Depending on where you live, basements may or may not be commonplace. In the United States, the existence of basements varies by region. It’s extremely common in northern states for homes to have basements, while in other areas of the country, they don’t exist.
Whether from a northern state or not, most Americans still know what a basement is and have seen one in person. But in other countries, the extra square footage beneath the house doesn’t exist at all. Turns out there’s a good reason for the existence and nonexistence of this underground structure.
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If people in other countries watch American horror movies, it wouldn’t be surprising if they thought all homes in the U.S. had basements. Housbee, a YouTube channel, recently uploaded a video explaining why houses in certain parts of the country have basements. It’s a surprisingly practical reason.
“Even within America itself, basements basically vanish the moment you cross into Florida or Texas,” the voiceover says. “Same country, similar building codes in many ways, completely different foundations. The answer is not tradition. The answer is frozen dirt, water tables, and a math problem most homeowners never see.” They later add, “A basement is not really a choice in much of the United States. It is almost a free side effect of something the builder has to do anyway.”
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Housbee explains that homes built in colder climates in the United States have to account for the frost line. This is the depth to which the ground freezes in the winter months, causing the soil to expand. “If your foundation sits above that line, the freezing ground will push it up, crack it, and slowly destroy your house from below,” the video reveals. “That process is called frost heave, and it is brutal.”
For this reason, the building codes are different in the northern region of the United States. Depending on where the line falls, the depth that has to be dug before the foundation is laid varies by state. In some states, like Maine, builders need to dig at least four feet down. Instead of having a slab of concrete four or five feet thick, contractors dig a few feet deeper and make the space into an additional room.
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In deep southern states, the frost line is the least of their concerns when building a home. Instead, southern homebuilders often have to account for the sea level and groundwater that permeate just below the dirt.
“Dig down to build a basement, and you’re essentially digging a swimming pool,” Housbee says about Florida. “The hole fills with groundwater faster than you can pour concrete. Even if you somehow waterproofed it, the constant pressure from below would crack the walls within years. Add hurricanes, sinkholes, and soil that shifts after heavy rain, and the whole concept becomes structurally insane.”
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Due to the water problem, many homes in the south are built on concrete slabs. It’s essentially concrete poured directly onto the dirt within a wooden form until it has cured enough for the wood to be removed. Texas faces a similar problem with the expansive clay soil that much of the central and eastern parts of the state sit on. This type of soil swells and contracts with the rain, making having a basement next to impossible.
When looking at the Midwest, basements are more of a necessity than a luxury of extra living space. Many people in Midwestern states use their basements for storage and storm shelters, because underground is the safest place to be during a tornado.
But the staple of basements in regions that don’t have tornadoes may be fading as new homes are built. According to Housbee, contractors have begun using a Scandinavian method called “frost-protected shallow foundation, which uses rigid foam insulation around the perimeter to keep the ground from freezing under the house.”
What started as a necessity for a multitude of reasons became a staple in scary movies, may not become a thing of the past. As newer homes phase out the extra space to catch up with the rest of the world, what will become horror movies’ creepy starting place?
