Why Is It So Low?
To the ground: Houses that is. I’ve been asked several times why they’re so low to the ground we can’t work beneath them.
I’m a little slow to answer that question. I also need to get the last installment in on the Water Under The House project. It’s done, but I’ve been slow to get the last post up. Sorry folks It was a hectic week last week. Then, save for a little meeting over the weekend with some out of town folks about a renovation (among other projects on their list), I kinda dipped under the radar for the long weekend.
Okay, down to the question: Why are [some] houses built so low to the ground?
There are two answers. The first is an instance (a rare one, I’ll admit) where the law — the building code, in this case — actually makes a bit of sense. It’s designed to address minimum safety standards. It was never intended to provide a logical or common sense set of building design standards. That’s the job of architects, engineers, designers, and contractors, who are supposed to put the pieces of the puzzle together in a way that addresses such long term life cycle issues as vertical clearance for subarea maintenance and repair.
In reality, however, it only happens on the high end of the housing market. And that leads us to the second answer to the question.
Most subdivisions are built by developers who put the entire development project (or a major portion of it) up for bid: "How much to build 250 homes on proposed subdivision X?" The details take several forms, of course, but the end result is always the same: The bidding is ferociously competitive and the contract is invariably awarded to the lowest qualified bidder.
The developer wants the largest amount of profit from the deal s/he can manage in the shortest amount of time. So it’s not about quality, it’s all about quantity and speed.
In such a bidding and building atmosphere profit margins are very small. Many many corners get cut to keep the project on schedule and on budget. And one of them is the least amount of ground preparation that can be managed. An extra 6 inches of dirt may not seem like much for one lot, but multiply that amount by 250 and you’ve got the difference between a winning (lowest) bid and a bid that comes in 2nd or 3rd, or that comes in late and/or over budget, eating into or eliminating profits.
Once out of the "’tract" home market, however, you begin to find custom designed (or modified) homes that are built "one off." Here you’re more likely to find attention to minor details such as ground clearance, drainage, the need for sump pumps, and the means and methods of accessing the buildings systems over its life cycle to perform needed maintenance.
I hope this is an adequate, if general, answer to the question.
Technorati Tags: building standards, architecture, development, developer, construction, subdivision
