light poles for home foundation piers

[WarEagleTW2]

Have any of you heard of people using light poles for foundation piers when building their home? How long they may last? what may be the benefits or drawbacks of doing this?

I am planning to build my own house within the next 5 years and saw some houses at the beach that were built on what looked like light poles for the foundation. They were raised high enough to park under. I don't want my house to be raised that high, maybe three feet or so to have plenty of room to crawl around under to run plumbing and duct work.

I doubt I could set cement blocks well enough to build my own foundation that way, but I am certain I could set the light poles and cut them all off level to have a level foundation to build on. I am just not sure about the longevity and strength of the light poles.

[dkemple1]

I was actually reading a book about this very process about 2 months ago. It is called "Low Cost Pole Building Construction" It is actually for sale in this Backwoods web site. It is a very good book. It is a little dated though, but still worth reading. The order # is BU18 and it is 18.95. Those #'s are coming from issue 102 of Backwoods Home Magazine, on page 94.

Dan

[Backwoods_Bob]

Glad to hear your thinking of building your oun place WarEagle!
Both dry stacking cement block then filling it and pole construction is pretty easy once you get your hands into it.

- Take a look at the barn i just posted pictures of -
I did both types of construction in that building an I am sure no expert! There isn't a straight line in the building but it works just fine.
It was the very first time I'd ever worked with cement blocks.

But my real love is for load bearing staw bale structures.
This is how my wife and I built our cottage.
It is hands down the cheapest, easiest way to build!

May not look like much on the outside -
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o320/etdbob/P2230071.jpg
But the inside can be as nice as you can make it -
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o320/etdbob/P1050109.jpg
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o320/etdbob/P1040087.jpg

[candy]

Looks pretty nice to me Bob.

And I bet the best thing is the bank doesn't own it.