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Re: my earlier toot.
Honest question - is a "utility room" some sort of Midwestern thing?
Talking about how to avoid running ducts through attics, it occurred to me that it might be.
Here, if you don't have a basement, there's usually a room with your furnace/air handler, water heater, and washer/dryer. Plumbing often routes there, too.
Sometimes it's less of a room and more of a closet, but we can't just stick the washer and water heater in the garage 'cause they'll freeze.
Just thinking about how norms feel normal and stepping outside of them feels weird.
When I hear people say "where else would the furnace go?" or whatever, it's super puzzling to me because... in the furnace room! We literally called it that in the house I grew up in.
But if it's normal to shove it up in the attic where you live, planning a room for that stuff might feel wasteful.
@TechConnectify I’m guessing basements aren’t the norm out there? If so, why? Water table weirdly high? Ground freeze too deep?
@98codes The water table thing is the case for Florida, I think, but in other places? No idea.
My gut says something or other about earthquakes for CA. Maybe.
Those are the only two reasons I can think of. But it may be something to do with land value, soil, mindset (maybe Midwesterners are more prone to digging for another "free" floor?), regional norms.
Basements certainly aren't a given where I live but I think the large majority of SFHs have 'em
@TechConnectify @98codes basements weren’t particularly common in my childhood in the PNW, but utility spaces and rooms for the water heater and furnace were usually closets wedged under the stairs in the Vancouver Special, or part of the laundry rooms near centre mass of the house on the first floor.
Electric heat and hot water has been a lot more common since the 90s condo boom though and will be more so going forward, since it’s required by code as of 2022!
@TechConnectify @98codes chiming in from the other side of the pond I'd say it's just really expensive. Here almost every home has one but I've heard more modern homes start to come without them because either people can't afford them anymore or it has something to do with energy.
@TechConnectify @98codes The reasoning i heard (so, citation needed) was that you need to put pipes below the frost line (below which it never freezes), and if you're doing all that digging anyway, you might as well use the space.
If you don't need to dig that deep, no free basement.