"JLagg" wrote in message
ups.com...
Just curious as to the probability of adding a basement to an existing
house. It was built in 55 and is a ranch style single story 3 bedroom
1000 sq. It has a 3 ft crawl space all the way around. I have a drywell
and well also, no city pumbing at all. Any thoughts on this? Thanks

JLagg, I dug a basement under my previous house some years back. My crawl
space was not only 0" (zero) but the dirt actually came up between the floor
joists. Seller of the house gave me a $10,000 price reduction since the
house couldn't be inspected for termites.

One day I started digging at the down hill side simply to take a look and
maybe excavate a 3 ft. by 3 ft. room to hold a water heater or furnace. I
chipped (removed) a 3 ft. gap in the existing foundation and started
digging. I got my 3x3 6 foot deep and thought "what the hell" lets keep
going. After many evenings and weekends I had dug an 800 square foot area,
9 feet deep. Over the next three years I poured 12" deep by 5 foot wide
footings around the full perimeter and started building block wall on the
edges of the excavation. 12" block for the first 4 feet and 8" block above.
Lots of rebar. Lots of water proofing and drain rock. Drainage all around
the perimeter and gravity out to the side yard (took an additional 100 feet
of trenching outside in order to get enough fall). Long story short, I
ended up with the only basement in my part of California, exquisite
recreation room with bowling machine, pinballs and pool table. A decorative
set of circular stairs connected it to the great room above.
Advantages that I had was that I was able to do my own structural
calculations and design allowing it to flow well into the remaining
architecture of the house.
Would I do it again?? No!! I was younger, could do the sweat equity. If
half of our house were not on slab I would have simply raised the house 3-4
feet during construction, dug the basement with heavy equipment (instead of
5 gallon buckets and wheelbarrow) and then lowered the old house back down.
Would have been a lot less effort.

Email me directly if you want more details. We can even talk on the phone
if you are serious.

Ivan Vegvary