I live in Wichita and half ? the houses have basements. People like having a basement to go to during bad weather and tornado warnings.
Some houses have “full basements” which are the same size as the rest of the house but it sure changes when you get to the larger homes, say 2,500 square ft and larger.
I don’t think there is such a thing as an older 3,000 sq ft home with a 3,000 sq ft basement. Maybe I’m wrong.
Is there a rule of thumb for the maximum size basement?
^^^^^^
busier than a pair of jumper cables at a redneck funeral
Replies
Since most houses are two stories and typically the frist floor and the second floor are about the same size. This would make the basement of a 3000 SF home in the neighborhood of 1500 sf. not 3000 SF. Of course the 3000 SF basement might apply to a rambler but most houses are two equal floors.
Here on the east coast most everyone has basements and they're the same size as the first floor.
Runnerguy
Seems like the basements here max out at about 1000 to 1,200 feet.Even if the house is 3,000 sq ft one story homeedited to say the above applies to older homes. I'm not very familiar with the newer, larger, mcmansions^^^^^^ busier than a pair of jumper cables at a redneck funeral
Edited 11/13/2007 10:14 am by mrfixitusa
Around here (Central Illinois) I'd guess that 90% of new houses have full basements.
I see very few crawlspaces, and a handful of houses on slabs. Every once in a while there's a house with half basement and half crawlspace.
I think it has a lot to do with frost depth. If you have half a basement wall there already (48" footing depth) a basement isn't that much more expensive.
Basements in older homes are kind of interesting in that they don't add a lot of value to the home.For example, a 1250 sq ft home with no basement is worth about $100,000
here where I'm at.This calculates to about $80 per foot.The same house, but with a finished basement, is worth about $115 or maybe $120Thus the value per foot for the basement is only about $12-$15 per ftIt doesn't pay to spend a lot of money to finish a basement. There's just not much of a return on your money.
Could you explain your math? 115 or 120 subtracting 80 leaves 35 to 40 in my book (about 50%). Not 12 to 15.
I divided $15,000 by 1,250 and got $12 per footI divided $20,000 by 1,250 and got $16 per footIt's been a long day. I think I entered the numbers correctly? Maybe I didn't ?
"For example, a 1250 sq ft home with no basement is worth about $100,000here where I'm at.
This calculates to about $80 per foot.
The same house, but with a finished basement, is worth about $115 or maybe $120"
Oh! You mean 115,000 oe maybe 120,000! I thought you waz saying 115 to 120 dollars per sq ft like the preceeding sentence.
I think we have only one basement in the whole county
and that is why a house with a basement will sell better,people want that cheap sq ft, around here i doubt if it cost much more than 10.00 a ft to pour a basement over doing a foundation.
i don't think in the old house's when they were built there was much value put into them for living space in the basement.looked at as mostly storage and utility rooms. larryif a man speaks in the forest,and there's not a woman to hear him,is he still wrong?
something wrong with your math. if the house is 1250 and you add a finished basement, you now have 2500 of finsihed living space.
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Depends on a lot of things. In older neighborhoods with two story homes a full basement was the only space set aside for utilities (Furnace, HW tank, elect. panel and general storage).
If we're talking about new homes the maximum size, most of the time, would be dictated by the footprint of the main floor. That's the maximum but not always. A few years ago I did an inspection on a 17,500sf (total--all levels) home. Basement was about 2000sf. The HO wanted everything at the main level but didn't want any intrusions by the utilities. (4HVAC units). BTW, the house could have recieved national awards for the biggest waste of construction materials. I have a list of "cover 'em with Ivy" homes and this is our champion example of ugly.
The first thing I ask when working with a HO is the use of the basement. Family room, home theatre, sports bar, storm protection(not a big issue around here) or just storage and utilities. A lot of time I have them tell me that they move around the country a lot so we throw that into the mix because the next people may want to use the space a lot differently. You can also consider a living space, a utility area and have the rest as a deeper crawl space set up for longer term storage.
It always comes down to the function. Given that excavating out a basement and constructing the walls, especially if you get the "I want 9'-0" ceiling" rant, may be one of the biggest cost items. This is from a Northern Ohio perspective where 3'-6" frost depth is enforced. You go down to Charlotte, NC and basements generally don't exist...neither do garages.
That's it. Hope my rant made sense.
ciao. ted
Around here, new homes have full basements without exception.
For infill development, it's common to have a raised bungalow in which the concrete wall is something like 4' deep, with a 4' stud wall framed on top. A short flight of stairs takes you from the front door to the first floor.
In older homes, basements are more common than crawlspaces, but they tend to be low.
You can have a basement any size you want.
I am sure this varies by location. In texas and forida, basements are rare.
In northern states where you almost have to go deep enough with the foundation to get below frost level, you might just as well have a basement
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