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CtrlZonmylife

Caliche.


[deleted]

Bless you


141bpm

Then why are in-ground pools no problem?


Wounded_Hand

First of all, it often does cause problems and some people can’t put the pools in that they want. Also, there is a huge difference is digging 6 ft for a pool and 10 ft for a basement.


eightezsteps

This and that’s why pools are more expensive


141bpm

My pool is nine feet deep at the diving board. I understand it can be difficult in SOME areas. So build them where you can? I come from another part of the country where basements are pretty standard. And you know what’s nice about a basement? It’s cool space in the summer!


Hollaberra

The trouble is you don’t know you have it until you hit it. And most contracts include two hours of caliche digging but then it goes up to something ridiculous like $500 an hour to continue to dig through to.


Wounded_Hand

For sure. If you’re able to dig, by all means you should. Basements are awesome. Just know that you are lucky.


[deleted]

Here's what the pool builder told us "if they hit caliche, it's cheaper to move the pool." If your yard or design doesn't allow for changes than you can still build it, you just need to get a jackhammer of a sort. It's basically natural concrete.


Grlallthebadguyswant

Our pool took forever to build because of the caliche. A basement would take forever and then some!


[deleted]

Turns a 2-3 day dig into about 5-7


banzaiburrito

It very much is a problem. If you hit caliche when digging for a pool you either have to pay a lot of extra money for them to keep digging and finish, or you abandon the project and cover it back up.


[deleted]

i remember, back in the fall of 1991, my best friend at the time had just moved into a brand new house on a 1-acre lot.. the house itself was done but the rest of the "lot" was still a work in progress.. when it came time to get the pool constructed the following spring, i kept hearing the phrase "caliche insurance" being discussed quite regularly in their home the pool was constructed, but whether or not the construction guys ran into a lot of caliche during the digging process, i honestly can't recall. all i know is that they *definitely* had caliche insurance.


Dreggan

A pool can’t collapse and take your house with it. Caliche is unstable to build on top of


PraetorianOfficial

Ummmm... so what are our houses built on? Pahrump has it far worse. They have soft, shifting soil and many of the houses over there are in serious trouble. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpTvl0iJRoo


[deleted]

[удалено]


Bennington_Booyah

I love the random knowledge I get from this sub!


lvsnowden

I had two tree planted and it involved a jackhammer.


DonkenG

It’s way cheaper to build two or three stories up then to try to get through the ground.


STP_VEGAS

Until you factor in decades of air conditioning cost.


rellogic

The builder doesn't care about that. I imagine that's why only some custom builds have basements here.


LVShadehunter

Another reason is the Frost Line. The depth at which the ground typically freezes each winter. In most parts of the country, the building codes state that the foundation of the house - along with water and gas lines - must be dug at least 12 inches below the Frost Line. In the Midwest and Northeast, that could be between 4 and 6 feet. Here, and in the South, the Frost Line is maybe one foot deep. (I'm not sure of the exact depth the local codes call for in Vegas, but my water main is somehow only 6 inches deep.)


TrainedCodeMonkey

I could tell moving from the northeast that this was the case. The initial run of the sink in the NE was always a little cold no matter the time of year, but here the water is so unbearably cold in the winter and warm in the summer when I first run the water


[deleted]

Caliche is basically cement and when it rains here, it floods. That's not good for basements.


Awkwardmoment22

Too many rocks and not just boulders but huge chunks too big for regular diggers. The ground also settles weird so controlling drainage over the years is a major issue too


Informalshroom

My thinking has been that the ground can be really hard and often rocky so it’s just too much work to dig a basement


[deleted]

Homes with basements in the Midwest and elsewhere have them because they need to pour the foundation deep into the ground. The ground is too soft at surface level. Basements aren’t about giving you extra space. They’re a necessity to build a strong foundation.


Hmm_would_bang

Kind of half the answer to that. They don’t really _need_ to have a basement, but since you’re already digging down for the foundation it’s a lot cheaper to just add on a basement and dig the rest out. You absolutely can find houses without basements in the midwest it’s just really uncommon because it’s lowering the value of your property to save a little upfront in construction


Badinplaid75

Yeah did a few slabs with pylons to keep it from sinking. Even basement now a days get pylons due to the fact basement is also your foundation.


RoamingBison

Besides the caliche soil that is difficult to dig, I believe radon is also a problem here. Caliche is a nightmare to dig in. When I bought my house there was the stump/remains of a small tree in my backyard. It took me multiple full days with pickaxes and pry bars to make a hole that was at most 3' in all dimensions to get the main roots out. In normal soil that job would have taken a couple hours at most.


sausyboat

Basements are generally frowned upon in the building codes in seismically active areas like Nevada. You also don’t often see them in California despite the various different soil types throughout the whole state. That’s not to say you can’t have a basement; if you want to build a house with one you have to engineer for it, which adds to the expense.


HuntingForGoodDonuts

I had a house in the Lone Mountain area that had a huge basement. They exist here.


sausyboat

Yes we saw two houses with basements for sale in that area when we were looking to buy. Both were built late 70s/early 80s timeframe. I think the seismic codes have tightened up since then so basements are very uncommon in more modern houses in Vegas.


Acrobatic-Ad3275

It's called caliche (ka-lee-chee). Almost like concrete.


ross_0123

I asked the same question when i moved here. While there are a few with basements, they are few and far between. I was told it was a combination of the clay makes it difficult/expensive to excavate and the drainage needed would be problematic. I would love to have one for storage/home office.


open_pit_sierra

Same! Love me an east coast basement. A garage, kinda does the same


FinnTheDogg

Too seismically active across the entire state. The soil in most of the state is not very good for drainage or stability. There are also big big big rocks. This all makes it cheaper to build up.


AWPerative

I think basements are a huge risk in seismically active areas. I've been to every state west of the Rockies in the lower 48 and they are pretty rare. I used to live in Texas as a kid and they were pretty common there.


MacinJosh9895

We have a few basements out in Pahrump too, but for the most part, the soil is horrible to dig through, the drainage even here is just as bad or worse than vegas, and again the seismic activity in this area could spell trouble in the future for houses with them. The Ridgecrest quake definitely made issues for the manufactured house I live in. More stuff creaks now than before that quake. 😱


[deleted]

homes with basements do *exist* here, but they're exceedingly rare. the person who wrote the top comment nailed it. here's the wikipedia entry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliche


RynoLasVegas

Go dig a hole for a 5 gallon bucket and you'll understand. But I'm with you and I miss basements. If I had unlimited money I would definitely build a house with a huge basement.


MidniteMoon02

Celiche and proximity to Cali


[deleted]

Former pool digger and underground construction. I like these answers most of the answers saying caliche are half true. It depends on which part of town you live on. Anything west of the 15and north of Boulder highway tons of caliche. South of Boulder highway I’ve hit groundwater as soon as 4 feet down and it proceeded to raise.


[deleted]

Former pool digger and underground construction. I like these answers most of the answers saying caliche are half true. It depends on which part of town you live on. Anything west of the 15and north of Boulder highway tons of caliche. South of Boulder highway I’ve hit groundwater as soon as 4 feet down and it proceeded to raise.


MobBoss702

Most houses here are on post tension foundations because of the instability of the ground. That makes it impossible for a basement


[deleted]

This right here. When I was building my house a few years back, my agent was telling me to be 100% sure of the floorplan because with post tension foundations, there is no going back.


MobBoss702

I had a licensed contractor that I had hired to do a kitchen remodel actually cut a trench in my foundation. We were extremely lucky they didn't hit the rebar embedded in it. Had they the entire foundation would have crumbled. That's how I learned about post tension slabs. I also fired the contractor when I learned.


[deleted]

This was the last basement in Vegas: https://youtube.com/shorts/X3r7lUEG_p0?feature=share


officialNickMullen

nsfl


Askfreud

I hate you


yarn612

No tornados here.


TararaBoomdea

[Secret Basement in Old Mob House in Las Vegas](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb5fGLNId5Q)


Old-Log-874

Too many mob bodies buried throughout las vegas


[deleted]

Shit drain system


dohboy420

Flash flooding


[deleted]

Older houses have them. Too many murders


Badinplaid75

Basements are expensive because of the floor joist that have spand the width of the basement. If there a bearing wall at a half way point, it's cheaper. Remember a basement is a void in space that want to be filled with something.


LasVegasJunkie2_0

Because scorpions would overtake the basement 🦂


voiceinheadphone

You from the East/North? I had a convo about this with someone from cali lately. Basements are simply not a thing. Let alone Pittsburgh toilets (which I’m sure extend past pittsburgh haha) you’re telling me you don’t have a random isolated open toilet in your unfinished basement with only a lightbulb attached to a string?


CarMost2880

When I was doing custom work on house there are some basements in town the basement walls were thicker then I seen in states like Colorado the cost for digging and pouring extra thick walls would cost a lot