My current house we had built 20 years ago and paid premium for the full walkout basement with 8 foot ceiling. I wouldn’t be in the hobby unless it wasn’t for the walkout.

Do you dump rain water into the sewer line? Big no-no state side. Cities did that ages ago, and now they have to separate at a huge cost. Prevents raw sewage from dumping in the rivers when the system is overloaded because of rain water.

To my knowledge, rainwater or snow or is not even allowed to go back into our normal sewer systems. Also most people landscape things to handle the runoff in whatever way is necessary to the appropriate landing spot.

An observation, few things are really universal truths applicable to everyone and every situation.

You drinking buddy what the heck is a kerb!!! LOL

I have a 5,000 sq foot shed and can't imagine playing pinball in my shed when I have my basement.

Every municipality is going to have a different rule or law on this in the US. In many areas, we used to mandate and/or allow storm water into the municipal sewer... but then it changed because flooding out the water treatment plant with turds is more costly for everyone.

However, just because it's dumped into the yard, does not mean the yard is a bog. Many municipalities have strict rules about not being allowed to flood out the neighbors. Some communities have a shared storm drain for rain water that you are allowed to tie into. Some use dry wells, some yards have soils with great ability to absorb the water, some collect rainwater for recycling, etc., etc. Every situation is different but generally no-one is allowed to dump into their neighbors' yards.

As far as basements, I can only speak for the Midwest near the Great Lakes. 1. Better resale (people want basements. 2. Tornado shelter, and 3. What was already mentioned many times and ignored, the fact that in a climate where the dirt freezes solid, you're already digging and pouring concrete 42, 48, or 60 inches underground.... so another few feet and you got an underground room the size of your house. And yet, not all homes in the US Midwest have them... many of the lower cost houses are on slabs (still with concrete foundation walls that must go down 42, 48, or 60 inches.) Google "frost heaving" if you need to know why a slab still needs a foundation to go below the frost line.

If you're looking for a one-size-fits-all answer for the US, there's not one. Great plains, mountains, deserts, swamps, beaches, hills, sand, clay, rock, freezing temperatures, etc... there's great diversity in building styles and traditions across this country.

If someone had the choice under same conditions no one would rather a concrete slab over a basement.

#facts

Agreed. And the assumption that "basement = flooding" is just flat out wrong.

While many new houses in the Chicago area have sump pits and pumps to keep basements dry, my 120-yr-old house on a hill in good soil has a dry basement without any sump pits, pumps, or drainage pipes. Every situation is different, and one house may have chronic basement flooding while the neighbor does not.

Asked and answered. At this point you're trolling.

Where else would the sign go?

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I think this statement really takes the cake here.

On my second shed and it’s only 10’x16’. Powerless and no hvac.

For sure. But he can't start arguments with Google results.

LOL I am just goofing around with ya Mate and someday I am showing up at your SHED!!!

Pretty standard

What ForceFlow said ^^^^ +++, although I may argue the *cheaper to build up* point.

My basement story from Ann Arbor MI:

About 30 years ago, when my house builder was digging the foundation for my house, we had a planned depth from existing grade of 10 feet. At 8 feet he hit a sand layer of about 3 feet thick. After a few moments of discussion, I told him to stop at 8 feet and we will deal with the required fill dirt later.

About 25 years ago, when my neighbor (about 400 ft. away) dug his foundation, his builder blew through the sand layer into a water soaked layer (without knowing it) and proceeded to poured the foundation.

I never have had any water in my basement. My sump pump runs maybe a few times a day only the spring. I have a full finished basement with 16 games in it.

My neighbor pumps out 5 gallons of water an hour, day and night, spring, summer, fall and winter, and goes through at least one sump pump a year.

Lesson: You got to pay attention to the details!

BTW: I have a radon evacuation system also.

This is a fun thread for me, who’s looking at a hefty price tag to finish out a basement this spring. As long as I have dedicated pin room, it’s a go.

Outside.

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People do build those types of places by me it’s called a “shouse”

Lot of times it’s a first time buyer or horse person. How do you handle the interior or your roof and the condensation issues?

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Careful not to drink too much, you may end up in gaol.

It is also what people are used to
Basements are not under every house in the USA, I don't think they are common in Florida

I've lived in homes with a basement all of my life, but this past year I built a slab home near a lake with a storm shelter and an attached 2400 sq ft shed. My home is commonly referred to as the "Barndominium". I switched up and went with a slab due to the water table and rock ledges, but mainly it was so I would not have any stairs. My wife and I are not getting any younger, and I wanted to plan a bit for the future. Everything is handicap acessible, and I can literally drive into the garage and up to my back door. Not a step or stair anywhere. The shed is very well insulated and has both Heat/AC......I work and play out there almost every night. There is a steel storm shelter in the shed in the case those Nadoes' get close....also serves as a good liquor closet.....lol

most states(if not all) make you do radon tests on home inspections now. Then if levels are high, must install an exhaust fan.

1/4 acre is 1011m2
most city blocks for sale are about 400-500m2, at about $1000 per m2

We don't have basements in SoCal. I wish we did, they're really flexible spaces, and frankly we're short on square footage here compared to our real estate prices. But it's the nature of how things were built here, basements are very rare, and many homes are single level even.

That's great, but I'd much rather use the barn to house my workshop and project cars.

In my area perk tests are normally only done if installing a septic system. A backhoe digs a small hole and a specific amount of water is then added. Then they time how long it takes the water to drain into the surrounding soils.

@punkin, good on you for bringing up an interesting topic that has sparked a lot of discussion! Some other good points brought up here about sheds/outbuildings. I have a large garage that is in the process of getting even larger. It will house my workshop, overflow pins, and get the cars parked inside for maybe the first time since we moved in (it was a three car garage then, I added a fourth, and still it is chocked full of storage, tractor, lawnmower, golf cars, pins, etc.) Two more bays being added on with a second story. I can do this where I am because even though we have zoning, I am in a small town and I really only have to watch setbacks from the property line. Many large towns/cities/counties regulate sheds and outbuildings and doing what I am doing would not be possible.

I still love my basement though and BTW it has always been dry, my biggest complaint is the oldest part of it has a low ceiling. I would love to lower the floor but that is a lot of work for not much gain, so I won't be doing that. I also have a small section over crawl space that I wished I had dug out when we added on but didn't. Also a dream to dig out (that has been done before by a couple of pinsiders). A lot more work than adding onto the garage, so maybe when I am fully retired but also not likely.

I wish we were taxed only on the land like you - all improvements are taxed and this really has to be taken into account with any additions you make. My garage is separate from the house by about 10 feet and this makes it an outbuilding, so it is taxed lower than if it was part of the house. Still, I will get hit with additional tax when the garage is done. Ironically, I could dig out the crawl space and add 400 sq. ft. of living and that would not be taxed much more at all.

Finally, on Radon, it is a problem in the house because it can build up and overtime cause lung cancer if you breath it. Outside, it does not get trapped so it isn't an issue (like background radiation that is all around us). If you don't have a basement then you might still need a system to evacuate it as it can come through the slab. Modern construction usually includes a barrier under the basement/slab so it isn't a problem. You can also seal cracks in your existing floor that might be all you would need to do. I had to put a Radon system in a house I sold because it was just barely above the recommended threshold (4 picocuries/liter). It is a hole in the floor, some piping to the roof with a motor than "sucks" it out from under the slab. Wasn't that expensive but sucked to have to do it in the first place.

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It does not work like that. Radon is a heavy gas. It builds up in basements due the concrete slab and no ventilation. If you upstairs it’s not so bad. If remember the numbers correctly mine was around a 20 pCi/L in the basement. It was about a 4 pCi/L upstairs. After the fan was installed. I had 1.5 in the basement and upstairs. I was more worried about my son as my wife and I work in a factory. We are not saving our lungs. Baw ha!

My daughter wants me to do this also. No idea why.

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Our home owners association won't let us have sheds

They do come in handy

We have large detention basins here where the street collects the rain water and it pipes to these pond like areas or the water is conveyed to a creek. You definitely don't want to be the low spot though.

Thanks, that's interesting.

We're a small addition (35 houses) out in the boonies. But the city made the developer run a sewer line, no septics. Water is still from individual wells.

But I do recall some people doing a perk test for the basement when building. So maybe they can do double duty (septic or water table).

Basements where the house is built into a hill and there is a sliding door or French door at ground level are great. About half of our basement is a finished family room. I just built out a finished space for my pinball machines in a formerly unfinished area. Moving games in and out of the basement is very easy and a 1 person job. I can back my van up to the door and easily bring machines in and out on a hand truck. Last weekend I picked up a Space Mission machine from my daughter's house. It was in her basement and it was a pain to get it up the stairs and outside to ground level. Definitely a 2 man job.

Basements are the norm here in most of Maryland. My beach house does not have a basement and I was talking to my wife the other day about how if we retire there, I probably won't have any pinball machines because there isn't a good place to put them. The houses at the beach are up on stilts.

The water goes into the ground, not my neighbors yard. Why not? I don't know....maybe because I don't want my yard dug up to get a bunch of roots, leaves, dead critters, roof shingles, ect unstuck from my underground storm pipes? Actually storm drains are extremely common in lots of areas but they generally start in the road. Some people do install underground piping to drain from their gutters to the road/storm drains