Grade Beam on Piers

Grade Beam on Piers: So, in our today’s blog we’re going to take about the one of the most common types of foundation used in home in Southern United States. Moreover, we’d also look at the reasons why we choose a pier and beam foundation.

Well, when you’re going to build a new home, one of the most basic and most important decisions you’re going to make is about the type of deep foundation to use. If you get your foundation right, everything is going to go well for your long term. On the other hand, with a bad foundation, no matter what you do in the build, you’re going to suffer with your house.

While for foundation in the Southern areas, we not often see full in-ground foundations as we see in the Northern zones. Well, that’s mainly because we don’t have a frost line and code does not dictate that we need to dig down several feet.

 

Why we prefer pier and beam foundation?

While knowing about the various factors where we prefer pier and beam foundation, the first question is about the type of soil. While constructing foundation for a house, we mostly hire geotechnical engineers to know what we have down below.

In places where flooding is a possible concern and soils with a high clay content are susceptible to swelling (while wet) and shrinking (once dry), Pier and Beam’s foundations are a preferred choice.

If we go with a slab at-grade foundation on soils with high clay content, we’ll experience a lot of movement over the years. So, the soil will be contracted and when got dry it would move. Similarly, when it’s wet it will expand so it has a tendency to move this house around.