Computer in basement :/

[skull]

Block is more labor intensive, and I favored it for the relative ease of making repairs if necessary. Not sure that's valid though. Poured foundations are relatively new around here(last 30 years or so), and are *much* quicker to install, but you either need to own forms, or rent them. So, I'd say block is better when you have time and man power, and lack infrastructure for poured foundations. Poured is better when you have the stuff to do them. I think repairabilty is fine on poured.

My house was built in 1915 and has a poured foundation. The old timers back in the day around here would use lapped 1 x 4s for the forms. Once the foundation was done they'd save the lap board and use it as sheathing for the roof. You can still see some of the concrete stuck to the sheathing from the attics in a lot of older houses around here. You can also see the lap board prints on the older poured foundations like mine.

We still see a lot of block foundations too up to around the 70s. They don't last like poured does, they end up bowing in a lot of times. The one house I did some work on the foundation guys dug the outside of the house and poured a new foundation to hold the one that was falling in. Most of the time guys set I-beams in the slab and tie them to the joists with 2 x 10s to keep the old blocks walls from pushing in further.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

In the builds I've seen here in the Southeast from about 1996 onward, they have one person grade/dig for footings, the next footing forms are setup with rebar are concrete poured. They wait a week or so and then erect the forms for the concrete walls of the full or walk-out basement walls in one day and pour the next. 1-2 days afterwards those forms are brought down and 1-2 weeks sit before stick construction begins. In that time the basement floor slab is poured. Speedy process with little wait on the human element of laying concrete block. Of course the pouring is always done with a pump truck to expedite.

 

[PingSpike]

My parents have a creepy crawlspace for the addition to the house. There's literally a ragged hole knocked into the concrete foundation wall that connects to it. I remember my dad tossing me up in there and telling me to get something when I was a kid. I didn't see any ghosts or chains but it was pretty dark.