slab-grade / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

What is the difference between a slab on grade and a crawl space? A slab on grade, or ‘frost protected shallow foundation’ is exactly that, a slab of concrete on the ground. There’s more to it of course, but let’s start with a ‘win’ in the comprehension department shall we?  A slab on grade rests directly on the groun...

Slab-on-grade construction - technical guide   Deciding to build your home with a slab-on-grade foundation instead of a conventional basement or raised crawlspace foundation can greatly reduce your environmental impact during construction, and has the potential to offer significant financial savings as well. By replaci...

Slab on grade foundation, detail design; the basics There are many different soil conditions and corresponding slab designs. This page is about how to build a thickened edge concrete slab on grade FPSF footing on soil with a high water table to prevent frost heave, by first installing drainage below the slab.  Related ...

What is the difference between a slab on grade and a crawl space? A slab on grade, or ‘frost protected shallow foundation’ is exactly that, a slab of concrete on the ground. There’s more to it of course, but let’s start with a ‘win’ in the comprehension department shall we?  A slab on grade rests directly on the groun...

See more videos about passive solar high performance home building here  Once a decision has been made to choose between a crawlspace or a slab foundation, you need to know how to finish the edge off durably. Typically the exterior edge of a slab on grade is made of EPS foam and can be parged. Having used rigid Rockwo...

There are many ways to build a slab-on-grade (or frost-protected shallow foundation), the following is a step-by-step walk though of a thickened-edge slab floor we built. XPS or EPS rigid foam is typically used under concrete slab floors, in this case we used mineral fiber insulation. Note: our mineral wool was provide...

Is an insulated slab on grade the best foundation choice? Or is a basement better? Traditionally, home construction often starts with a concrete basement foundation - But is that the best choice?  The first factors to consider when designing the foundation system for a home are lot size and soil conditions. When space ...

Here is our DIY video of  how to lay down tubing for our radiant floor in the Edelweiss House. We have a 10 zone system, allowing floor temperatures in each room to be controlled independently. HePex tubing was provided by Uponor, who also use building plans to give customers a zone plan to follow making the install q...

How to install a radon barrier - slab floors If in the kind of area where it's a good idea to install a vapor barrier against radon ingress, (check out the Radon maps by state and province page to find out here) we can't stress enough how important it is to test for radon, or better still to continually monitor for hig...

What exactly is a monolithic concrete slab? Imagine a monolithic slab as a large, continuous structurally solid 'plate' of concrete that makes up your home's foundation. The whole thing is poured at one time, combining both the finished concrete floor and its thickened edge footing. This single pour method is a real g...

How much insulation does a basement floor need? Insulating a basement is a great idea if it wasn't insulated when built, as before we began insulating foundation walls and below slabs (see slab on grade), it was generally estimated that basement heat loss accounted for about 1/3 of the total heat loss of a house. It is...