Our Readers' Foundation Stories, Questions and Tips

While I wouldn't attribute a lot of "form" to building foundations in my 3f philosophy, they are a huge component of "function" and "'fficiency".

At one point or another, however, most of us need to deal with foundation issues, whether insulating a crawl space, or digging a trench around the perimeter wall to accommodate more drainage.

If you have a foundation story or question, please share it here.

On a Personal Note...
We have been dealing with major foundation issues over the years on our property. Our house is held up at the top of a hill by a very large retaining wall made of old railroad ties. This wall is failing, and has caused some erosion issues at the top, where our yard is.

To complicate matters, this hill is made of fill that was dumped on the property over the years before the house was built. We have to dig about 70 feet to reach native soil...in other words, the hill has global stability issues.

Our house at the top of the hill is stable, but the land is still settling (and some of it is eroding through the retaining wall). This has caused our foundation to crack, and is a major endeavor and expense to deal with.

One option (if, say, money - large bills - were to fall out of the sky in giant vats)is to build a hillside-bermed house with a foundation that partially serves as a retaining wall.

However, the most stable foundations are built into native soils, and because the cost of building a foundation, even stilts, over 70 feet deep is fiscally absurd, we have to submit to building a conventional retaining wall with a geo-grid system and adequate perimeter drainage to support the weight of a modest-sized house.

All because we love the property, the lake we live on and the view...it would be so easy to sell and buy a new house in a beautiful neighborhood, but noooo, we need to do things the hard way...our friends think we are CRAZY. We don't deny it.

If you have a novel approach, or would like to share an experience, please add your foundation stories, and tips below.

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