Now it doesn't leak, but we have never re-installed the carpet or walls. During a tornado, the safest place to protect yourself is usually underground, but that's not an option for the large majority of people in southern Oklahoma. But technology, particularly waterproofing technology, has made those issues largely irrelevant for quite some time. “Basements have never really been prevalent in Texas, and so people don’t build them,” Bigelow said. For transplants from the Midwest and East, it is downright puzzling why California homes generally do not have basements, a staple in other parts of the country. Many people sustained damages. Based on every site I’ve seen (this one included! Why does it seem like every time we see a destroyed house it only has a cement slab beneath it? Instead of a basement, Oklahoma homes often have a storm shelter installed underground or above grade. I’ve got a good friend, really sharp marketer, who specializes in building websites and doing SEO for attorneys. testimonials, often in video form) to make the sale for them. These days most people don’t like, or are too busy, to do much research. There are tools on the market such as a thermo-hygrometer that will help monitor the humidity levels for you. Going underground was the best way for people to stay safe during yesterday's tornado. Because if they do, you may find new leads for your business becoming rarer than, well, a basement in Oklahoma. He recently did an audit of dozens of attorney websites. His answer is fascinating and is very relevant to how you market your business. Proof has become a bigger and bigger deal to use in advertising. Our basement, with no headroom to spare and the needed soft surface for a basement rec room. – Texas … If you know much about Oklahoma, it’s located in the epicenter of “Tornado Alley”, an area of the US known for its frequent and violent twisters. So yeah, moist soil. Basement floors don’t have to be cold and damp but they often are. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. The websites that had more proof were the ones that generated more phone calls. What? And as we’re all bombarded with more and more information each day… as consumers become more and more jaded after being screwed by companies that don’t deliver on their promises… as we’ve become so busy and overwhelmed that we seek out shortcuts, cheat sheets, etc. If everyone says no, then that must be the way it is. Why Aren't There More Storm Cellars in Oklahoma? Foundation depth. Copyright 2021 - Words that Click | Privacy Policy, The Surprising Reason There Ain’t No Basements in Oklahoma, Where Do People Turn for Info About Their Local Community (Surprising Results? Weather Underground provides local & long-range weather forecasts, weather reports, maps & tropical weather conditions for locations worldwide This concrete safe room can be fortified to resist the wind shear of a tornado, with wind-rated doors and hinges. In the River Valley all of the water drains to the Arkansas River and we build basements within a … In fact, according to an interview I heard on the radio the other week, just 3{a950ddf0e7a23367a7e0f17377d3737fa8b8b1820bab9af7071f88951eb5d84e} of houses in Oklahoma have basements. Simply put, they just don't. The interviewer asked Mike why more people don’t build basements in Oklahoma. Most people in the state have it in their heads that you can’t build basements there and, to paraphrase what Mike says…. No basements in Moore, Oklahoma, located right in the heart of Tornado Alley! As Mike, the basement contractor in Oklahoma, has found – most people don’t take the time to do research. There were a number of interesting insights that came from doing this, but what was the #1 takeaway? to make our decisions…. […] month we discussed why there are no basements in Oklahoma and the incredible importance of proof in your […]. When a tornado hits, the best place to seek shelter is underground. The chief culprit of most missing basements in the South is damp soil. Most people don’t want to make decisions that would put them in the minority. Whereas, if you are from the southern part of the US, you will see no value, and will view the And also there's this: For quick reference, the salmon color is clay, the magenta is "cobbly loam" and the dark green is just loam. Keva ended up finding one answer and I have since found another two. But technology, particularly waterproofing technology, has made those issues largely irrelevant for quite some time. I have an aunt and uncle back home who spend every summer "down cellar," which in Ohio means that in June, when the temperatures soar into the … And this gets right to the heart of why I wanted to share this with you. You don’t want your competitors to “out-proof” you. It doesn't cost that much more to have an "underground floor" since you have to dig most of the way anyway. But the third answer may be more convincing given the way of the world: building codes. Having already gone down the Oklahoma soil texture rabbit hole I didn't look too hard for building code comparisons and settled instead for real estate discussion groups, but it seems as sensible an answer as any other. Some realtors or homebuilders have told them that basements cannot be built in Arkansas because the water table is too high, and it’s too rocky to dig a hole. ), chances are you could be doing a MUCH better job at it. Jill Mortimer, a farmer and North Yorkshire district councillor, is the Tory candidate. Watching the destruction yesterday, my colleague wondered aloud, "Is there something about the ground in those areas that makes basements impractical?". The first time it was over a foot deep and the fire department had to come drain it. IE 11 is not supported. And, a lot of (though not all) of that proof came in the form of social proof where the companies were showcasing the opinions and experiences of their clients (ie. I’ve done a series of these posts analyzing advertisers for different keywords, but the first one I did (in March 2013) looked at advertisers for the ultra-competitive word “acne treatment.”. The high water table and clay soil made it difficult to do… back in the 40s or 50s. Which brings us back to how people make decisions. Similarly, if a builder doesn't have that requirement, it's easier to just lay a slab to put the house on. This is especially true in places like Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and eastern Texas. ), The Main Reason Why Words That Click Turns 5 This Month, Badges (ie. “You go to other places where basements are prevalent and it’s absolutely expected.” Why don't Oklahoma houses have basements. It’s easier to take other people’s word for it then to do the research yourself. Here's why. Because it gets to the heart of how many people (your prospects included) really make decisions. And that leads us to a topic we’ve talked about here before and one I see becoming a bigger and bigger deal all the time…. But there weren't always places for them to do that. The answer Keva found is that the soil is too moist and the water table is too high. Social Proof has always had a huge influence on how humans make decisions. But what IS really interesting is WHY there are so few basements in Oklahoma. Is it Time to Let Basements Become Extinct? The short answer is actually just one word: Clay. It’s observing what other people do, listening to what they say and noticing how they behave. If your basement has a typical wood-framed floor above it, anything heavy that a tornado drops in your house will come right through that basement ceiling. But when you go further south, the winters are milder, the groundwater doesn't freeze as much, and the frostline might be a foot. This was a horrific 1.3 mile wide twister with 210 mile per hour winds that killed 25, injured 377 and caused an estimated $2 billion in damages. Yet the mindset that you can’t build a basement in Oklahoma still persists. The advertisers who are continuing to dominate in the market and/or the ones who have moved up the rankings the most since last year have ALL added a lot more proof to their landing pages. So Oklahoma basements would be prone to mold and smelliness and flooding and also cracking as wet soil can expand. By Peter Yost | October 17, 2010. Before I get to the answer Keva found, I should be clear that the first answer is that there are indeed some houses in Oklahoma with basements. This year, I revisited the keyword “acne treatment” to see how the competitive landscape has changed over the last year. And, if you know much about tornados, you know that when one’s headed your way, the basement is the safest place to be. And the most powerful, influential shortcut there is, is social proof. It’s’ easier to go with the crowd vs. against the crowd. What Mike said is that there’s a mindset in Oklahoma when it comes to basements that’s very hard to break. After that storm hit, this basement contractor said he got exactly 2 phone calls from people interested in adding a basement to their homes and landed 1 job. Now that stat in and of itself isn’t all that interesting. And while basement-free homes certainly make sense on one level, it’s … The answer would be that building codes require the house's footing to be below the frost line, so as long as you're digging down there you might as well make it a basement -otherwise you have to step down to your first floor. Only a third of Oklahoma’s schools have shelters, and politicians are still fighting over how to pay for protection for the other 1,100 schools and 500,000 students and staff. They are replaced in southern states with outdoor storage sheds and attic storage. The Texanist: Why Don't Texas Houses Have Basements? Here in central Oklahoma, we don't have to dig too deep to make sure a home's foundation won't freeze in the winter. The high water table and clay soil made it difficult to do… back in the 40s or 50s. Here’s a partial list of the types of proof these sites have to prove they’re credible and trustworthy: I just submitted an article for the Crazy Egg blog (the article has not been published yet so I can’t link to it here) that provides yet more, well, proof, of why proof is so important. What are they thinking? The Tories have never won Hartlepool, which has remained Labour since its creation in 1974, but it is now the party’s most vulnerable seat. These and other issues are definitely part of the reason that certain areas of Sounds like something residents would be falling over each other to take advantage of, right? If you have any further insight to offer, I welcome it. Most people put A LOT of credibility into the beliefs, opinions and recommendations of others. BBB and industry specific credentials). Don’t be shy about doing this. Well, the basement contractor, Mike, interviewed for the story talked about the huge tornado that hit the city of Moore, OK in 2013 and damaged over 8000 homes and structures. Last year for the Crazy Egg blog I used a “Spy Tool” that lets me see who the top AdWords advertisers are for a particular keyword, see what ads they’re running and what landing page they’re sending people to. The answer Keva found is that the soil is too moist and the water table is too high. It doesn’t matter if you have a finished basement, or not, you should keep the humidity level at or below 50% at all times. They look for shortcuts. (And, stick with me, because this all leads to something you’ve gotta understand about human nature and marketing!). Now, if you have to dig that far for the foundation, you really might as well make a basement. The top three reasons I hear in regards to why people in Oklahoma don't have basements are, because there is too much ground water, there is too much clay in the soil, and lastly, because there is no value from the real estate aspect. Our team at Place N’ Go is always talking to potential customers about their - Maine Homes by … He looked at dozens of factors and there was one that had a correlation to the number of leads the site generated. But cross the border into Oklahoma – just a few miles away – and not so much. Surely people living in tornado-prone areas would want to have basements to take shelter in. https://kfor.com/.../why-dont-more-okla-homes-have-basements To be honest, that link looked a little spammy to me so I looked a little more and soil wetness does come up in discussionsamong people who aren't selling basements. So Oklahoma basements would be And this is for a number of reasons. So basically if you live in Oklahoma you can get free money to build something that could potentially save your and your family’s life. There used to be a good reason for not building basements there. And then we use that data to shortcut our own decisions… for better or worse. Knowing this, the State of Oklahoma is very much in favor of its residents having basements and offers a government subsidy to help people pay for building basements and/or underground storm shelters. How good a job do you do at using proof to back up the claims you make on your website and establish your credibility? They don't tend to put in sump pumps here, so it's a mess. Shane Moore, leader of Hartlepool Council, said the feeling on the ground was that the Tories would win the by-election. So whatever it may seem like while looking at helicopter footage of homes reduced to rubble, they don't all lack basements. That said, here are a couple of reasons why you don't find a lot of basements in Oklahoma. Why Oklahomans Don't Like Basements : The Two-Way A high water table and red clay that soaks up the moisture make dry basements an expensive and … It’s well worth the time and effort to add more proof to your website. Last year, 2017, Oklahoma was plagued with DOZENS of tremors over a three to five month peroid. The only way we could stop it was to install gutters, landscape slopes away from the house and install outside drainage. Few homes in the Oklahoma City area, prone to powerful tornadoes, have basements. A common question that arises when tornadoes hit the heartland: Why aren't there more houses with basements?