Starts with a
strong foundation
Two things ruin houses from underneath: water and soil gas. The MAE Method answers both with one assembly, engineered before the first shovel and tested to prove it.
One system, starting below the footings.
Most homes fight water, air, and radon separately, and only to the minimum the code allows. We build them together, from underneath the concrete up, to drawings prepared with licensed engineers.
Why Calgary basements flood.
Calgary sits on heavy clay that swells, shifts, and holds water. Spring melt and summer storms load the soil around a foundation faster than it can drain.
Water follows the path of least resistance. Where a foundation depends on a small number of drainage components, that path can end up inside the home. Flooding is rarely bad luck. It is the outcome of a design decision made before the concrete was poured.
A full plane of clean, washed stone, edge to edge before the pour
Groundwater seepage is commonly excluded from residential policies. Overland-water coverage is usually an optional add-on, and where it is carried the limit may not cover rebuilding a finished basement. Insurance responds after the fact. Prevention begins with coordinated design, drainage, and construction.
- 01Weeping tile carrying the load aloneA single perimeter pipe. If it silts up, or the water table rises above it, there is little in reserve.
- 02A minimal gravel layerThin fill beneath the slab, generally not sized to move water.
- 03Limited redundancyOne pump, one pipe, one grade. If any of the three underperforms, water has a route in.
- 04Soil gas not addressedThe same sub-slab layer is what a radon collection system relies on, which is why the two problems are solved together or not at all.
Calgary-area radon runs among the highest in Canada.
Invisible, odourless, and the second leading cause of lung cancer in Canada. Newer, tighter homes often measure higher.
Sources: 2024 Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Exposure (Evict Radon); Health Canada.
Newer homes test higher.
Measurements across Southern Alberta show newer homes averaging higher than older ones.
Tight, efficient construction seals the envelope, which is exactly what you want for comfort and energy. But a sealed home also holds on to the radon rising from the soil, instead of letting it leak away like older, draftier homes do.
Alberta's code requires a radon rough-in: a capped pipe below the slab. A fan, an active system, and a test of the finished home are not required, and are commonly left for the homeowner to arrange. MAE builds the complete system and tests the finished house.
One assembly. Every layer has a job.
The gravel plane that drains water is the same plane that collects soil gas, drawn up a dedicated vent stack and out above the roof. Build it once, properly, and both problems are answered at the same time.
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Concrete above grade.
Most homes in this region are wood framed, and a wood framed home built carefully is a very good house. Framing is not the problem the Method was written to solve.
What concrete above grade offers is a different set of tradeoffs. Continuous insulation with no framing members bridging it, a wall with real thermal mass, and a structure that does not care about wind, fire or hail in the way a stick wall does. It also costs more, takes longer to form, and asks more of the mechanical design because the wall is genuinely tight.
We build both. Where a client wants concrete walls above grade, we detail them properly rather than treating them as an upgrade line. Where a client wants a framed wall, it gets the same rainscreen, the same air barrier and the same testing at the end.
- 01Thermal bridgingA framed wall loses heat through every stud. Continuous exterior insulation closes most of that gap; a concrete wall with insulation outboard of the structure closes it further.
- 02Mass and comfortConcrete holds temperature and dampens swings, which pairs well with in-floor heat. A framed wall responds faster, for better and for worse.
- 03ResilienceWind, fire and impact are where concrete separates itself. On an exposed rural site that argument carries more weight than it does on an inner-city lot.
- 04Cost and scheduleForming and pouring above grade adds both. It is worth discussing early, when it is still a design decision rather than a change order.
Same lot. Two different homes.
The building code sets a minimum. This is where MAE specifies above it, and what each choice is for.
What it looks like in the ground.
Build it dry and tight. The rest follows.
Dry by design
Remove the water and mould has nothing to grow on, before finishing ever begins.
Clean air
Radon is drawn out below the slab, and the air is tested before you get the keys.
Even comfort
A sealed, ventilated envelope holds temperature and filters the air, year round.
Where the water goes.
No cladding keeps every drop out. A wall that admits this, drains what gets in and dries what stays, lasts. A wall built to be perfectly sealed fails the first time it is not.
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Copper, from the main to the tap.
Plastic supply line is cheaper and faster to run. Copper holds its properties for the life of the building.
Antimicrobial by nature
Copper surfaces suppress the biofilm that establishes itself inside a plumbing system. The property belongs to the metal rather than to a coating, so it does not wear off.
No plasticisers
A single stable metal, without the plasticisers and manufacturing residues that plastic line has been shown to release into standing water. Copper levels themselves depend on water chemistry and standing time, which is why the water is tested rather than assumed.
Pressed, not soldered
Every joint made with a calibrated press tool. Mechanical, repeatable, inspectable, and no torch lit inside a finished building.
Hover or tap a number, then press the joint
Six numbers you are handed at the door.
Each one taken at the point where it can still change the outcome. Open any of them.
A steel cone is filled, rodded, and lifted. How far the concrete settles tells you how much water is in it. Water added at the truck makes concrete easier to place and leaves it weaker and prone to cracking. The test takes four minutes, and every load is logged against its ticket number and temperature.
Sensors tied to the rebar stay in the wall permanently, recording the temperature of the concrete itself and converting it to in-place strength. A test cylinder sits in a lab and loses heat far faster than a foundation wall, so it tells you about the cylinder. This tells you about the house, which in an Alberta winter is the difference between looking cured and being cured.
A calibrated fan seals into an exterior door and depressurises the house. The airflow needed to hold that pressure is the leakage rate. The first test runs while the air barrier is still exposed. The second runs at completion and goes in the file. Air moving through an assembly carries moisture into it, and moisture inside a wall is what eventually rots it.
A house sealed this tightly cannot rely on leaks for fresh air, so it is ventilated on purpose. A heat recovery ventilator draws stale air out and filtered outdoor air in, passing both through a core that moves the heat from one stream to the other. At commissioning the flow at every grille is measured and balanced, because an unbalanced ventilator does not do its job.
The collection layer and vent stack are built into the foundation, and the finished house is measured to confirm the system draws as designed. Health Canada's guideline of 200 becquerels per cubic metre is written as a long-term average, so the handover reading is a commissioning check. The definitive test runs through the first heating season, when the house is closed up and levels sit highest.
A new house off-gasses. Paints, adhesives, sealants, and new cabinetry all release compounds into a sealed envelope, and exposure peaks in the first months, which is exactly when nobody measures. Air is sampled before handover with the ventilation running as it will run in service.
Every specification, findable in ten years.
Not a certificate. A book of what went into the house, what it measured, and where it runs. Open any section.
It matters twice. Once when you move in and want to know what you bought, and again years later when a tile cracks, a buyer's inspector asks a question, or an insurer wants evidence. The agreed project records bring those answers together, so the details remain accessible long after handover.
Standards referenced. Slump testing to ASTM C143. Concrete strength estimated by the maturity method under ASTM C1074. Airtightness reported as ACH50 at 50 Pa. Radon guideline of 200 Bq/m³ per Health Canada. Copper antimicrobial behaviour is documented in peer-reviewed drinking water research; chemical release from plastic supply line is documented in published testing of PEX products.
Questions we get, answered plainly.
A small share of the total build. You see real figures early, during design, with the cost of each element set against what it does, so the decisions are yours to make with numbers in front of you.
It is designed for them. Clay soils, spring melt, and summer storms are the conditions foundations here have to handle, and radon measurements in the region run among the highest in Canada. See why basements flood and radon and soil gas above.
By measurement, at the points where a result can still change the work. Concrete testing at the pours, a blower-door test on the finished envelope, and indoor-air and radon testing before handover. The records go into the project file and are yours to keep.
Every MAE home is built to the Alberta Building Code. The Method specifies above the minimum in the areas where the local conditions justify it: sub-slab drainage, soil-gas collection, envelope airtightness, and testing. The code sets the floor, not the target.
New homes carry the warranty required under Alberta's New Home Buyer Protection Act, and manufacturers' warranties apply to the products installed. MAE does not sell a separate guarantee against water. The intent is a foundation that is not depending on one.
In the areas the work reaches, yes. An addition gets new footings, drainage, and envelope detailing built the same way. On an interior renovation, whatever is opened up can be corrected and detailed properly before it is closed back in. What is not part of the scope stays as it is, and we say so plainly at the start. See renovations and additions.
We do not sell a warranty against water. We build the foundation so you are not left relying on one.
Building science, considered from the ground up. Coordinated assemblies and agreed project records bring the work behind your home into clearer view.