ᐅ Is it possible to build a foundation for a single-family house without concrete and earthworks?

Dear Home Builders,

We are planning to build a small single-family house and, if possible, want to avoid earthworks and a cast concrete slab. The house is designed so that it can potentially be dismantled and relocated. Is there a way to build directly on the ground without doing earthworks— for example, instead of replacing a soil layer with frost protection material, simply compacting foam glass gravel to create a level surface, placing concrete slabs under the exterior walls, or something similar? In my research so far, I have not found any solutions without a cast concrete slab.

The soil is quite sandy with groundwater at a depth of 3 meters (10 feet).
Built-up area is 5 by 10 meters (16 by 33 feet).
No basement; the ground floor has constructed beams (KVH, nail plates, glass wool insulation WLG035) 50 centimeters (20 inches) high, spaced at 62.5 centimeters (25 inches) on center.

Greetings from Berlin

A house also needs various types of connections. Apart from the fact that I am not aware of any municipalities that are open to experimenting with mobile modular house concepts in residential areas, where (besides your tinkering enjoyment) do you see the main advantage of such a house concept?

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11ant schrieb:
Aside from the fact that I don’t know of any adventurous municipalities that designate building areas for mobile modular house concepts: what would you say is the main advantage of such a housing concept (besides your tinkering fun)?

- Circular economy. It would be great if this doesn’t turn into mixed construction waste at the end of life, so that parts can be separated and reused fully or partially.
- It would be ideal not to seal the surfaces. This saves costs during construction and demolition, and reduces the impact on nature.
- The non-renewable primary energy required (PEI n.r.) is very high with a strip foundation and frost protection; building in a climate-friendly way is important to us.
- Maybe someday the floor area ratio will be adjusted to allow densification. Then the house could be moved on the property or rebuilt elsewhere. When dismantled, it fits on a truck.

I assume the ground is stiff enough with the 45cm (18 inch) high beams so that two 10m (33 ft) long strip foundations would be sufficient. I will recalculate that tomorrow.

Regards from Berlin!

There are countless methods... In the USA, construction is often done by driving a number of fence posts (micropiles) into the ground.

In Russia, foundations on truck/car tires are common.

Great tip, thank you! I will look into the idea with the tires. Has anyone in Germany already gotten approval for this in a building permit / planning permission?

Basically, these are just point or strip foundations, but without concrete.