First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit Update

Lew Sichelman posted an article on Marketwatch about the latest update to the First Time Home Buyer’s Tax Credit.  According to Sichelman, home buyers will not be able to use the tax credit for a down payment.  The credit can be used up front for additional down payment, or used to buy the mortgage rate down, but home buyers will have to come up with the down payment on their own.  Read the full article from Marketwatch here:  http://www.marketwatch.com/story/advance-on-home-buyer-credit-cant-be-down-payment

The are many differences between a slab on grade / concrete floor and a wood floor system.  The main topics surrounding both systems are heat differences, durability, and future repairs.  Let me start out by defining each in as few terms as possible.

The slab floor is usually 4 inches of poured concrete on top of compacted soil and when finished is even with the top of the foundation wall.  The wood floor is typically built on top of the foundation wall with joists spanning from end to end where possible.  There are other applications of course, but I’m concentrating on the wood floor system that rests on top of the foundation wall.  Let’s move to the pros and cons of each.

Slab: 

• no steps
• no squeaks
• impervious to minor flooding
• permanent
• repairs to plumbing very difficult and costly
• less expensive to install tile
• stays cold, in floor heating very expensive

Wood: 

• steps likely
• squeaks possible
• may need replaced due to minor flooding 
• semi-permanent
• repairs to systems not difficult in crawl space
• less expensive to install hard woods
• stays warmer because it’s wood and insulated

That’s the short of it, here’s the why:

The concrete slab makes it possible to eliminate steps depending on the grade around the home.  With a crawl space you typically have steps although there are ways to eliminate those.  With a concrete slab floor you don’t have a crawl space to enter for maintenance, or a place for bugs and possibly animals to hide.  The main issue with not being able to access underneath the floor is that your plumbing is still located underground.  If the plumbing underneath a slab floor were to fail then you have a fairly large job of removing concrete to get to it.  That being said, the instances of that happening are relatively low.  The overall life of the systems below the slab is certainly debatable, but that’s another post altogether.

Concrete is a fairly permanent application with little movement in it.  Like all materials it contracts and expands with the changing temperatures, but it is not generally noticed by homeowners.  The wood floor system is made up of a bunch of smaller parts.  Everyone is probably aware of the squeaks and other noises associated with wood floor systems.  This can be taken care of by proper installation involving adhesive and even screwing down the sub floor, but nothing says squeak-free like concrete.

Heat loss or gain is another area to consider.  The concrete slab lays on a bed of crushed rock and fill dirt.  The only way to maintain heat in the slab is by laying a heating system inside the concrete.  This is fairly expensive in our area since our winters are fairly mild, and it is a practice not used by many.  The colder floors are normally noticed when tile is laid directly on the concrete which transfers the cold to the surface.  There’s no way around it, it stays cooler than ambient temperature.  The crawl space and wood floor system will keep the tile noticeably warmer, although there is a greater expense on the installation of tile on a wood sub floor than on concrete.  Likewise, if you are leaning towards hardwood flooring, installation on wood is much easier than on concrete.  You can nail directly to the wood depending on your product choice, but with a slab, some manufacturers require glueing the hardwood to the concrete which adds quite a bit of labor. 

I have lived on both floor systems with the last 15 years of my life spent on slab floors in three different homes.  For a number of different reasons slab is still my first choice for a one level home.

This article is based on my experience as well as information gained from knowledgeable people in the industry.  The above is the opinion of the author.  I would love to hear your opinions on this topic.

Definitions

Footer / Footing: size varies according to the amount of weight bearing, but a typical footing is 18-24 inches wide, 6-8 inches tall, and reinforced by steel.

Foundation wall: For most average sized homes in our area, the foundation wall is 6 inches wide and 2 feet tall.  Again, steel reinforced concrete. 

The footing is poured first with the foundation wall resting on top like an inverted T.  Everything is tied together.  The footing has rebar sticking out into the foundation wall so that it will bond when poured.  The foundation wall likewise has short, hooked, and threaded steel rods placed into the top of the wall while still wet with the threaded end stick up.  For a slab this is used to tie the bottom plate of the wall to the foundation with a vapor barrier placed in between.  Time to move dirt.

After the walls and pads are poured, the home with a crawl space is ready for backfilling around the outside and framing to begin.  A few more steps have to take place for the slab.  First outside and inside of the foundation is backfilled and compacted.  Two inch thick foam boards are then placed around the perimeter of the foundation for insulation.  The plumbing contractor will then dig out lines for the underground plumbing.  Time to backfill where the plumber has been and final grade for the slab.  Two inches of crushed rock is spread on top of the fill dirt and compacted.  Then we’re ready to pour the slab and begin framing.

Next post, Slab or Crawl

Designing your own home can be a fun process, but there are a lot of details to be taken into account.  I have drawn my own homes and helped others design theirs, but I grew up in the building industry and have a pretty good idea of limits, local codes, and basic engineering requirements.  The most important item I would like to pass on is to know that purchasing a house plan on the internet does not mean it is ready to build right away.  But first, know what you’re looking for.

Choosing your lot and your plan go hand in hand with elevation being the critical component. A flat lot with little elevation change will be suitable for a rambler or two story home and a basement can be added to both.  A steep lot falling away from the street is perfect for a daylight basement home and these are generally view lots.  Those are the most common types of lots, but make sure your house plan is suited to your lot, especially if you are purchasing it online.  The other item is to make sure that your home fits within the city setbacks on your lot.  These change from city to city as well, so if you’re purchasing your lot with the intent to build, that would be important information.

Another item to remember is the covenants and ARC requirements for your neighborhood.  The ARC Architectural Review Comittee is in charge of making sure your house meets the requirements set by the neighborood including size limitations, limits on length of straight walls, number of windows, and most importantly the height of a home.  If you’re going to be purchasing or designing your own home, this is information you need to have. 

The internet has given us access to so much information it’s incredible.  There are a multitude of sites that have hundreds and thousands of floor plans available.  This is a great way to see what your options are, but when it comes time to buy the plan, remember that it has to be drawn to meet local code requirements.  Codes change from place to place, so a plan almost always have to be looked at and or redrawn.  This can add time and money if you are on a time crunch or a tight budget.  There are a few ways to go about purchasing or choosing a house plan.

1. Purchase or design a house plan on your own with an architect or draftsman

2. Choose a house plan from a builder’s portfolio as is, or customize it

 The benefits of working with either Builders or architects is that you can go in with an idea and they will help you design the look and feel of the home you want along with rooms and a design that will fit your needs.  The internet is a great place to get ideas of what you would like your home to look like, so start a collection that you can take with you when you’re ready to design.

Next post: Choosing a Builder

Thank you to those that have read my former posts.  I have decided to try to tell the story of a house by describing the construction process of building a home.  I plan on breaking it down in stages.  This is intended for the average person and I will try to keep from using slang or specific nomenclature.  I hope that this topic interests you, construction has taken up the largest portion of my life so far and I do enjoy it.  A previous post entitled “Slab or Crawl” does not start at the beginning, so I will repost that stage in the correct order.  Thanks again!

Next post:  Home design and drafting