"The Dragon House" Basement of The Year

In today’s booming housing market, consumers are demanding more than ever in their new home constructions, and housing plans have become increasingly more complex and detailed. The Concrete Foundations Association (CFA) – an international association dedicated to improving the quality and acceptance of cast-in-place concrete foundations – 2006 Basement of the Year competition salutes some of this year’s most challenging home projects and their cast-in-place concrete foundations. The 2006 winner has such a complex foundation design that the crews who worked on it named it “The Dragon House” and “The Spaceship.”

According to Ed Sauter, executive director of CFA, the Basement of the Year competition enables foundation contractors to display the wide range of projects that are being completed today. “The technological advancements that have been made in the poured wall industry allow contractors to complete complex projects more efficiently, which helps ensure homeowners’ dreams are realized,” said Sauter. “Each year the projects submitted to this competition get more complicated and demonstrate the diversity afforded through poured wall foundations.”

The Hattersley Residence has 995 total linear feet of wall, wall heights ranging from three to nine feet and wall thicknesses of both 12 and 16 inches.

The winning structure is a 5,694-square-foot basement with many garden walls and other features in Easton Township, Pa. "The Hattersley Residence", Balmer Brothers Concrete Work, Inc. of Akron, Pa. is the foundation contractor on the project.
While it is not the largest foundation that they completed last year, Jerry Balmer, President, stated that this project was the most complex that they have probably ever completed. With very few right-angled corners, the project kept Balmer Brothers’ crews on their toes. Many corners went from straight to curved walls with a multitude of corners, T-walls and Y-sections coming in at various angles. One of the jumps, from nine-feet to a three-foot wall, occurs in the middle of a curved wall.

“It seemed like every corner we came to brought on a new challenge, especially the Y areas, where we used various sized ties as the two walls turned into one,” says Balmer. “Most of the time crews were transitioning curved into straight walls and sometimes curved to curved.”

Adding to the complexity are stone ledges

The project includes 345 yards of concrete in the walls and 27,680 linear feet of No. 4 matt steel at two feet on center.  Footers are 12 and 24 inches wide with three to No. 4 continuous rebar with cross bars at two feet on center.

surrounding the house, which range from one to three feet deep by six inches wide. Much of the ledge is on curved walls, requiring that the ledge be comprised of multiple pieces to allow for flexibility. Balmer credits the success of this project to his experienced crew on the job. “They all know how important a quality wall is to us and it was evident that it was important to them,” Balmer says.

Balmer Brothers is a three-time winner of CFA’s Basement of the Year award. The company was founded in 1973 when two brothers poured sidewalks and curbs in the summer months. Today, Balmer Brothers has four working owners -- Jerry Balmer, Gary Balmer, Dennis Balmer and Jay Balmer -- along with nearly 30 employees including two office personnel and one mechanic.

The Briarcliff West basement has 998 total linear feet and includes 316 total yards of cement, 118 yards of footings that contain seven tons of steel, with another 14 tons of steel in the walls.

This year’s second-place winner is the Briarcliff West project located in Kansas City, Mo., and submitted by Louisburg Foundation of Bucyrus, Kan. Fifteen different wall heights ranging from two to 21 feet and six different wall thicknesses ranging from eight to 18 inches thick are represented on this project.

The overall complexity of the project involved very limited access to the site, because trees are as close as three feet from walls on all sides. The end walls have No. four bars on one-foot centers each way. Additional details include 26 total footing steps, 220 feet of 5-foot-wide footings, 70 feet of nine-foot, six-inch-wide footings, and all other footings measure 20 to 30 inches wide to 10 to 16 inches deep.

The competition’s third place goes to the Cahn Residence project in Cherry Hill, N.J., submitted by

This project required 341 yards of concrete and 6,550 lineal feet of steel in the walls and 85 yards of concrete and 2,930 lineal feet of steel in the footings.

Marone Contractors, Inc., of Thorofare, N.J. The Cahn Residence features 1,065 total linear feet of walls in an 8,226-square-foot plan that includes both the basement and garage floor. Wall heights range from four feet, nine inches to 10 feet with wall thicknesses of eight, 12 and 16 inches. The outstanding wall features of the Cahn Residence are the 138 feet of circular foundation that run at five different locations throughout the house, with a six-inch stone ledge. There are a total of 121 corners with many intersecting angles at circular foundations. The brick ledge was pre-built at Marone’s shop and then moved to the site.

This year’s competition is the largest in CFA history. Contractors cast votes for Basement of the Year in the CFA booth at the 2006 World of Concrete trade show in Las Vegas. The formal award presentation will be made at the Awards Banquet Luncheon during the CFA’s Annual Summer Meeting July 19-22 in Wisconsin Dells, Wis. [ return to top ]