Basement basics have provided fodder since CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION's early days. “Nowhere else in the modern home is the difference between good and poor concrete construction practice so dramatically evident,” stated an April 1965 article. Today, readers still write in to ask questions like “How much shrinkage and cracking is acceptable in a poured concrete basement wall?” A January 1962 article illustrated how to build and equip a fallout shelter (top), considered by some to be “the very guardian of civilization itself.” In the 1970s came competition from wood foundations, but by May 1988 they were described as “the little engine that couldn't.” And basements even can challenge a contractor's creativity. The September 1999 issue described the Concrete Foundation Association's “basement from hell” (bottom), featuring multiple wall thicknesses and corner angles, uneven dimensions, and other complexities.