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And in areas near the Gulf it doesn't take much digging to hit water. In Houston and Austin that's just 7 to 10 feet, according to Home by Four. The high-water table and other things like limestone make digging and building a basement a great expense.
I have always wondered why homes in Texas don't have basements as emergency protection against tornadoes. Tornadoes churn across the surface and move quickly; they skip over ditches and holes. Some homes do have what is called a “Texas Basement” which is used for storage. A Texas Basement is floored attic space that is typically accessible via a hallway or closet on the second floor. There is a vast amount of buildable land in Texas, making the houses much cheaper than in other states. Combined with the low cost of living in Texas, this makes houses more affordable in Texas.
Why Don't Texas Homes Have Basements?
Rocks require extensive drilling and excavations, with the need of blasting posing its need sometimes as well. Let’s assume you’ve moved to a different part of Texas, where the water table is no longer a problem. Chances are you’ll still have to deal with the high concentration of limestone bedrock. Compared to other rocks, limestone is relatively softer. To support the foundation that’s under the ground, you leave this sort of berm of soil.
This is because Texas is located near the Gulf and has large bodies of water in its immediate surroundings. Since residents do not expect the presence of a basement in a Texas house, the absence of one doesnt affect them either. Basements possess the potential of increasing the property value of a house by 70%, but not in Texas, where the concept is unknown. Over the years, she has let her neighbors and friends use it as storage space. In other areas of Texas, water is plentiful, but it can be hard to get it to a home or business, especially if it is in a flood-prone area.
Are basements illegal in Texas?
You’re correct about the high water table in many areas of the state like Houston where you can actually hit water easily. Surprisingly the water table is not the primary reason those basement are leaking. You can find a number of basements in Galveston which are much closer to the ocean and the water table is much higher with no leaks. Today we have so many methods to keep a basement dry that your basement could literally sit in a swimming pool and the concrete would get even stronger. In the north, housing regulations require home foundations to be dug below the frost line, which may be five to six feet down.
Topography refers to the shape of the ground its shape and elevation, locations of water and other features. He was of the opinion that Its a little bit of a cultural thing simply because most people are not accustomed to being around basements unless theyre from up north, he told the Dallas Morning News. Since most people dont have basements, they dont know what they are missing and thus dont have the compelling desire to attain them.
What is an unfinished Texas basement?
Architects tend to send all the heavy lifting for a basement to a structural engineer which is why you don’t see many drawings by them. In Louisiana we also do not have basements, our water table is very high. You can dig a hole two feet deep and it just might fill with water overnight. Limestone is softer than many kinds of rock, but it's still a rock. So it costs more to excavate a basement in limestone than ordinary soil.
Finally, according to Bill Bettis, former president of the Greater Fort Worth Builders Association, since most people don't have basements in Texas, most people don't know what they're missing. "It's a little bit of a cultural thing simply because most people are not accustomed to being around basements unless they're from up north," he told the Dallas Morning News. More tornadoes have been recorded in Texas than in any other state according to the Texas Almanac, with the majority occurring in the Red River Valley of North Texas. To make sure we are all on the same page, let’s first define what a basement is.
High Water Table in Eastern Half of State
Basements are also a great place to store your valuables, especially if you live in an apartment or condominium. If you have a large amount of valuable items in your basement, it’s a good idea to have them stored in a safe place, such as a garage or basement storage unit. For example, if you live in an apartment building, you may be able to use the basement as a storage space for your personal items, such as your computer or other electronics. You may also want to consider building a separate room in your home for storage. Eliminates potential foundation issues caused by soil movement. In most cyclone-prone areas of Australia, flooding rains are as much of a risk as cyclones - and I wouldn't be sheltering in a basement where there's a risk of flooding!
No potential property owner who’s working with a slim budget will want to dig through rocks before they start building a home. Due to the high clay content in the state, the soil surface beneath and around the foundation of homes can expand up to 30 percent when wet. They also exert up to 15,000 pounds of pressure per square foot. Basements built in California are often below sea level, so extra measures must be taken to prevent flooding and other water-related issues. Most contractors working in California try to reduce expenses wherever possible, and excluding basements from homes fulfills this goal.
But in Texas, if you take into consideration the potential damage incurred after flooding, those pros don’t outweigh the cons. However, “softer” doesn’t always translate to easy when it comes to digging. The listings that feature basements in Texas are normally highly-priced because the initial investment is no joke. The owner has to cater to the costs incurred after blasting, drilling, and excavating the rock.
And while some homes are better built without basements because of moisture issues, there are still millions of existing basements that need help. The reason we have basements at all is because years ago people needed to have frost-free spaces before the days that heating systems kept homes above freezing all the time. In many parts of the south, this means that there is swampland or wetlands. Where the water table is high, it is simply not feasible to dig too deep underground. In Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Eastern Texas, the soil is particularly damp, which explains the minimal number of basements there. Most of the residents of Texas have modest incomes and savings and usually cannot bear the brunt of these additional costs that come with the construction of basements.
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