Thread: Oldest slab foundation ?

I am inspecting a tract house built in 1959 in Dallas Texason Tuesday with a slab-on-grade foundation. That is the oldest slab I have seen in this area. I did some research a couple of years ago andfound one slab built in 1961. That was theearliest build slab-on-grade foundation that I had seen in the Dallas untilnow. It was still common to build newhomes on pier and bean in the early 1960’s. Slabs were still fairly rare. Iwas wondering what the earliest slab foundation that some of you had seen on atract home.


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Over this way I have inspected homes with slabs from the early fifties and I am thinking even before that but I have nothing to show it. A friend lives in a slab home from the early fifties as well.

Slab foundations gained popularity in the housing boom of the late forties.
One of the earliest examples of tract houses built on slabs was Levitt town in Long Island.
By the late sixties to early seventies most houses were being built on slabs.
The oldest house I have seen built on a slab was built in the early to mid fifties.
It had a very modern look and construction to it. ie
Sunken living-room, lights were controlled by relays, separate shower stall, and skylights in the living-room and master bath.

Just a side note, my house was built in 1945 and uses a weird slab on grade. They built up the grade (to raise the house a few inches above grade), leveled it, put a form around the perimeter then sunk concrete blocks along all the interior walls below the slab. Slab was then poured but is only 2" thick. (Plat was 1929, and all the neighboring houses were built 5-10 years later. So guess it was experimental when they did it.)

There are a few slab homes in Oak Ridge TN that were built during WWII. Most of those built during that period were raised foundation, but some were slabs.
They built an entire city (Secret City) when they started working on the A bomb in the 40's.