Originally Posted by
Tom McDonnell
After practicing HI in Florida for 20 years now, I have seen only 4 basements. They are a rarity here due to our high ground water table.
Tom,
Dom gave code sections, but, yeah ...
"They are a rarity here due to our high ground water table."
That's the reason you do not find many basements in Florida.
Being on a high elevation means little to nothing, its the depth of the water table below ground that matters. Many high elevations have high water tables, meaning the water table is not all that far down.
In some places, with the underground streams and all running criss cross across Florida, you could actually miss several good water supply sources and have to go 300 feet or more to hit water (I know, some well outside Gainesville were almost 400 deep before hitting water, yet on the next property over the wall may only have been down 50 feet, because they hit an underground stream).
Back in the late 1960s I knew an old man (older then than I am now
) who was a dowser (as in one who uses a dowsing rod, aka divining rod) and he would *always* hit water when he located it with a dowsing rod, he could even tell you (from experience and the feel) about how far down it was, and he would be pretty dang close.
We did an experiment with him one weekend, we buried a many garden hose connected together in a wiggly pattern under a couple of feet of sand (one of my friends had a large pile of sand, a tractor with a plow, and plenty of time). We spread the sand out over an area about 100' square. He walked out over that area and every time he felt the dowsing rod dip, he said 'dig there' and put his foot 'there'. He *never* missed the buried garden hose, and there are areas of 30 feet with nothing in it. Made a believer out of me.