Opinions about concrete vary widely on these forums. Claims of long experience may simply mean that they have been doing it wrong for a long time. Take whatever is posted here and use as a basis for more research that you will do. Concrete is either 1. a slab placed over a supporting substrate, or 2. a component of a bridge. A bridge has reinforcement which supports both all of the components of the bridge plus the loads that the bridge must bear. Cracked floors could indicate an improper substrate. Concrete made from Portland cement shrinks as it cures. Fiber helps to minimize cracking from this cause. Control joints are used to create deliberately weaker places where such cracks can more easily occur, hopefully sparing those areas between the control joints. A poorly-prepared substrate that varies in height, i.e, not level, virtually insures that concrete placed over it will crack where the concrete is thinner. None of my interior concrete has any cracks after 10 years. The basement was solid soil with 4" of crushed stone compacted with plate compactor. Fiber is the only reinforcement there. Part of my garage is filled 8 feet deep. Filled with selected soil and compacted thoroughly with a "jumping jack compactor' every 8" of added soil EXCEPT adjacent to the basement wall which would have put too much lateral pressure against the wall. Then rebar formed a bridge over the deepest fill and wider spaced rebar is over the full garage area. Fiber was used there. I would not expect fiber to provide structural reinforcement. Fiber slightly hinders getting a slick final finish on the concrete. Keeping the concrete CONSTANTLY wet for 30 days will insure much greater strength but does not appreciably affect cracking. My lot is like yours. My yard is graded for water control. House main floor level is lower than the road. A gentle swale is created about 30' from the house and then the yard slopes up to the road from the other side of the swale. The swale slopes downward gently to one side of the lot. No water in the basement as it easily runs away before it gets to the house. The ground level adjacent to the house is about 2' higher than the bottom of the swale at it's highest point. Here is a link that might be useful: Swale

I have lived in... A cheap Michigan home on a slab that I don't remember well, but my mom said it had ants, "They built it on an anthill." An old MI farmhouse on a dirt-floored smelly basement. Smelled like mice. Our furnace, water heater, and oil tank were down there and when a storm came that threatened to turn into a tornado, none of us kids would go down there because none of us could find our shoes. We were barefoot all summer unless we were going to town with a parent. An 1955 NJ ranch home on a dry basement that had a noisy sub pump that came on when it rained. A 1955 Baton Rouge ranch-style house with large overhangs and no gutters. "Gutters don't work down here," we were told. The rain came so fast that the gutters would have overflowed. Insisted on a pier-and-beam construction on this house because I knew that my knees would not allow me to stand or walk for long on concrete. When I was 13 I played the role of a runner for my great aunt at a ceramic show, and was on my crutches again for a week afterward. So we only looked at old houses in BR. In town, all the newer houses were on slabs. Our house smelled musty some times. Then we learned that the guest bathtub drained to the ground under the house! My 1950 MI house on Chippewa had a basement that was too humid. That had to do with the gutters. They were no good - rusted and not leveled right. They leaked like crazy above the front door. The front porch was wood. But all the identical houses in the neighborhood had concrete porches. Turns out there was a root cellar (like a closet with a dirt floor and concrete walls and top that is "outside" the basement - a door in the basement wall opens up to this dirt-floored closet. It stays cooler than the rest of the basement. Turns out that the concrete porch is the top of the "root cellar" and when somebody took it out, they took out the roof of the cellar! Smart-a$$ then used plywood to make a "ceiling" to the root cellar. Plywood under dirt that is above the cellar. By the time I bought the house, it was rotted. When it rained, a flood of water from the roof went onto the porch because of the improper slant of the gutter. Stream of water went to root cellar, then across the basement floor to the floor drain near the furnace and water heater! I had my own little river in the basement. New concrete porch fixed that snafu! Still needed dehumidification. Our current 1978 house (goodby 1950s!)has a dry concrete basement with a sump pump. Smells fine. At the front of the house, the garage, laundry room, foyer, and living room are all on a slab. There are cracks in the corners of some walls due to uneven settling of the slab. The previous owner spent several thousand dollars on "Ram Jacks" TM to stabilize the living room. That is my tour through the basements of my life!

It's best practice to use perforated PVC (NOT PE black slinky) around the outside of footings/bottom of basement and retaining walls. This pipe is wrapped in a filter sock, clean gravel and protected by thicker geotextile fabric like a burrito. It's best to backfill with clean gravel on top of burrito and against buried walls. This gravel is also protected by fabric. A cap layer of less pervious soil and good slope away from the house redirects surface water, the drainage stuff below is for times of heavy rain and increased groundwater. The perforated pipe transitions to solid pipe as it leaves the gravel burrito at house. It's pitched to drain by gravity, just like downspout drains. Some sites may need to trench 100' or more to drain to daylight. Cleanouts should be provided as needed, same as with waste plumbing. It's also best practice to have a drainage pipe in the slab gravel layer that maintains a consistent slope to daylight, usually requiring a penetration of the stem wall on the downhill side. Very few residential monolithic slabs in our area, but those might need the pipe to go through or under footing. A dry, monolithic slab site may not need a drain if built up well. If basement is a top design priority, and gravity drainage is not possible, then I would specify an airtight sump cover and look into battery backup if in an area of frequent power outages. The wetter and more remote the site, the more nervous I would be without gravity assist. Power failures often coincide with the big weather events that require drainage.

You are all amazing. Thank you so much for your input! I believe you've answered my question about cost savings. I do believe you've convinced us to stick with the basement. So a little more information and reasoning for this layout, which I agree is a little different.... We're in our mid thirties and we have 3 young daughters. We live in a split level with garage below, and I gotta say, it's not my favorite setup. Unloading kids and carrying everything upstairs is hard. He's a farmer with a wide array of hobbies including hunting, skiing and camping, and there's a lot of crap that goes along with those things. I'm a simple woman with few passions other than working full time, raising babies, taking care of chickens and making soap. Our current yard is a steep hill with our home in close proximity to a busy highway. My girls will never be able to ride a bike or play with a ball at this property. So we desire the following in a home: Accessible main level for aging parents and of course for us in the future. The front entrance of our plan has a concrete sidewalk ramp. Attached garage on main level with plenty of space for farm truck, SUV, his old Camaro, ranger, mower, saws, tools and a workbench. A decent sized mudroom/ laundry room. Four bedrooms, 3 bathrooms. I'm thinking of 3 teen girls getting ready in the future. Walk in pantry. I have home canned goods and canning supplies. It'd be nice to have space for that. A secondary living room. I want this to be a romper space for my growing kids, their cousins and friends. The less breakable things, the better, in my mind! I see a lot of movie watching happening here, and a windowless den would be fabulous. A second kitchen for entertaining, which we do quite often, and for soap making. This is a messy hobby that also comes with a lot of stuff that takes up space. The craft room and hunting rooms.. these are on my wish list. That whole end of the basement could just remain unfinished storage. But how nice it would be to have designated space for his hobbies and mine. Really, I'm okay with no windows in those rooms! Anyway, we've put a ton of thought into these plans. It is essentially a whole other home in the basement which I know is a lot of expense, but something I'd like to explore at least. Thank you again for answering my questions! our current home :)