Why No Basements in Texas?

[gman51]

I would imagine in a basement after a tornado hit you would more than likely see the sky when you looked up after the storm was gone. More than likely the house above the basement could have been totally blown away by the winds instead of collapse down into the basement.
If that was the case then people would have quit going into basements or storm shelters a long time ago.

A tornado hit a trailer park a few miles from me and it leveled many mobile homes down to their floors. Yes the tornado did sort of sound like a train coming. It twisted off 100' pine tree trunks about 30' off the ground. Unreal the power of the winds.

Zenia Ohio back in the early 70's was hit by a tornado and one side of main street was leveled flat while the other side of the street was hardly touched. I remember driving through the city long afterward and one side of the street had nothing on it.
Here is a audio tape of the storm. Hear what appears to be a train but is actually the storm winds.
Xenia Tornado Actual Audio

 

[arjay]

I was in a small tornado years ago.A bunch of us packed into a small 1890s cellar under the house.The building across the road,the trees and the corral behind the house were gone along with the goats.The house itself was untouched.I can’t imagine a big one

 

[jtcarm]

In the Alamo city we have 2 kinds of substrate: clay and limestone. Clay expands when it gets wet and would exert an incredible amount of pressure on the walls of a basement. Limestone is expensive to grind, cut or blasy your way through. As Jimmy said, we'd rather go up or out. All that is Realtor talk for "it jes ain't practical".

We have both here in North Texas.

With the foundation movement we already get, I envision a basement crumbling and the house sinking.

 

[wood714]

Born and raised in Cincinnati, and never lived in a house without a basement. Can't remember ever having a leak in any of them as long as the gutters and down spouts were clear.

First house I ever bought had more of a dungeon than basement. Even with the stone foundation I can't remember it ever leaking.

I was 23 when I bought that house and loved it to death. In the second pic the window that's lower was the coal chute. Someone over the years built a bathroom there before I bought it. It did still have the coal to gas converted monster size furnace thou.

When the tornado sirens go off, it's a nice place to hang out. I was a junior in high school when the April 3, 1974 tornado's rolled thru Cincinnati. We slept in the basement that night.

 

[Old TexMex]

Pay attention, now...focus.
Hurricanes have a tendency to bring rain. (60” most recently) They also tend to generate very high tides (7-10 ft with Hurricane Harvey, Celia and Carla) where I live. The freshwater table is 4 ft., basically only 3 ft above sea level.
There are no basements on Mustang Island. Tell me how “simple” it would be to build a basement.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-event-in-u-s-history/?utm_term=.74a64b4a93d9

 

[FLF]

60+ inches of rain a year. Water table a few feet. Sand to 190' before the first limestone. Not the best place for a basement

 

[Mr.Harry]

Surprised no one’s mentioned radon.

 

[Rustyt1953]

It did still have the coal to gas converted monster size furnace thou

In '66 my parent's home in Norwood (where 'N' stands for nowledge) the furnace was a coal/gas conversion. It was a massive Jules Verne sea creature that swallowed a fourth of the basement.

I'm surprised mom and dad didn't become hunchbacked as you couldn't walk in the basement without banging your head on the torpedo sized ductwork.

Much later, it took 2 days to cut that beast up and drag it out.

 

[NYlakesider]

In '66 my parent's home in Norwood (where 'N' stands for nowledge) the furnace was a coal/gas conversion. It was a massive Jules Verne sea creature that swallowed a fourth of the basement.

I'm surprised mom and dad didn't become hunchbacked as you couldn't walk in the basement without banging your head on the torpedo sized ductwork.

Much later, it took 2 days to cut that beast up and drag it out.

Early in my steamfitter life I worked on those ancient designs!. (Circa 69 -73)

I ripped out a few of those Octopuses. That got you a heck of a lot more basement space and a much more efficient furnace. Night and day difference!

 

[Rustyt1953]

Early in my steamfitter life I worked on those ancient designs!. (Circa 69 -73)

I ripped out a few of those Octopuses. That got you a heck of a lot more basement space and a much more efficient furnace. Night and day difference!

It was noisy, too. You could hear the burners kick in from any room in the house. It was like living above an airport.

 

[delcrossv]

Here in Chicagoland probably 98% of the houses have basements. The freeze/thaw cycle destroys slabs (and even them you need footings).

Lower areas do have their basements flood. Our house was built in the 20's and has what's called an "english basement" The basement windows start a little above grade and go up. You need to take several steps up to get to the "ground" floor.

A few years ago the house next door was torn down and a McMansion was put up. Their basement is 9' below grade. Their sump pump runs almost continuously. Since they built that house, our pump runs maybe 3 times a year.

 

[mdf9183]

The real reason we don't have basements here in Texas is so our kids can't come back and live in them.

 

[Engineer1911]

Why basements

In Northern climates, the frost line in winter may be below 6 feet. I have seen city water lines laid 9 feet below grade -- that was a big trench for a 2 inch water line. The easiest way to get to the water line is dig the basement to 8 feet, bring the supply line in a 9 foot trench form the street and the job is done. Basements are no big deal, and most contractors know how to build houses with basements. Basements are also a great place to keep an HVAC unit in conditioned air.

In Southern climates, high water table, bed rock, clay soils, and contractor ignorance are reasons for no basements. In lovely Augusta, GA new subdivisions, I have been in houses with 10 foot crawl spaces built on the side of a hill. The things home builders and HVAC contractors consider acceptable just amaze me. Unions may cause problems and higher labor costs, but you end up with trained apprentices that understand building codes and craftsmanship.

Let the firestorm begin!

 

[Moo Moo]

I'm generalizing here, but to the best of my knowledge, basements are non-existent in Australian houses.

 

[Rustyt1953]

The real reason we don't have basements here in Texas is so our kids can't come back and live in them.

Now you've got me thinking about filling mine in.

 

[Old TexMex]

Someone is willing to infer that union membership allows a defiance of both natural obstacles and financial practicality. Woopeee.

 

[Old TexMex]

I'm generalizing here, but to the best of my knowledge, basements are non-existent in Australian houses.

In the Adelaide hills we had a giant water reservoir under the house, because drought was the norm, but I sure never saw any in North Qld. Because of the cyclonic and monsoon flooding.
Australia has union and the builders certainly aren’t ignorant.

 

[johngalt]

In '66 my parent's home in Norwood (where 'N' stands for nowledge) the furnace was a coal/gas conversion. It was a massive Jules Verne sea creature that swallowed a fourth of the basement.

I'm surprised mom and dad didn't become hunchbacked as you couldn't walk in the basement without banging your head on the torpedo sized ductwork.

Much later, it took 2 days to cut that beast up and drag it out.

My folks place had one of those giant cast iron boilers, the house was built in 1915-ish. House was basically built around the furnace. By the time my folks bought it, it had already been converted from coal to gas. Steam heat, with cast iron radiators.

To the best of my knowledge, it is still working fine over 100 years later.

Efficient? It's in the basement. It gets hot. Heat rises. House gets warm. I remember the kitchen floor was always warm.

 

[kwselke]

Downtown Houston has an underground shopping mall under the city. I never could understand how they could keep it from totally flooding and destroying everything. For cripe sakes first floors of many buildings above ground have been flooded numerous times.
Downtown Houston Tunnel System | 365 Houston

Some parts of it have flooded, and many buildings have doors worthy of a submarine on their entrances to the tunnel system. The skyscrapers downtown have basement levels much deeper than the tunnel system.

 

[Walkingwolf]

If you are in a basement and take a direct hit from a tornado wont the whole house collapse on top of you?

It usually tears the upper structure off the first floor, but no guarantees.