depending on labor costs in your area vs. concrete costs, you might consider a full pad under the home. Much cleaner for future under-home crawling.
Steve
John,the municipal regulation are universal for the area.They also include for all utilities to be underground ,roads,driveways and dual parking spaces to be paved with asphalt or concrete.Except for the paving and the foundations,we more than complied in the past, by choice.The competition are not considered to be developing and therefore are ‘grandfathered’. I prefer to convert paper based assets into income producing tangibles, at least until the dollar(or the amero) has reached its intrinsic value. Also,only six new homes are affected.
Steve,I have been told that a full slab would double the cost of runners. A little more research and a couple more estimates should provide more clarity.
The regulations apply to new developments and I could argue that I had bought a ‘park’ in which the existing units were not fit for continuing habitation and had to be disposed. I might not choose that option because the municipality has been very cooperative in the past.
[QUOTE=Bernd Hanak;884592]Steve,I have been told that a full slab would double the cost of runners. A little more research and a couple more estimates should provide more clarity.[/QUOTE]
What is your take on Steve’s point about maintenance? You might spend more now to make it easier to maintain later. I think you said or implied you are selling. If that is the case, the maintenance benefit will not accrue to you. Maybe you can shift your marketing slightly and promote the benefits so you attract a premium buyer.
[QUOTE=John_Corey;884612]What is your take on Steve’s point about maintenance? You might spend more now to make it easier to maintain later. I think you said or implied you are selling. If that is the case, the maintenance benefit will not accrue to you. Maybe you can shift your marketing slightly and promote the benefits so you attract a premium buyer.[/QUOTE]
This is one case where I do not see the maintenance benefits necessarily justifying the initial costs. Sure it is nice to slide in on concrete instead of laying on dirt, stone or plastic but to spend several thousands of dollars for this honor is not worth it to me. I can see many ways to put that same money to use to make more money.
Bernd sets his homes up right, adds landlord friendly improvements to make the properties durable and highly marketable. The cost of having a full pad would not be one I would personallly consider.
Tony
Given your geographic location (Southeast Texas) I don’t think this serves any useful purpose…but as with most gov regulation, you just have to go along to get along. The idea of concrete runners that are as deep as the frost line was the idea behind these requirements so as to avoid frost heave, but as anyone who has laid as much as a piece of plywood on the ground will have noticed that the ground doesn’t freeze under that plywood until 0 temps are extended for several days will recognize that this requirement was largely unwarranted….really the entire frost heave issue is best dealt with by keeping water away from the piece of ground that the home sits on and you will be well served to do this with or without the runners.
The function of any type foundation is to transfer the load of the house, and roof, along with any door openings so as to avoid a small area holding a large load(marriage wall openings) thereby increasing the psf beyond the capacity of the soil to bear it, of course using wide base plates or a wide poured concrete runner achieves the same result. Being located in a southern clime negates any consideration for snow load.
As for the slab, I have had this type of installation and used some attractive split faced block around the perimeter; it looked great, but a poured foundation with cross beams wouldn’t have cost any more money and that type of foundation would have provided additional benefits with respect to backfill and drainage issues.