Quote:
Originally Posted by bilbao58
The REAL reason houses in Texas rarely have basements is because they’re not needed. Basements are a cold climate thing where the frostline is deep and the house’s foundation needs to be even deeper. Tall buildings in Texas have basements, but who in their right mind wants to put six or more levels of subsurface parking under a high rise condo? There is underground parking all over Downtown Houston, but it rarely goes deeper than 2 or 3 levels.
|
This is correct. It rarely has to do with hard soil, difficult soil, or the water table. If that were the case, nobody here would have an in-ground pool either, but in fact they're ubiquitous. If a crew can dig out a pool (that BTW also needs to be watertight), they could easily build a basement. We don't have them because homebuilders don't want to spend the money to provide them when the ground doesn't freeze. Many older, historic homes in Houston have basements. Some churches do. Downtown has a good amount of subterranean parking, particularly around the Theater District.
when you see stuff that should be done underground being done above ground, it's because of penny-pinching. Not the soil.