Floor construction in 1970s homes could consist of:

• a suspended timber floor supported on precast concrete piles with a continuous in-situ perimeter foundation wall (Figure 1)
• a suspended timber floor supported on concrete piles with a continuous perimeter concrete masonry foundation wall (Figure 2)
• a fully piled foundation systems with jack framing and asbestos-cement flat sheet (with ventilators or concealed ventilation where floor framing cantilevered past the line of the foundation wall) or base boards fixed to the jack framing
• an in-situ reinforced concrete floor slab (later in the period).

Instead of having very high foundation walls and piles on sloping sites, foundation walls were often extended with jack-framing (Figure 3), or a concrete masonry foundation wall was constructed.

Single level houses with attached garages often had a suspended timber floor to the house with a slab on ground to the garage space. Garages in split-level houses also typically had a concrete slab to the garage area and suspended floor construction to the rest of the dwelling.

Figure 1: Concrete in situ foundation wall masonry veneer and timber framing with suspended floor.

Figure 2: Timber framing and suspended floor with concrete masonry foundation wall.

Figure 3: Jack framing on a foundation wall.

Foundation walls

Details of continuous, in-situ, reinforced concrete perimeter foundation walls. Read more.

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Piles

Details of precast concrete piles. Read more.

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Subfloor framing

Details of subfloor framing. Read more.

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Concrete slab floor construction

Details of concrete slab floor construction. Read more.