Just saw movie Zodiac....Why so few basements in California?

[HardWorkingDem]

It said in this movie that there are few basements in California....

What is the reason for that? Just curious...

[Kutjara]

1. Maybe the earthquakes?

I don't think I'd want my house built over a huge void if the ground shakes a lot.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. My dear HardWorkingDem...

Most likely the earthquake problems, and a lot of the state has pretty sandy soil...

Especially near the coast...

:hi:

[Gormy Cuss]

3. Since I live near the nexus of the Zodiac killings, I can confirm that basements are rare.

I don't know if there's any one reason. Unlike where CalPeggy lives, the soil here is heavy clay and with the winter rainy season the soil expands quite a bit and then contracts in the dry season. It was hard enough engineering the ground floor to take this stress. Most of the houses in my area have hairline cracks caused by the seasonal expansion/contraction cycle. Driveways too. In other areas like parts of SF there is the sandy soil factor CalPeggy mentioned.

Cost may also have played a role -- until the late 20th century it was cheaper to build out across the ample lots rather than dig in a basement level. These days there are houses being built with basements but it's still unusual.

[XemaSab]

9. There are more shrink-swell soils

in the southeast and south great plains than in a lot of California, but that's not a bad guess. :shrug:

[NV Whino]

4. Because Californians don't understand the value of basements

Drives me nuts.

Mild weather. Things grow year 'round so there's no need to "put up" food for the winter (and store it). Plenty of land so houses spread out instead of going up (and down). Earthquakes may have something to do with it as well.

[Iggo]

18. It's the other way around.

It's not that we don't have basements because we don't understand their value. We don't understand their value because we don't have basements.

Although my Grandmother, lived in Alhambra, CA, in the 60s and she had a storm cellar, the kind you get to from outside the house through a slightly raised and sharply angled huge swinging door. Scariest place on earth.

[begin_within]

5. We have a small one

but our house was built in 1937 and it's really a crawlspace under most the house, but at the back end of the house it is tall enough to stand up in, and they paved a part of it with concrete, about a 10-foot by 10-foot area, and we call it the basement because it has a door and you can go into it and store things. But I agree, very few houses here have full-blown basements.

[leeroysphitz]

6. Early settlers were sick and tired of all the vampires back east.

[LeftyMom]

7. Because of flooding.

Up in the mountains one might be of benefit, but down here in the valleys where most everybody lives, it'd be an indoor swimming pool.

[XemaSab]

8. A few guesses:

We don't need storm cellars, we don't need winter storage, the ground is hard in some areas, we don't need coaling cellars or big furnaces, in some areas there's a high water table or flooding, and finally in some areas the houses were built very fast and they go up faster with no basement.

[Taverner]

10. Earthquakes n/t

[jmowreader]

11. Really high water table?

[petronius]

12. Because we have attached garages to store all our junk in...

:shrug:

Actually, I think the 'no need' explanation works best - it's never really too severe to go out the the shed or barn for storage, so why go to the trouble of digging a really big hole?

[baldguy]

13. Because its cheaper to put a house on a concrete slab

than to sink a hole for a proper basement.

[ButterflyBlood]

14. That movie should've been 30-45 minutes shorter

As entertaining as it was at first, 2 hours in you were just wondering when it would end. Especially considering the ending is really just a shaggy dog story.

[arcadian]

15. Basements attract serial killers

n/t

[hendo]

16. That is an awesome movie!

It is one of my favorites

[dorktv]

17. It is pretty obvious why. Because in 2008, the people of California wanted

a person named Hardworkingdem on an internet site to ask that question.

Now one might say "But Dork, no one knew about the interwebz back then." It does not matter, one day they knew it would come. Which is why California has Silicon Valley. It is all connected. :p