Comments on LamiDesign Modern House Plan Blog: Letters from Sweden - the foundation

Thanks for that link Chad. I had not had a chance ...

2008-10-10T15:43:00.000-04:00

Thanks for that link Chad. I had not had a chance to look for a comparable North American product. They have a video on their site which I will watch to see the details of their formwork.

Check out http://www.legalett.ca/index.htm who is ...

2008-10-10T14:48:00.000-04:00

Check out http://www.legalett.ca/index.htm who is based in Canada and ships their product to the US. They require a stamp from a local engineer to install in the US but their documentation says it is no problem.

This is a great post, Greg, and I am going to seriously pursue this for our next project in Philly as it could be a big cost and time saver. Thanks!

I don't have a good answer for that jb. They are c...

2008-10-09T07:13:00.000-04:00

I don't have a good answer for that jb. They are clearly extending the foam under the slab edge, and I would have the same concern about bearing the house on the foam. But I don't know the density of the foam, or any of the details behind the product. But this is status quo in Sweden, and you can certainly see the energy benefit of floating the slab edge on insulation like this.

thanks greg... that's what I started thinking too,...

2008-10-08T19:11:00.000-04:00

thanks greg... that's what I started thinking too, but I guess I've never seen foam placed underneath a load bearing element. I was concerned it would get crushed. Or am I still reading it incorrectly? Either way, cool stuff.

jb, if you look at the photo above with the wire g...

2008-10-08T15:36:00.000-04:00

jb, if you look at the photo above with the wire grid and piping all in place, and look at the perimeter you can see that the foam formwork makes a downturned edge all around the slab. At the bottom of this edge you can see they have placed reinforcing bars which makes a grade beam out of this downturned edge, and supports the direct wall loads. They would make a similar depression if there was a load bearing wall inside the house.

Very cool... but I am wondering how wall loads are...

2008-10-08T13:22:00.000-04:00

Very cool... but I am wondering how wall loads are handled. It looks like there is no stem wall. Is the slab extra thick to act as a "footing" for the perimeter loads?