Member
· Västerbotten
· 872 posts
New construction with a basement under half of the house. Should one cast a vault or build a traditional beam floor over the basement and have a concrete slab outside? Advantages and disadvantages of each?
I thought I'd start with the question so those who want to keep up the pace in the forum can answer directly without reading.
Anyway, we are planning a house build that includes a basement. Yes, I know it's heresy to build a basement today and that all should preferably be filled in and forgotten. But we have modest areas for garden beds and produce quite a bit ourselves, from processed cuts to jams and pickles. So we need storage that's accessible even if there's 2 meters of snow and it's -35 degrees cold outside. Meaning, none of us wants to go from the kitchen to an outdoor food cellar in flip-flops under those conditions (specifically those conditions too), hence the choice to have a basement.
I also very much want a home cinema, which acoustically is better suited down there.
We are sketching a lot of ideas back and forth and have mostly settled for a single-story house with the aforementioned basement. I imagine that all forms of electrical and water lines would be easier to handle if they can be hidden inside the ceiling, which would score points for a beam floor. At the same time, I own another property where the house has a basement under the entire house and is built with a beam floor except in one room which has a cast vault instead and every other visitor points out that it's very luxurious and good, without justification as if it's obvious why.
Is the question then only about durability or are there other advantages to a cast vault?
I thought I'd start with the question so those who want to keep up the pace in the forum can answer directly without reading.
Anyway, we are planning a house build that includes a basement. Yes, I know it's heresy to build a basement today and that all should preferably be filled in and forgotten. But we have modest areas for garden beds and produce quite a bit ourselves, from processed cuts to jams and pickles. So we need storage that's accessible even if there's 2 meters of snow and it's -35 degrees cold outside. Meaning, none of us wants to go from the kitchen to an outdoor food cellar in flip-flops under those conditions (specifically those conditions too
), hence the choice to have a basement. I also very much want a home cinema, which acoustically is better suited down there.
We are sketching a lot of ideas back and forth and have mostly settled for a single-story house with the aforementioned basement. I imagine that all forms of electrical and water lines would be easier to handle if they can be hidden inside the ceiling, which would score points for a beam floor. At the same time, I own another property where the house has a basement under the entire house and is built with a beam floor except in one room which has a cast vault instead and every other visitor points out that it's very luxurious and good, without justification as if it's obvious why.
Is the question then only about durability or are there other advantages to a cast vault?
