Poured concrete is approximately 20% less expensive than brick foundation walls and slightly more expensive than cinder block foundation walls. They don't want a call back and neither do we.Cinder block foundation walls cost $2 per square foot, while poured concrete wall costs $1.40 per square foot. Our local Superior Walls installer also verifies and approves everything before they'll send the panels and installation crew to the site. In the municipalities in which we build, codes and compliance inspectors verify the drainage tile installation, dimensions of footing excavation, and thickness of gravel prior to placement of Superior Wall panels. The requirements for footings, drain tiles, and backfill materials for pre-cast concrete foundations are listed in the prescriptive code (2018 IRC) and can be verified by visual inspection and/or testing. Superior Walls is responsible for the design of their panels, but the local franchise operator is responsible for manufacturing quality control in their local manufacturing facility as well as the proper transportation and on-site installation of the panels. The performance of a Superior Walls foundation-like the performance of a cast-in-place concrete foundation- is a function of the design, the quality of materials, and the quality of the installation. And if the contractor is cheap and dumb enough to use crushed stone footings under these precast walls dirty stone can void the warranty, so save yourself a potential problem and don't even think about tightrope walking over a volcano. These are engineered like a house of cards, one failure could be catastrophic to the entire wall system, and you see it every week with a $2 bolt causing a bridge to fall. Get 8" of solid poured concrete with a properly sized concrete footing, they can take the excessive hydrostatic pressure from complete saturation of the soil during a freak weak long rainstorm. In perfect conditions I'm sure the 1 3/4" concrete will hold up but what about not so perfect conditions, I wouldn't do it. There are other causes of failure which could pass the buck back to you, such as a soil test in 15 years showing substandard soil characteristics, bad slab installation causing racking of the walls, excessive hydrostatic pressure, failed drain tile system, or anything else they can pass the blame on. In these situations where the buck gets passed from superior to the Licensees which then can be blamed on improper transportation, storage or faulty field workmanship and it becomes an up hill battle as the licensees hunts for scapegoats IMO. " Service under the warranty is solely the responsibility of the licensee." and " (Licensees) provides a limited warranty on their Superior Walls products". I've built more than a hundred new foundations and I think Superior Walls is the well, superior way to go for a basement foundation. We have never had a basement moisture issue with a Superior Walls foundation-even in a home where we diverted a number of underground streams around the foundation and one that flows under the basement slab. The last time I ran the numbers, the cost of a Superior Walls foundation was comparable to a CMU (block) foundation with rebar and fully grouted cells, equivalent insulation, and waterproofing. We are currently building a home with a Superior Walls basement foundation it may only be our 30th Superior Wall basement). They guarantee plumb, level and square and they deliver on that. The 5,000 psi concrete is inherently waterproof, the walls are insulated to meet code, and the steel studs on the interior make it ready for finishing. We are currently installing their Xi product. We've been installing Superior Walls for our basement foundations for the past 20 years.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |