Customer Reviews

Foundations and Concrete Work

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a very good book, very complete. A lot of techniques are presented, also the more recent techniques. A lot of images and photos that help to understand. I recommand it!

I bought this book because I'm removing my current driveway and wanted to replace it myself to save labor costs. I did find an article on driveways which was useful to me. I also found several other article of interest becuase I plan on building my own house from the ground up in the future.

As some other reviewers have pointed out, this is not a "project progression" book. There are plenty of others out there, go buy one of them. If you want to find out what's new and innovative in the trade, try this one! I recently went of a "Parade of Homes" in my area (northern Wisconsin) that was supposed to show off homes of the best builders in the area. Was I disappionted!! Only 1 of 16 homes had used any of these new ideas. Nearly every one had a damp/wet basement. People just stick with the same techniques that were used 25+ years ago.

If you are about to build, buy a book like this, get informed and either do it yourself or make your builder, build you a "modern" home.

I was looking for a book that would help me make better decisions during the construction of my new home. This book had some ideas, but doesn't go deep enough into any of the ideas or issues it raises.

The book does offer some useful insight into how to lay concrete forms, and I bought it to do that. With no prior knowledge of concrete forms, I poured footings, and walls for a separate entrance to my basement. The only resources I used were this book and what I asked people that worked with concrete. Although I found the book helpful I am looking for one that includes things such as building concrete stairs. Overall the book will show you how to make concrete forms for footings and walls.

I purchased this book with the intent on learning about laying my own forms, and pouring footings for a small garage addition. Although there is good information in the book, it is not cohesive, nor does it flow and in fact is quite dis-jointed. I did not learn what I needed to know about form building, but I did learn more than I really needed to know about several other areas of concrete work.

I was really hoping that a "project progression" approach would have been a natural means of writing a book such as this, but I gambled and lost. This book goes on the shelf and I'm poorer for it's purchase.

This book consists of a collection of articles which have appeared in the "Fine Homebuilding" magazine. As such, it covers the topics which the people who wrote the articles chose to discuss, which implies that some topics are covered more than once, while others may not be dealt with at all. There is not necessarily comprehensive coverage of the subject, which a beginner or student of the material may require.