Building on a slab or pillars?

[vettegofast]

Hello all from southern Louisiana. I am considering building a home where I need to come up about a foot to 18 inches of dirt to build on a slab. This will cost about $10,000 for dirt and labor. Would it be cheaper just to build a house with wooden floors on pillars? Someone I know said its more because of some new anchoring system thats mandated with the new building codes.

Thanks!

[Don_P]

This is a link to the Southern Pine Council's "Raised Floor Living". It gives some details on crawlspace construction pros.
http://www.raisedfloorliving.com/index.shtml

[CThomp]

Some new anchoring system? Simpson Strong Rod?

[vettegofast]

I am not sure what anchoring system she spoke of. She said that it would cost about $6000 for the system and it would be more expensive to build a wood floor house on pillars with that system, than pouring a concrete slab to build on. I was just looking for another opinion.

[CThomp]

I'd do more research into the anchoring system before ruling it out. It might not be all that expensive.

In LA i'd rather have a well elevated home above the flood waters and termites than a slab on a pile of fill.

Or maybe look into a raised slab on the pile of fill dirt. That how my addition is. It's a 2ft stem wall filled in and slabbed over. I'd be happier if it was 3-4ft but it is an addition so I had to work with what I had.