Microdistillery article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram this morning

[Stu]

Most Texas houses that I've seen have slabs, not foundations. I've heard that's because slabs resist the Texas soil shift more than foundations. I know there are a lot of cos. in Texas that like to come in to the middle of your living room with jack hammers and tear up your slab to find a water leak, but more than 3 million?

[theDon]

Most Texas houses that I've seen have slabs, not foundations. I've heard that's because slabs resist the Texas soil shift more than foundations. I know there are a lot of cos. in Texas that like to come in to the middle of your living room with jack hammers and tear up your slab to find a water leak, but more than 3 million?

A slab is a foundation and a foundation is a slab, made of concrete, just like I said. Look it up. I think you had one too many bourbons.:slappin:

And seriously I said exactly 3,000,604. Really? It was meant to be funny and show there are alot of foundation repair companies in Texas. Again lay of the jug. If it has XXX on it, no drinky drinky!

[matthew0715]

Yeah, I'm finding this interesting. The micro-distillery thing has been done to death, let's convert the whole board to basement chat.

My father's house in the Wilkes-Barre, PA area had a basement (not unusual), but he was surprised to learn of the need for Subsidence Insurance. Just as flood insurance is separate from your regular homeowners insurance, in an area built over old coal mines, there is always a possibility the earth will shift causing a sudden hole in your basement floor that looks like it goes to the center of the earth. It's not common, but it happens.

Matt

[cowdery]

Like Stu, I grew-up making the distinction between "foundations" and "slabs" or, more properly, "slab foundations." We have houses here that have foundations, not slab foundations, and crawl spaces instead of basements.

ALL BASEMENT CHAT ALL THE TIME!!!

[OscarV]

ALL BASEMENT CHAT ALL THE TIME!!!

All righty then, I've been dying to know if a basement flood is covered by home owners insurance or not.:skep:

[cowdery]

All righty then, I've been dying to know if a basement flood is covered by home owners insurance or not.:skep:

It depends on the cause and exactly how the policy is worded if basement water damage is a covered hazard.

[Ultra]

Actually, one of the requirements in the greatly relaxed Federal licensing rules is that a still cannot be within a residence or within a set number of feet of one.

And am I to understand that there are no residential basements in the entire state of Texas? Really? And how is that "reality," when we weren't really talking about Texas, were we? You do have basements in Michigan, don't you, Charlie. Or are they surreal basements?

Actually, my bar is in my finished basement. Would love to share some of my bourbon there with any of you.

[craigthom]

This house in Dallas has a basement.

Either I struck gold with a quick search or there are more.

I know that there's no basement at the Alamo.

[callmeox]

All righty then, I've been dying to know if a basement flood is covered by home owners insurance or not.:skep:

Back in July of 2006 we had a major rain storm in Lake County, Ohio (a 500 year event) where we got over 10 inches of rain in a 24 hour period. Needless to say, there was plenty of flooding and the Grand River crested at over 19 feet, far exceeding the previous record crest of 13 feet.

Most of the damage in our area was from sanitary sewer backup and neighbors all around me had in upwards of a foot of sewage in their basements at various times during the storm. The sewer system was just not designed to handle that huge amount of water and it had to go somewhere. Manhole covers were popping off all over due to the force of the water. Luckily, we had no sewer backup in our basement.

Although I don't have flood insurance, I did pick up sewer back up coverage very cheaply the day after the storm. It covers most of the infrastructure that you would find in a basement (furnace, hot water tank, laundry, improved walls, etc.) but that's it. If you lose your couch and the new flat screen TV, it's on your dime. :grin:

Aren't you glad you asked?

[theDon]

This house in Dallas has a basement.

Either I struck gold with a quick search or there are more.

Interesting story on this ad in yesterday's Dallas Morning News. Seems this was H.L. Hunt's house, famous oil tycoon, and one of the most famous houses in Dallas. It was mistakingly put up for sale for 32,000,000, but was not actually for sale by permission of the owners. The listing has been removed. Just thought it was strange you found that and then there was a story on it in the paper.

[callmeox]

Synchronicity!

(padpadpadpadpad)

[smokinjoe]

A thread like this needs to be bumped.

I know a guy who bought a house, then decided to put in his own basement.

[CorvallisCracker]

...then decided to put in his own basement.

My wife has been trying to talk me into doing that.