So You’re Building a Basement: Poured vs Block Foundations

When you’re building a new home, you want the highest quality for the best possible price.  So the question becomes, “Does it make more sense to use a concrete poured foundation wall or should you use block?”  There are pros and cons to each of these methods for building the foundation for your new home.  Let’s take a look at each so you can choose the best option for your project.

Accessibility

Using a poured concrete wall requires massive amounts of concrete.  For homes, this concrete is brought in by cement trucks from a ready mix plant.  If for some reason your home is nowhere near a plant, there may be a significant cost savings in going with block walls.

Schedule

Most new home poured foundations can be completed in three days.  Here is the typical schedule…

• Day 1:  Form up walls
• Day 2:  Pour walls
• Day 3:  Strip forms

Block walls can take a week or longer depending on the size of the crew.  Saving four or five days in your construction schedule can be a huge savings on your construction loan interest and other monthly costs.

Quality

So which type of foundation has the highest quality associated with it?  As a builder, I can tell you the thing I like best about the poured concrete foundation wall is the solid mass.  The typical wall is 8-10 inches of solid, seamless concrete.  Contrast this with the block wall which is made up of many smaller pieces secured together with mortar.  The potential for failures and cracks are much greater, in my humble opinion, with the block wall. 

Does that mean you won’t get cracks with a poured concrete wall?  Absolutely not.  In fact, you will most likely get cracking in a poured foundation wall but in many cases, the cracks are hairline and do not require attention.  But if they do, a simple epoxy injection from the inside of the basement will take care of the problem in most cases.

Prefabricated Foundation Wall Panels

Prefabricated foundation wall panels are another foundation option that is becoming more popular as time goes on.  These are built in a controlled environment and then shipped out to the jobsite where they are assembled.  The quality of these walls can be very good, but the cost is typically quite a bit more than poured concrete or block walls.