Building a New Home: Basement Tips

Here in Kansas City, when you build your basement for your new home, you might check with your builder to see if a "Keyway" is used in the basement construction.  Using a "Keyway" provides for a longer life to your new home.

When building a basement for your new home, a footing is poured first with metal rebar proportionally spaced in the footing and extending upward to create a sold attachment of the basement walls and the footing.  This is a common construction practice, however, the creation of a "Keyway" in the footing is sometimes overlooked.  It takes a little more time to place the "Keyway" in the construction footing, but the long term payoffs are worth the costs.  Allow me to explain.

A "Keyway" is a wedged (slot) running at the top of the footing and running the length of the wall.  Usually about a 2-2 1/2 inch wide and 1 1/2 inch depth with tapered sides in the middle of the top of the footing. After the basement walls are poured on top of the footing, the "Keyway"  allows for two barriers to be created.

The first barrier is a water barrier.  The wedged slot doesn't allow water to run down the wall, under the wall and on top of the footing to the interior basement floor.

Second, the "Keyway" helps create stability so earth shifts and movements around your new home won't all the walls to creep or even pushing the walls off the footings.  Movments in the walls willl create a separation in the basement floor and the interior walls.  Ever see those interior separations as you view new homes in the real estate market?

Now you know what a "Keyway" is and it's importance to your new home construction.

Let me know if you find this new home construction information helpful.  If you have any other questions you would like to see answered or suggestions, please let me know.

Thanks,
David L. Britt
http://www.heritage.yourkwagent.com