JLagg wrote:
BobK207 wrote:
JLagg wrote:
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

Yes it is totally doable.

When I was a kid in the early 60's a neighbor nearly finished one but
he died of a heart attack just before completely the dig.

The guy who bought the house from his widow got a nearly completed
excavation, he finsihed the project & had one of the very few basements
in the area

SoCal is not noted for full size basements even in the 60s......maybe
the random ultilty vault but once slab constr took hold as rare as
bsements were they became extinct.

My dad & I toyed with the idea (60's bomb shelter) but never executed

A buddy's uncle dug a bsaement; buckets & a pickup truck....... took
him a LONG time

If you're serious you've got think it through.....you can easily
undermine your foundation. You've got to support the dirt supporting
the foundation or dig far enough away.

I've thought about it for my house but I've got post & pier
construction; the project is daunting.

cheers
Bob

Thanks for the input folks. I live in Michigan around Battle creek.
There are a few places around me that have basements even walkout
basements. A neighbor actually got under his house and pulled out the
dirt with a 5 gal bucket! took a while for that one. Also would it be
better to use the cinder blocks or actually using forms or is there
really a choice.


Nobody uses cement block for foundation walls
where I live. If you do it yourself and get a
little help (like on weekends), you can buy a 3-4
cubic foot mixer and mix concrete and pour a 3-6
foot wall section at a time. That allows you to
progress at a slow rate and to maintain support
under the house. Easier if you pour the whole
thing in one shot, but a big hassle to prepare and
pour with an existing house. You will want to get
a concrete worker to pour and finish the floor in
one shot.

Your house is fairly small, (?50 x 20 or 42 x
24?), means that if you put a support in the
middle you can span that 10 or 12 width easily.
and have two 10 or 12 foot clear space that run
the length of the house.

Post and pier is not a big problem, you just need
to figure out the basement space where support
pier and beams are needed. Then you can start
digging You can dig at least 2-3 feet lower that
the support for the piers before you do any
supports so that you have more head room. You
will move support beams and piers around as you
dig out the space, but you can easily use 8x8
pieces to cross 3 of your beams (assuming you have
4 feet between beams) which will give you a 12
foot wide space to dig. What I am saying is that
you can futz around a lot if you don't plan ahead,
so you need to work out a plan for supporting the
house as you dig.