Arizona New Home Construction Series, 2022 - Foundations

Today's episode is about the foundation. Come with me and let's discuss how your foundation is put together from start to finish. Here they have the forms around the perimeter and then they have the areas dug out for the plumbing drains. Now they have all the plumbing drains and vents laid into those channels. Once the plumbing pipes are all in then they go ahead and they backfill the whole area to get ready for the tendons. All your tendons have been put in place. The foundation has been poured and I was actually able to catch the guys finishing this specific floor. As you can see with the post tensions lab everything is poured at once so you don't have separate areas that have been poured and then you have the stamp. Here's another slab that they just finished and it lets you see just how massive that slab can be and it's all poured one time. So post tensioning has been in the United States since the mid 1950s. So what is a post tension slab? A post tension slab is your concrete slab or foundation and then in lieu of the contractor using rebar they use a steel cable also called a tendon and then those cables run through the slab and then they place those cables under a plus or minus 33,000 pounds of tension and then it's that tension that makes the concrete slab and foundation much stronger than normal concrete without reinforcement and it also helps reduce cracking because those tendons hold that concrete slab together. So you might also ask what's the benefit to having a post tension slab? Well here in Arizona we have very expansive soils so by using the post tension slab you eliminate and can reduce any type of concrete shrinkage which could cause cracks and therefore no joints or very few joints are needed in that slab so if you come from other areas you'll see where they pour foundations in different sections and then they have to pin those sections together and then depending on frost and so on those sections may heave or the ground would heave. Here with our expansive soils we pour that foundation all in once and then literally if for some reason your soil does expand that whole slab stays together and moves as one. So that's kind of the back story to a post tension slab. Hope that helps. Please note I am not a certified engineer or concrete specialist, just your local Arizona REALTOR®. Please conduct your own research on any questions or concerns you may have regarding post tension slabs. If you'd like to know more about Arizona real estate and new construction please like subscribe and ring that bell to be notified of my next video. Have a wonderful day.