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TIL: With International Residential Code § 403.3 or ASCE 32, it is possible to build a house on a "frost-protected shallow foundation" that is as shallow as 12 inches (30 centimeters)! This is accomplished by using rigid foam-board insulation, buried surrounding and/or underneath the foundation, to artificially raise the frost line from its normal depth (typically several feet). This works for a heated building in the entire contiguous US (plus Alaska as far north as Anchorage), and even for an unheated building (or a heated building with too much floor insulation to heat up the ground; only with ASCE 32, not with IRC § 403.3) in nearly the entire contiguous US (all but North Dakota, the northern half of Minnesota, the northeastern corner of Montana, and cold spots in Wyoming, Colorado, and New Hampshire). According to the commentary to ASCE 32, this has been standard practice in Scandinavia since the early 1970s, but wasn't added to the IRC's predecessor until year 1995.
Court opinion:
September 2021: Aldemar is hit by a truck, and accumulates significant medical bills with Medicare before dying.
September 2022: Walter, the administrator of Aldemar's estate, sues the trucking company for wrongful death.
December 2022: Medicare estimates that the medical bills will amount to 60 k$. This is not a final determination.
May 2024: The lawsuit ends in a settlement. The company agrees to pay 500 k$ to Walter, and Walter agrees to pay the medical bills (whatever they turn out to be after negotiation with Medicare).
June 2024: Medicare determines that the medical bills amount to 40 k$. This determination can be appealed.
July 2024: The company pays 460 k$ to Walter and 40 k$ to Medicare. Walter objects: The settlement says that the company must pay 500 k$ to Walter and nothing to Medicare, so this 40-k$ payment to Medicare is completely gratuitous and outside of the agreement, and the company needs to pay another 40 k$ to Walter.
August 2024: The trial judge agrees with Walter. "I didn't award them extra money. I gave them what they bargained for. Your client voluntarily paid something else."
November 2024: The trucking company appeals.
October 2025: The appeals panel affirms.
TIL it's not a regular practice in the US. I guess you like your basements too much. Here building a basement costs significantly more than building at grade, square meter for square meter, so it only makes sense when building on a steep slope.
To clarify: Many US houses do not have basements, and instead use crawlspaces or slab-on-ground floors. But such houses still have their footings placed several feet underground, rather than using frost-protected shallow foundations in order to dig down only 12 or 16 inches (30 or 41 centimeters).
If it's a slab, why does it need additional footings at all? Here a slab (a proper one, with two layers of rebar) is usually built on well-drained sand and surrounded with an insulated apron.
EDIT: ah, it's called a "raft slab" in English, and a slab-on-ground is what we literally call "floor-on-ground" here. But the point still stands, deep footings are considered almost obsolete here, it's either a raft slab, shallow footings or piles-and-grillage here.
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