Understanding Alternative Foundations for Your Home

Author: Navjeet Kaur

Foundation is one of the most expensive and labor intensive part of any building. In standard building large amount of concrete is used for it. Though it is strong and firm but along with this it is environmentally costly and expensive. Moreover, there are further alternative solutions. The most common mistake that every fresher alternative builder makes is that builders do not think of the foundation and use standard solutions. The standard concrete solution is very common and well proven but it incurs a lot of the positive environmental impact which natural building entails. Concrete is made up of cement. Further cement is created by burning limestone. Cement production is one of the biggest sources of carbon dioxide production and has number of side effects which are derived from large scale quarry mining. Therefore concrete foundation is not that one should recommend. Instead one could consider the following options.

Earth bag foundations are developed of polypropylene bags which are filled with soil, gravel or sand depending upon the needs of the site and what kind of material is locally available. The filled bags are stacked more or less the same as straw bales or bricks would be. Earth bag foundations are as simple and expensive as possible as most of the used material is free or extremely cheap.

Another alternative solution is tire foundations. It might seem radical but is actually quite well established. Used tires are filled with soil which is tightly packed together. The tires are then again stacked. The benefit of this method is that the tires are recycled and the rest the earth comes locally and cost nothing. Care must be done in order to avoid direct sunlight to the exposed tires. This applies to polypropylene bags which are used in earth bag construction as well. The cover can be achieved with simple plaster.

There is also an option to go medieval and use mortared stone. In areas where stones are readily available then this is the best possible natural building method. Huge stones are stacked together in the dig with mortar or cement. This provides immensely strong structures which can withstand literally centuries. The drawback is that even though the material is not and it does require a lot of (unskilled) labor. If a person has a time on his hands then it is a good alternative low cost building option to consider.

In conclusion, whereas the foundation is usually the most expensive part of your building there are many alternatives which can help a person in saving a lot of money without the negative environmental impact that cement foundations have. It is well worth taking an extra minute to think of possible alternatives to cement foundation. Though each stage of the process foundations real estate has the tools, systems and experience to guide a person and serve one’s interests as if they were their own. A deep understanding of a real estate processes and the local market, combined with marketing and communications technologies enable us to do more for a person than ever before.

Potential real estate investors planning to buy a newsunnyenclave Plot in mohali can count on us. We allow our clients to choose from a myriad of affordable options, enabling them to own a house that matches their budget. To know about our deals, check out our website newsunnyenclave.com/buy.html