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Notes -
Wiring goes through the ceiling, not through the slab. But regarding plumbing I agree wholeheartedly. I currently live in my mother's house, which was built on a slab in the 1950s. Every winter, my mother is deathly afraid that the pipes will freeze, so she leaves all the faucets dripping on cold nights. It's a bit of extra stress.
I personally can't justify increasing the cost of construction by an entire one-fifth just for a crawl space. After all, the pipes under my mother's house haven't burst in the 70 years since they were constructed, and under-slab plumbing technology presumably is even better today than it was in the 1950s.
Note that crawl spaces may be cheaper in areas that don't have radon. In areas that do have radon, a slab needs to be constructed under the crawl space, according to the architect that I consulted. The EPA publishes an official radon map.
Freeze resistant plumbing is much, much better today than it was in the fifties- modern supply lines are made with pex, which has enough expandability to take short freezes(what you’d be worrying about in California, unless you’re way up in the mountains).
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