Quote:
Originally Posted by BK911
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I'm up here in Michigan with basements and clay soil. My story goes back about ten years ago, on one of the the Habitat for Humanity houses I designed, they elected to try something similar (to the posted product) for the basement walls. With all the free labor we had available for back-filling by hand/shovel the subcontractor decided he would beat us to it (perhaps to cover any less than perfect work) and do us "a favor" by back-filling with his bulldozer. The walls bowed in a little despite the kickers/lean-to's, but did not fail.
It would have been better to get the floor joists and floor decking/sheathing/plywood in so it acted as an reinforcing diaphragm, but no failure or leaking that I know of today.
The short of this story is, that when using something "different", make sure EVERYONE on the project is aware of it's differences. The walls we used were different than concrete block or poured concrete basement walls and were not quite up to the antics found in real life.
The little I know of Florida code, I know there are WINDBORNE debris zones in Florida as well as crazy wind loads, I just Googled it. You will need to verify (in writing if possible) that all products (like windows) are up to the task.
Remember, the "Code" is a
minimum, you can always best it and often should.