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If you do go raised do not go cheap on your subfloor or it will shake and be noisy when walking on it.

There are some advantages to both. The more complex the structure the better off you are with a crawlspace. The Yazoo clay effect on a large house can be significant with fractured slab leading to tile and floor fractures etc....

And important thing to remember about crawlspace. Home construction is much better than it was fifty years ago. In the past you always placed vents in the crawlspace in order to "allow the home to breath". That is because homes always had some air leakage through the walls, roof etc... and you wanted outside air circulating under the house to move through the home. Today there has been so much attention to energy efficiency that houses are essentially air tight. Spray foam, new insulation methods etc... have eliminated a homes "breathability". The result is that if you allow moist air from the exterior to get under the crawlspace it will set up moisture issues in the home.

The combat this, make sure you builder eliminates traditional air vents in the crawlspace. Have your insulation guy spray foam the floor and maybe even add a dehumidifier in the crawlspace.

Is there a way to get a crawlspace look and feel with a slab?

turn down concrete footings will give you the same look......its done in a lot of places. If cost is an issue go with a slab. If not......go with conventional

The way some of you are talking, it sounds like Yazoo clay will not effect a crawl space home. Just to be clear, this is not the case. If the ground shifts, whatever is on top of it will shift (potentially leading to broken flooring, pipes, etc.) . The crawl space will just allow for easier repair/leveling of the home.

kb7722 wrote:The way some of you are talking, it sounds like Yazoo clay will not effect a crawl space home. Just to be clear, this is not the case. If the ground shifts, whatever is on top of it will shift (potentially leading to broken flooring, pipes, etc.) . The crawl space will just allow for easier repair/leveling of the home.

ain't got a dog in the fight, but i can attest to foundation issues with a crawl space. i have several parts of my house with the doors not shutting, cracked tile, etc...

The one thing I have to add is a safety aspect. I have been all over MS and AL performing Debris removal caused by Tornados. A slab house would still be standing and a conventional right beside it would be gone. Don’t get me wrong the slab would be destroyed but you had some structure left, the conventional would just be gone. The Slab houses seem to be much safer in wind events. My 2cents

I used steal straps that loop over my engineered beams at all my pillars which are 5' in the ground ever 7'. Also used hurricane clips on the floor joists, walls, and ceiling joist and everything is on 16" centers. If a storm blows my house down there won't be anything left anywhere near it!!