MI representing in this thread.
(Topic ID: 330736)
Woolgoolga
Quoted from JohnTTwo:My basement is around 3,600 sq feet. Unfinished and it affects my property taxes at “zero”
I am on a hill any water that would make it into my basement would flow right out of a french drain system, plus I have drain tile around the foundation with a sump barrel and pump. I hate water damage.
The common thought process is if you need a 48” footing just excavate a little more and you have a free space, well less then 1/2 price space.
I've always wanted to build on a hill for that reason, but on flat ground?
Floating slab please.
Layton, UT
In Utah even slab on grade you're going to have to excavate for footings. So digging a little further down is about 2-3k more. Pouring the extra concrete is about 15-20k. It's cheap square footage. I finished my basement myself which was 35k so all in all about 60k for the 1800 squared feet to gives to my house.
With my house we have French drains all around the house that take storm water away from the house. Just in case the water table rises we have a sump pump but our water table is about 30 feet's down from the bottom of my basement. My walkout has a cover over it to help with the good rain storms.
Lastly we have a radon system.
I much prefer a basement than a two story house.
Quoted from Lilpro66:I do live in tornado alley as well but haven’t had any close calls in a couple three decades.
Here is a tornado map of Illinois 1950-2010, and a closeup of my county. Have headed to the basement about five times over the last 20 years, once this last Spring, no direct tornado but heavy winds. One year one just missed our power substation but still knocked out enough lines to be without power for three days. Basements are cheap insurance.
IL-Tornadoes-13 (resized).pngmont closeup (resized).pngspringstorm (resized).pngAbout 15 years ago I was looking at moving to Oklahoma for work. Home searches in the Tulsa area were finding like 2 homes in a 50 mile radius with basements. The one state that needs them the most has almost none because of the soil and high water table.
Quoted from punkin:So aside from saving money not making the ground floor of a house storm proof, it must cost more to dig a hole and create a space than it does to build the same space where there is already room for it above ground.
Then you don't have to fight nature the whole time pumping water out etc which costs money too.....
I mean, if it was that much of a benefit then why aren't they common here?
People get defensive when i point out the differences between our two countries, nearly got lynched for asking why you guys don't have switches on power points the other day. But to me, it's interesting to see the small differences in these things and to wonder, in the words of a famous country man of yours..
[quoted image]
Where do you store your coal?
Quoted from rod90:When looking at a house with those conditions, would you prefer a house with a slab or a basement at similar pricing.
This would be my order of precedence:
1. Full Basement with walkout (hillside)
2. 9 foot ceiling, (only new homes would have this), but 8 foot is good, at least 7'6"
3. Poured Walls 1st, CMU (blocks) second
4. Perimeter Drainage and sump pump (even if you never had flooding)
5. Crawl Space over slab, but want the Crawl Space to be at least 4 foot with a vapor/barrier, insulation.
Two foot crawl spaces just suck. My dad built a bedroom addition with a two-foot crawl space and a very narrow access panel. I had to install insulation against the floor when I was 11 because he couldn't fit in it.
All of the homes I have lived in have had relatively trouble free basements that had finished gameroom/bar/etc. Walkout basements are the cat’s ass. Easy access to plumbing/electrical/hvac not to mention these aforementioned systems are not taking up living space in the main areas of the home.
My father recently bought a newer slab home. The water heater and hvac are in the attic of the garage. I’m not looking forward to servicing either when the time comes. Total pita.
Imo basements solve more problems than they create.
Chris
Quoted from Hench4Life:Where do you store your coal?
China.
Quoted from Hench4Life:Damn…. Those storm proof house ain’t cheap!
[quoted image]
Is that USD or AUD? If AUD, that is like 50 bucks US. I kid...but its a pretty crazy differential between the two.
Quoted from punkin:China.
Gonna be pretty hard to heat your house that way
Quoted from Hench4Life:Gonna be pretty hard to heat your house that way
No, we get them to load containers with electricity and ship it back to us by boat.
We also store our natural gas there, which is a touch more user friendly for home heating.
Quoted from punkin:No, we get them to load containers with electricity and ship it back to us by boat.
We also store our natural gas there, which is a touch more user friendly for home heating.
[quoted image]
Cool infographic…. However, if your house was heated with a coal furnace, where would you keep the coal?
Quoted from Hench4Life:Cool infographic…. However, if your house was heated with a coal furnace, where would you keep the coal?
Cellar.
In Minnesota and other northern, temperate continental climates, most homes have historically been built with basements. The primary reason is because the foundation must be below the frost line to prevent a building from shifting in the freeze-thaw cycle and with soft soil basements are relatively easy to construct.
Basically, in Australia, we do not need them, pubs have them to keep the beer cold, but i have only ever seen one house locally with a traditional basement
But as a few have said, the basement is about putting the foundations low enough not to be interfered with when the ground freezes over during a cold winter
I remember seeing a guy building his games room in Minnesota, the foundations were very deep
Quoted from jackd104:The most important purpose of a basement is for men to go into them and be left alone.
It’s the only place in the house that I have full control over.
Quoted from TheLaw:I'd rather just walk to the basement to get beer then the Pub.
Cheaper too! 
Quoted from punkin:We do have all the bastard storms here in Woolgoolga.
[quoted image]
sweet lineup. I love seeing collections grouped by theme.
Quoted from Tuukka:Basements are OK!
Just make sure that if your games are in your grandma's basement, you have a sump pump and an Escalera in case of water flooding in, so you don't need to raise funds for a pump or borrow and break an Escalera to get your games up from the basement.
Good recommendations.
Here are a few more:
1) if building new and there’s not enough slope on the lot to incorporate a walk out basement door extend the foundation walls and build a set of exterior walk down basement stairs.
2) if possible install two sump pump pits and two electric pumps(when one of them fails in 5-10 years the other will still function) in addition to a water pressure powered or heavy duty Marine/RV battery back up sump pump.
3) get a natural gas auto generator or at least a small gasoline generator to power the pumps during an extended power outage.
4) make sure you have a sump pump rider on your homeowner insurance policy. I pay $60 a year for $15,000 coverage. If you don’t have one they will give you $0.
3BA0747F-FD50-4EA5-ABE7-40A140ACD268 (resized).pngD44B8C00-72EC-468F-8E9E-C7401AEF7F59 (resized).pngBasements are for creating a secret lair to plan world domination, housing your time machine, and of course, for man caves filled with pinballs...
One my wife's uncle's had a full ceiling basement that was really nice. I walked over to an area and saw another railing and steps and thought WTF. It looked down to a full basketball court. Nevermind heard of anything like it.
Quoted from punkin:So aside from saving money not making the ground floor of a house storm proof, it must cost more to dig a hole and create a space than it does to build the same space where there is already room for it above ground.
Then you don't have to fight nature the whole time pumping water out etc which costs money too.....
I mean, if it was that much of a benefit then why aren't they common here?
People get defensive when i point out the differences between our two countries, nearly got lynched for asking why you guys don't have switches on power points the other day. But to me, it's interesting to see the small differences in these things and to wonder, in the words of a famous country man of yours..
[quoted image]
Surprisingly the cost of a square foot of unfinished basement area is less than half the cost of one square foot of living space above it.
As others stated winter frost is a huge consideration.
Also comfort is a huge factor. Spend 8 hours standing on a concrete floor vs the same amount of time on a subfloor built over a foundation or crawl space. My knees and ankles hurt after a few hours of standing/working on a concrete floor.
Quoted from StoneyCreek:sweet lineup. I love seeing collections grouped by theme.
you should see his whole room
Quoted from ultimategameroom:2) if possible install two sump pump pits and two electric pumps(when one of them fails in 5-10 years the other will still function) in
Good tips. I run a garden hose to test them twice a year. It’s keeps the pumps from locking up from no use. I typically have one fail every other year. Gravel likes to get sucked into the pump.
It's probably been said, but basements provide great areas for storage, way easier to put stuff in than an attic. It's really nice having easy access to your pipes unlike a slab or crawl space. They provide a convienant place to have your HVAC system and water heater, once again, way easier to maintain when it isn't up in an attic. Even if your basement is unfinished you can make a room for a teenager if you ran out of space elsewhere. Walkout basement are a lot easier to move pins in and out than going down steps, especially if the steps have a turn.
Quoted from punkin:I've always wanted to build on a hill for that reason, but on flat ground?
Floating slab please.
Walk out basements are a dream come true for most pinball and arcade collectors,
Especially if there is a turn in the basement stairs!
Just make sure that you install a French door and not a sliding door so both panels open to give you a full 6 ft opening.
2637C3DE-0726-4D7E-83E0-03FC451C86F0 (resized).png656D4F89-8516-403A-B1C8-7561F70D449A (resized).png
Okotoks, AB
Quoted from Gunnut40:Good tips. I run a garden hose to test them twice a year. It’s keeps the pumps from locking up from no use. I typically have one fail every other year. Gravel likes to get sucked into the pump.
I forgot to say if you only have one sump pit
Buy an extra pump and prep it so it can be swapped out very quickly in case of a failure during a big storm.
You are correct a piece of stone/Gravel or a stone chip can jam the pump impeller and render it useless.
I recommend anyone who has a sump pump keeping a basement with machines in it dry to get a pair of thick rubber elbow length gloves and clean out their sump pit to ensure there’s no stone or debris present. I’ve seen new or newer homes with a few inches of mud/stone that got knocked in during construction.
No mention of the boomerang kid moving into the basement after college?
-Rob
-visit https://www.kahr.us to get my daughterboard that helps fix WPC pinball resets or my Pinball 2000 H+V Video Sync Combiner
Quoted from rkahr:No mention of the boomerang kid moving into the basement after college?
I'll build a shed for them
Quoted from ultimategameroom:Walk out basements are a dream come true for most pinball and arcade collectors,
Especially if there is a turn in the basement stairs!
Just make sure that you install a French door and not a sliding door so both panels open to give you a full 6 ft opening.
[quoted image][quoted image]
Only issue is a lot of the time they shitty path to get to them. Every once in a while when moving a Whitewater up a huge slope in 9" of snow I'd just rather take it in the front door. 
But damn it must be great to just roll them in!
Quoted from TheLaw:I'd rather just walk to the basement to get beer then the Pub.
Are you saying you’d rather go to the basement first THEN go get another at the pub???
Or
Are you saying you’d rather go to the basement THAN the pub as meaning instead of the pub???
Quoted from Hench4Life:Cool infographic…. However, if your house was heated with a coal furnace, where would you keep the coal?
Coal for heating? It's not the 1800's. If it was i'd keep it in my coal shed, i suppose. Fuck the stairs.
Quoted from jackd104:The most important purpose of a basement is for men to go into them and be left alone.
It's been said that every aussie boy needs a shed. No stairs.
Quoted from TheLaw:I'd rather just walk to the basement to get beer then the Pub.
Can get beer the same in a shed. No stairs.
Quoted from Invictus:Basements are for creating a secret lair to plan world domination, housing your time machine, and of course, for man caves filled with pinballs...
Shed.
Quoted from punkin:Alright.
Why not build the house stronger, and go up?
No need to fight nature, the water flows downhill from the roof.
If you dig.......
Simple: Use to be a lot cheaper going down than up, at least in the midwest.
Getting water away from the house is a must, but really common sense regardless of a basement or not. I think the rule of thumb for down spout drain tile is 10 feet away from the house. A common practice is to have 'perk' test done to the soil prior to digging. Haven't done one myself, but I think they just bore a hole down and see how much water there is after awhile, maybe someone can elaborate.
Quoted from ultimategameroom:I forgot to say if you only have one sump pit
Buy an extra pump and prep it so it can be swapped out very quickly in case of a failure during a big storm.
You are correct a piece of stone/Gravel or a stone chip can jam the pump impeller and render it useless.
I recommend anyone who has a sump pump keeping a basement with machines in it dry to get a pair of thick rubber elbow length gloves and clean out their sump pit to ensure there’s no stone or debris present. I’ve seen new or newer homes with a few inches of mud/stone that got knocked in during construction.
And if installed along side the primarily (like mine), run the 2nd sump pump off a separate breaker. My 2nd pump is actually a combo (1/2hp + battery backup). Separate discharge line too.
Quoted from mbwalker:Simple: Use to be a lot cheaper going down than up, at least in the midwest.
Getting water away from the house is a must, but really common sense regardless of a basement or not. I think the rule of thumb for down spout drain tile is 10 feet away from the house. A common practice is to have 'perk' test done to the soil prior to digging. Haven't done one myself, but I think they just bore a hole down and see how much water there is after awhile, maybe someone can elaborate.
Don't get started on the way you guys just run your stormwater out in the yard instead of having council infrastructure outside underground to pipe into.
Quoted from punkin:Don't get started on the way you guys just run your stormwater out in the yard instead of having council infrastructure outside underground to pipe into.
Huh? Why?
Quoted from PopBumperPete:you should see his whole room
Come down next month for the Coffs Pinball Festival mate, having a recovery day here, open house on Sunday 5th of March.
Quoted from skink91:Huh? Why?
See how easy it is to fall into the why trap?
Because, it saves you flooding your neighbour out and just passing the problem from yard to yard. Your yard is not a fucking bog, only the water that falls on the yard is there, rain from roofs goes to stormwater, into the river or ocean.
You already have the hole dug for the sewer/water/power pipes (recurring theme here?) so why not?
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