Stem Wall Installed Today
Well today marks the first day of actual progress in terms of structure on the house. Our concrete block crew installed the stem wall for the foundation today. You can see from the pictures that the perimeter of the house is well defined by the stem walls. These walls will enclose a huge amount of fill dirt that will be poured into the area of the house. Once the dirt is installed the plumber will come out and install the rough plumbing. The slab will then be poured to meet the top of the blocks shown in the pictures. This creates an elevated slab and the northern front porch home look we are trying to achieve. It is looking really good. Check out the pictures.
Always put some extra money into the foundation of your home, instead of purchasing fancy expensive window treatments or a hot tub. Most home builders in Florida will build single family homes on monolithic slabs. This leaves your foundation extremely vulnerable to cracking and shifting. With a typical monolithic slab, homeowners have complained of drywall cracks and tile cracks. My house (shown) is built on a self-supporting slab or also known as a stem wall foundation. It utilizes a grade beam consisting of concrete and steel rebar (shown) to support the weight of the exterior walls and roof structure. Concrete blocks are placed on the exterior edge of the grade beam and then fill dirt is placed inside of the stem-walls. A concrete slab is then poured in the center of the stem wall blocks. This allows for all of the load to be transferred to the grade beam rather than the slab itself.
