Why no basements in tornado areas??

[Farmer17]

I build houses in Okla. and if a tornado is coming a basement is about the last place I want to be. The entire house is usually sitting on 2x12 floor joists or laminated beams spanning long distances and sitting on small columns and 3-1/2" sill plates on top of the footing. If a tornado picks up the house and twists it a few inches its all going to come crashing down on whoever is in the basement.

Texas Tech Univ. has FEMA approved designs for a simple and inexpensive structural wood framed closet or bath room with a steel skin that will handle any tornado.

 

[charlie sherrill]

I recently heard Larry the Cable Guy say "I'm as happy as a tornado in a trailer park!" Basements don't work around here. Most fill up with water, the rest have severe mold problems. Lot's of folks are building safe rooms (re-enforced concrete with steel combination door) with new construction. This solves a lot of problems. They are practically tornado proof and are stronger than gun safes. If I ever build again I'll have one. A neighbor has one big enough to live in. He keeps all of his guns and other valuables in there. It would take a jack hammer, a cutting torch, and a lot of time to get into it. I saw an old bank converted into a residence. I thought that was neat but I'd have to move to town to do that and there aren't many for sale.

 

[bgrone]

Basements

The frostline is the biggest reason for basements in the Midwest and places north, having the water and sewerlines below frost line (42-48" in Iowa) requires a crawl space or basement in most cases . Well drained and ventilated basements have little or no mold problems. What Iowegian said is true we tend to put trailer parks(AKA TORNADO MAGNETS) in flood plains as the land is cheap there. I believe the custom of old tires on the roof was to dampen the the flexing of the tin roofs during tempurature changes that or there wasnt room under the trailer to store the used tires.

 

[Harrison]

Several reasons; poor soil is one, or no soil is another. In many parts of the Hill country you have six inches of soil on top of a mile of almost solid rock. You need to blast to get a basement. The fact is, in large parts of Texas you rarely get tornados and in particular if you do get a tornado they are pretty small compared to what you have up in Tornado Alley. Also basements are a good place for mold, damp, bugs and snakes to collect.

 

[blujax01]

There are two kinds of basements:

(1) Those that leak.

(2) Those that are going to leak.

 

[Marshwheeling]

Trailers don't come with basements.

That was my first thought. Why did it take 24 posts for someone to come up with it?

When I was a kid, the basement came first. There was a housing shortage after the war, so maybe you lived in a Quonset hut like we did, or maybe you dug a basement, wrapped the exposed walls in tar paper, roofed it over, and lived in it until there was enough money or building materials to finish the house.

 

[wbraswell]

I live in east Texas. The community I live in wasn't developed for many years because the superstition that it was a "tornado alley". Since the town was built during WWII, only one tornado has come close, and the only damage from it was the large hail that accompanied it. I have seen horrific damage caused by them in my area, but I really have no dread of them. I live in a concrete block house, and if I get scared, I'll just get in the central hall, and put my motorcycle helmet on. Usually they leave just a narrow strip of destruction, and don't last very long. After saying all that, I wouldn't live in California, just because the earth moves, and I love the ocean, but no way I'd live on the coast. It's just what you are used to, I guess.

 

[Lost Lake]

I was a house builder before I became a QC rep for a hospital builder. We built all over the nation.

Wisconsin has clay and sandy soil. Where my house is the clay is heavy and wet. My house has a full basement that has never been wet or even damp, and I don't have a sump pump at all! Proper building technique is the key.

Houses in the north need the footing extended below frost line or the ground will heave in the cold and destroy the foundation.

Basements started off with the thought, if I'm digging out four feet all around anyway, why not take out a bit more and have an area I can throw my stuff under the house for storage? That evolved to putting in gravel for a floor, then concrete, then it was also a great place to put the furnace when central heat came about.

That led to digging just a few more feet and having a 7' ceiling so the area was truly useful. Soon windows were being installed, and sometimes outside entrances.

My basement is made of 8" thick poured concrete walls, with 8 foot high ceilings. My new addition added more basement with a walk out doorway and 36" high windows. The older part has a built in bar and theater room, full bathroom, mechanical room and storage room. The addition has a second mechanical room and rec room. In total my basement is 1,600 square feet.

Basements are actually very inexpensive. You have to dig for footings anyway, digging a bit more yields a lot of extra living space!

 

[rburg]

I'm going to go with "they don't know how" answer. I've lived here for the last 39 years. 3 houses. The one highest on the hill had the worst basement complete with leaks. it was a shallow basement. Then about 18 years ago we moved off that hill and down to here. It was also a bad basement. When my wife wanted a new house, I refused to move. So we compromised by tearing down the house and rebuilding on the site. Yes, it wasted a little money, but I got to stay where I was.

So I had my concerns about the builder and his basement abilities. He laughed and said they don't do the basement, they sub it out like most other things. I also paid extra for the 9' ceiling option. That included the basement. The workmanship was impressive. They excavated to what seemed like the center of the earth. It was kind of fun because the 3 lots I own have bedrock at the surface. The trackhoe just dug it out. They went deep and then installed drains on the outside of the footer, and again on the inside. The inside ones went to a sump. It has never turned on except when we dump some water in it to test. Its cool, warm and dry.

And I paid big bucks for a "safe room". AKA food storage room (I'm not Mormon).

Below the top layer of bedrock is a bunch of shale and rocks the size and shape of cigarette packs. All the way down to the bottom of the footers and the drain pipes, probably 11' down. Thick concrete walls, reinforcing rods, and then on the outside a spray on sealant that looks like tar (but isn't) and then some fiber board like stuff 3" thick stuck to it. I guess it also insulates as well as wick any water down to the gravel the drains run in.

An above poster quoted a 3 day time to do the work. That was exactly what it took. I was expecting a 5 or so man crew. What we got was 15 guys plus the concrete pumping crew. They knew what they were doing and didn't waste much time. They also worked beyond 10 hours a day. They knew their business. I've watched other builders who attempt it themselves. Not so impressive.

I also have some experience with clay. I worked for a foundry supply firm in my distant past. Most of our customers were foundries, but we did a thriving business selling bentonite (that's clay). Nice profit margins selling 50# bags of dried clay powder. We called it "pond seal bentonite". Around here a leaky pond can go dry as cracks open in the limestone. The hot ticket is to sell someone a few bags depending on the size of the pond.

Its kind of a radiator stop leak for ponds. It seems to float on the surface, but it also goes down and somehow finds the hole and leak. Then it chokes it as the clay accumulates. All well and good.

Then one day a guy comes in with his big duallie and a large trailer. He wanted 3,000 pounds. We really didn't care how much he dumped in his pond. You put in a bag a day and it will seal off anything. So the customer pays up with cold cash and leaves. The next thing we heard was from his lawyer. Somehow it was our fault he misused the product. It was a dry spell and that's when most ponds leak.

It seems the guy had a new house and he was upset. He had clay all around his house and the dry spell had shrunk the soil to the point where there were inches of clear space between his foundation (yes a basement) and the soil. So he and a friend just poured the gap with the bentonite. Sounded like a plan, but then it rained and he watered it. No one told him it would expand to 8x its dry volume. And so did the clay originally around the house. All the soil was expanding and pushing, but he really didn't expect the basement walls to give. They pushed in just a few inches on all sides. But it was enough to drop the house off hte foundation and crush it. Not possible to even repair! So it made the news and we got sued for a defective product. Except it wasn't used as directed or intended. And you wonder why we all hate lawyers.

 

[goldenlight]

Where I live, EVERY house has a basement. It's extra space you can use for whatever you want. The furnace, and water heater is down there, and, in my house at least, the water pipes are in the ceiling of one of the rooms, making it easy to make repairs.

There is a gas stove down there, and an elderly refrigerator that works perfectly. I cook down there in the summer, so i don't have to heat up the upstairs kitchen.

I store a LOT of stuff down there, including cases and cases of canned goods, soda pop, and other food. I buy it when it's on sale, and eat it for a year or two.

I simply can't imagine owning a house without a basement.

During tornado warnings, I can go down there and read, or watch TV. It's nice and cool in the summer.

 

[Intheshop]

Google images of Harpers Ferry WVa.

This is one of wifey and my favorite walkabout places.It has to be one of the best on-site study areas for "basements".Which really isn't a very descriptive term........when you're faced with sloped topography.Our's is aptly refer'd to as,the Terrace level.

Prayers and best wishes sent to storm victims.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

Not many mobile homes come with basements . Most don't even come with the floor pre cut.

 

[sherrill15]

In Mississippi if you had a basement it would be full of water.