Can I do a concrete deck with pilings from Legalett?
Floating slabs are the overwhelming favourite of passive house builders for many obvious reasons. I have learned so much from your amazing site!
I have an old house that violates very code known to man, that is barely the size of a small double car garage. Luckily, the lot it sits on has plenty of room to build new and out of the way of existing well and septic. The land, however, slopes away toward the back gently at first, with a more significant slope of approx 1.2m over 3m under what would be the last 20%-ish of a 1200-1300sqft bungalow positioned within property line setbacks. This necessitates a costly retaining wall and chewing up a property I wish to 're-wild'.
Your site introduced me to the innovative foundations offered by Legalett - I see from their site that they offer conrete deck forms that utilize EPS and air-heated in-floor tubing as the FPSF. This made me go hmmmm... might this be an option, on engineering pilings, for my lot? Any thoughts, or should I just get to levelling the site?
Thank you and take good care,
Pam (Laurentian Valley, ON)
A Legalett frost protected slab on grade could be the solution for your project. What you propose could work, but depending on the size of the building, the easiest way to proceed really would be with an integrated retainer wall near the edge of the slope and cantilever the rest of the slab beyond that. Are you dead set against that?
Perhaps you’ve already done it but I would look into cost estimates of both to get a better idea of what the cheapest method may be. There would be no need for pilings with a retainer wall at the edge of the slope on one side of the building, I’m wondering if there are ways to re-naturalize the wall itself, like perhaps with gabion cage retaining walls? The wires could allow for vines and such to take hold and grow, that could even be something of a vertical garden. Just ideas to throw out there. And thanks for the kind words Pam, it’s always nice to hear that readers are finding value in the site. Best regards.