Building the Country Retreat

Our "country retreat" project house started out as a major remodel of an existing house. However, when we started doing the tear-out, we found so many structural and other problems that we had to keep tearing out and tearing out, and when we were done, there was so little left of the original house, that we decided to just take it down to the original concrete slab and start over.

The original house had about 4,000 square feet in two stories, but once we realized that we were basically starting over, we decided to expand the size of our project to around 10,000 square feet.

By more than doubling the square footage, we had to expand the "footprint" of the house, which meant that the foundation would have to be extended. Rather than trying to add to the existing concrete slab, we decided to build a "raised floor" foundation over and around the slab. This allowed us great flexibility and saved the time and expense of tearing out the concrete. Building with a raised floor foundation gave us several other significant advantages, as well.

Advantages of Building with a Raised Floor Foundation

Raised floor foundations have many advantages over concrete slab foundations, and this is especially true in areas that have expansive soil. The soil under our country retreat has a very high clay content, which means that as the summer sun dries it out and with the advent of spring and winter rains, the soil can be expected to buckle and swell by as much as several inches. This roiling motion can play crack and buckle a standard concrete slab, but a raised floor foundation, set on concrete footers, stem walls and piers supported by trusses and beams, is highly resistant to these kind of soil problems. Plus, later, if a problem does arise, making repairs is a relatively easy procedure—it’s just a matter of jacking up the floor and adding some shims.

There is a definite "cushion" effect when walking on a raised floor foundation compared to the often jarring sensation of walking on a floor that rests above a concrete slab... the subtle "give" that greets a heavy step.

Because the utilities, plumbing and air conditioning can be installed under the floor, installation, maintenance and modification of these utilities is much simpler with a raised floor than with a concrete slab. If one decides to add an extension to the house later, modifications to these systems are easy in a raised floor foundation.

Raising the floor off the ground provides a natural layer of insulation between our living space and the cold, damp ground. This adds a distinct level of comfort and protection from potential problems with moisture, mold and pests. A raised floor also creates a safety buffer in flood-prone areas.

A raised floor foundation gives a home a definite "bottom, middle and top", which greatly enhances the curb appeal of many architectural styles. Porches flow easily from raised floor foundations, as do spacious decks for outdoor cooking, entertainment and relaxation.

Our raised floor foundation is comprised of trusses of Southern Yellow Pine from International Paper. The trusses were manufactured by American Truss Systems, Inc. These open web parallel chord trusses are very strong and the open web design allowed us to easily pass the plumbing, electrical and HVAC right through the trusses themselves. Additionally, the 3 ½" wide top chord of the truss provides a solid, wide surface to support the sub floor.

The sub floor that tops our raised floor foundation is constructed of Oriented Strand Board (OSB) from Norbord Industries, a subsidiary of Nexfor, Inc. The Nexfor Norbord OSB in our country retreat is made from southern pine that is harvested from private plantations in the southern United States.

Oriented Strand Board is an engineered wood product that is a very environmentally friendly building material. The small "wafers" or chips that comprise OSB allow virtually the entire tree to be used in the construction of the product, reducing the waste factor by an astonishing degree. Additionally, Nexfor Norbord uses low temperature conveyor dryers in the manufacture of the OSB, which improves the utilization of the wood fiber and reduces the amount of energy used in the manufacturing process.