Basements
 

Living in the midwest my entire life, I cannot fathom not having a basment. I believe basements are pretty much standard in IL, WI, MI, IA, and MN, possibly IN and OH too. The Northeast would be my next geographic guess. The number of tornadoes got me thinking about this. From what little I've looked at real estate in what was know as the old south, TX, and FL, I don't see basements all that often. Are storm cellars prevalent in KS and other plains states?

Even in the flood prone areas, there are basements. Its really stupid, but most of these houses were built around the turn of the century. We have alleys around these parts too, which i guess isn't common throughout the US... They are kind of stupid in my opinion, just more concrete.

I like having a basement, but mine is unheated right now, so its very cold.

Basements in some areas, do not exist because of bedrock, a high water table, poor soil strucuture, etc.

Even though it is an additional expense, it is a good place to have for: storage, house utilities (furnace, hotwater tank, etc), a cool place to store food, a cool place to go on hot days, hide from storms, etc.

basements built here are not necessarily for the primary purpose for a storm shelter. Used for storage, cold storage, shop, extra living space. I use mine in the spring to start seedlings for the garden, brood day old chicks for a couple weeks before moving out to the cooler barn. A sauna is a cool idea to put in a corner of a basement, or an extra bathroom, a possible area cooler in summer for the dogs? :shrug: basement is a very functional room of the house.

In Ohio you won't find basements in new housing unless someone had it built specially. We have one of the very few basements in our area. Older homes, pre-1970, usually have basements but anything after usually won't. A basement was one thing I HAD to have, more important than a garage. If we ever get to build our dream-home it will have a basement.

We live at sea level so you would have to be really, really short to have a basement here in NFL :p .........Dig down 3 feet and you have hit water.

It must depend on what part of Ohio you are in. Even new houses, in my area, have basements.

I believe most of the old houses around here have cellars, but many of the newer ones have basements.

How do you differentiate the two? We always used the words interchangeably.

Doug

I may be wrong, but I think a cellar is accessed from outside the house, where a basement is a sub-level of the house where you access is from inside the house.

Have had a basement all my life, real good space for doing and storing a lot of stuff, (and I do mean stuff!!!)

Looking into a "snow bird" residence in La. (most of the state below sea level) no basements.

Anyway, with tornadoes, hurricanes, wind storms, been wondering why the double-wides, (gotta be the state house), don't have a 12' X 12' hole in the center so as to place it around your "block house".
Wonder if you could order one?

I wonder if basements weren't "invented" due to the use of coal or wood/oil for heating? It would seem to make sense, because around here you'll find those old chutes for putting coal down into the basements in many homes.

????

In the South
 

Being from the South, I can tell you that the reason there are no basements in this area is the water table. We used to dig holes in the backyard just to see how fast the water infiltrated. Most of these areas are not prone to tornadoes and you get plenty of warning that the hurricane is coming, so there isn't much need for a storm shelter basement.

Living in Texas my entire life, I cannot fathom having a basement. Why not just make your house or garage larger? Or add a workshop? Easier and cheaper. :shrug:

Not this basement! I've been down there twide in the thirteen years since we've moved here. I'ts dirty, damp and God knows what else.

If a tornado hits, I'd rather die up here than down there!

Here they are finished out just like the rest of the home. The big advantage is that you are taxed on what is above ground level :dance:

build you a safe room in the house with concrete or stel walls and door ancored down to the earth if your worried about a storm

I'm in a basement right now, and it's 'bout the best place to be imo...warm, dry, just got the occasional spider to look at now and then. Best place to be in the summer too, to get away from a 35C upstairs.

This ol' basement used to be a coal storage place, and a standard dank, wet, dark place to store old filling cabinets full of old stuff. Now it's a totally new place, redone, and homey.

I wouldn't buy a house without a basement for the reasons Pony mentions. My current house is a bi-level but it's on a hill so the back half (including my office/sewing room) is, in essence, a basement; the front part is 1/2 above grade and has two large windows. So we get the best of both worlds. :)

Basements are versatile spaces! They're blissfully cool in the summer, which along with the heating system maybe why they were "invented" before air conditioning came along. Our first house had a coal chute and coal storage room. We used the coal room (8' x 6') for DH's tools and a mini-workshop. I like basements for safety reasons because I am tornado-phobic. For me, they also give the house more of a permanent feeling, not just being on the ground but in it.

Our first house, just outside city limits in an older neighborhood, had an alley behind it. This was a mixed blessing. It was a safer place than the street for kids on bikes (in theory), gave access to the backyard for additional parking or other stuff (sometimes you just have to get a vehicle into the yard) but was also a liability regarding safety and privacy -- yet another access point the public had for our property.

Most older neighborhoods (prior to the 1940's) have alleys. I don't know why. Maybe homes with tiny city lots needed access to the back outbuildings; a lot of these old homes have detached garages in the back instead of alongside the house, and at some point may have sheltered animals there.

The 1950's subdivision where I grew up had what we called "shortcuts" -- pedestrian alleys that cut between backyards to allow access through long blocks. Of course that was back when people actually walked places - the shopping center 2 miles away, the city bus stop two blocks away, neighbors' houses, etc. We used them a lot when I was a kid and loved them.

I miss having a basement. The water table here in OK is too high although we do see some. My house in MA has a full basement which is great for storage. It also has a workshop in it and a woodstove that pretty much keeps the house and first level floor warm.

A cellar is sort of a primitive basement. A cellar is more likely to have a dirt floor, low ceilings, or other characteristics making the area more suitable for storage than for a living area. I have a cellar. It does have a cement floor, but the area is damp and gloomy.

I've never heard of a "finished cellar;" however, a finished basement adds square footage to your living space and value to your home.

Basements
 

Here in the south we have humid conditions that are hard enough to deal with out a basement. If you store stuff in the basement it molds mildews and rusts. Had a couple of houses with them never again. Just my experence, it is better with airconditioning and central heat but we do not have that and donot want it. even then they smell.

I would hate to live without a basement and never will voluntarily do so. We could easily have died in the '79 tornado here because we only had a partial basement. Fortunately the tornado zigzagged and took out houses on either side of us and left ours standing (sort of). We were in the basement but with the direction the tornado came from a direct hit would have left us buried in debris. So I wanted a full basement with reinforced tornado safety area which we had built into our replacement home. We thru the years have used the basement for bedrooms and family room but now its dh's workshop, pantry, storage, laundry drying, potting bench, canning kitchen etc. It is cool in the summer and if the heat happens to be out is warmer in the winter. I've been known to hide out down there to find peace and quiet.

Been in the south for 27 years. REALLY miss having a basement. Wish I had a basement. It would be an indoor pool down here.

What part of ohio is that? Every house around here has a basement... all the new ones also. (Here is Medina County, fyi)

I've had houses both with and without basements. Now that I'm older and somewhat physically challenged with stairs, I'm glad this house does not have a basement - I'd never be able to get down there, or back upstairs LOL . I do have a freestanding storage building/mini workshop out back which is my sometimes hideout....

I have been told by builders that cement block basemets are much less expensive square footage than the lumber built main floor. In the norhtern states the footing, or footer, whatever you call it, has to be 4 feet deep anyway to keep it below the frost. Another 4 feet deep and you have a basement. Around here a basement does not get counted for living space for property taxes.

I have never been without a basement. That's where the heating and water system is. DH has a workbench area. I have my summer kitchen for canning and brewing beer. It's storage especially for winter items like hoses, pressure washer, etc. I start veggie plants down there. It has a bulk head entrance to go directly outside besides the indoor entrance from the kitchen. I think it helps a house keep down moisture rather than being directly on the ground. JMO

Living in TX for 41 yrs but from KS & I still miss basements!

I was told the reason for basements was to dig below the freeze line-for the water pipes. Made sense, but don't know if that's true. Also, where we live in TX the ground shifts so badly, the walls would crack, unless you're building a fortress.

I'm w/oldgaredneck: we'll get to the age where stairs are NOT our friend!

Patty

In the north, esp. in the big cities, they kinda make sense since they do leave a smaller footprint. So many homes up there built on postage stamp lot. But I've heard way too many problems with damp basements, flooding, musty smells, etc. In TX, they make no sense at all with our high water table and wide open spaces.

You'll get a basement in this area regardless of lot size. Flooding usually occurs due to city water/sewer (ICK) problems - be it poor construction of the infrastructure, degrading infrastructure, and/or overloaded infrastructure. Most basements in this area aren't too damp per se but depending on what you're storing or have finished, a dehumidifier does the trick. Most structural problems are caused by poor construction which is getting to be a problem everywhere. They throw the houses up, lousy excavating, use poor materials, skimp on rebar, pressure the trades to strip the walls sooner than they should, and refuse to keep the job site clean (garbage, debris, standing water etc). My spouse is a contractor (builds one at a time) and once the house is tight to the weather, runs a dehumidifier in the basement until he sells the property. Dries things out nicely and no pools of water on the basement floor. Needless to say, there are going to be a lot of mad and disappointed people over the next 10 years or so - houses built in the last couple of years (by some of the large builders) already are coming apart.

Hey! You folks that say "here we have such and such" and then DON'T SAY WHERE YOU ARE, you're wasting everyone's time by posting! Please give a location when you post so we know where you are. Just a state or even an area is all that's needed.

Jennifer

Here in MN, the frost can go 4-5 feet deep, so the foundation for the house needs to get near 6 feet. With that much wall already there, it's real cheap to make a full basement & make use of the space. Far, far cheaper than making a bigger house with more linear feet of foundation.

Slab floor is a really dumb thing - the frost tosses your house around, and the cold floor is a miserable thing all long winter long.

In our clay & sand soils with nothing flat, with bedrock typically 200+ feet down, it is easy to deal with water tables.

In this situation, it would be silly to do anything _but_ build a basement & make use of it.

Just like in your situation, it would be silly to try to force a basement into your conditions.

'Here' it is far cheaper to make a basement for at least storage & the furnace/air/ utilities, if not a bedroom or family room or two. The walls are pretty much there anyhow from the deep foundation, and the house will be much easier to heat.

--->Paul

Most basements in the South tend to be built into a hillside lot with at least one side completly open to the elements. All of my Northern friends had excavated basements with almost all four sides enveloped with earth. Many (from the north) used those basements extensively as family rooms or mechanical rooms or both. In the South, they oftentimes seem used for storage/clutter...well, speaking from a personal perspective anyway.

I've lived in homes which just had crawlspaces..yuck..cold floors, critters underneath the house, and in Alabama..very scary when those frequent tornados come along. I'll take a cellar over a crawlspace anytime.. :)

A basement is the least expensive means of adding living/storage space. Period.

Granted, basements are not suited to every location & climate. My lot has sandy soil with excellent drainage.

I couldn't imagane not having one. Here in Northern Wisconsin, the plumbing, electrical & heating components are nearly always placed in the basement, and never is there the chance of freezing, unless the power fails.

My basement (28' x 42') cost me about $10000. The usable space it provided was a bargain compared to the main floor.