| Author | Message | ||
     Xl1200r |
I've been lookingto buy a home for a few months now, and one that will be coming onto the market in the spring is my mom's house. It's a great house, about 12 years old, just the right size and in great conditions. The only problem is the yard is pretty small, and it only has a small one-car garage. There's an extra parking space in the driveway, so fitting both cars sin't an issue. However, we also have three motorcycles in the household that need a home. Expanding the garage isn't very feasible. We can go to the side by about 3 or 4 feet max before we're getting on the neighbor's property. The yard has quite a slope to it, so I was playing with the idea of a building a walkout basement for the place. At the back corner, I'd say roughly half the basement is above ground. If I were to dig out a trench that sloped downward a little, wide enough to put a 4' door into the basement, and held it back with some brick walls, would I be asking for water trouble? If I sloped the trench enough to stay at least level or slope away from the house, it would likely extend all the way to the street. Something like Bilco doors do me no good as bike would need to go in and out fairly easily. Any ideas? | ||
| P_squared |
Proper grading, retaining walls as needed, French drain & French doors. Should cover all the bases as far as functionality & aesethics. | ||
| Spiderman |
As long as your property is graded properly you shouldn't see any water problems. You may still want to use some kind of sealer on the exposed walls Just in case... | ||
| Bill0351 |
That's almost the exact set-up that I had at my old house. I never had any trouble with water. The entire corner was poured reinforced concrete below grade and regular stick built (2x6 and urethane foam sprayed) above grade. Just like everyone said, proper grading and drainage is the key. Bill | ||
| Xl1200r |
I'm only worried about water running down the pathway into the doorway... but it sounds like this shouldn't be an issue if done correctly. Good news for me! | ||
| Spiderman |
You may get some, It may be worth wile, since you are already into the heavy construction, to put a drain right at the end of the walk and tie it into your basement drain. | ||
| Davegess |
You also need to set it up so that any gasoline fumes can't get to a source of combustion. My garage in under my home but is a foot lower than the basement and has a metal fire door between the two. | ||
| Kyrocket |
We inspected a guys here last summer who dug out for outside stairs to his basement, so far I haven't heard of any water problems. As long as you have the slope and drainage you should be good to go. Check with the local building inspector and they can give you the numbers. Here it's a six inch fall in ten feet. | ||
| Hammer71 |
Garage is for motorcycles. | ||
| Spiderman |
And trash cans are for trash, but that didn't stop you  | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
"You also need to set it up so that any gasoline fumes can't get to a source of combustion." That also go for the pilot light on a gas furnace, correct? | ||
| Andyss1w |
my advise would be to talk to a local licensed plumber (a good one) about your drains. i would not tie on to a basement floor drain. basement drains or any drain has a "dfu" rating. which may not be sufficient for a trench or area drain. (it will not be able to handle the load) Gas furnace may be an issue depending on what you have. they actually make them now to filter the incoming air, thus eliminating the possibility of igniting fumes. this is cool! I'm going to apprenticeship school to be a plumber, this is right up my alley. | ||
| Just_ziptab |
I'm really liking my drive in basement..but that's just me.........[list]  [/list] | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Nice place. Ahh, Iowa. _____________________________ | ||
| Teddagreek |
Buy the house that suits you.. The work is the easy part.. Your going to have to have it checked for utilities.. Permits.. more that likely Architect/Structural engineer plans I had an enclosed porch that had some termite damage before the house was treated.. I decided I wanted to put it back to a open porch and extend the slab out and put a proper slope on it.. What's sad is permits and plans cost me more than the materials.. Good Luck... | ||
| 12x9sl |
I agree with psquared-slope it right, plus a french drain utilizing the drain tile around the foundation for safety and you should be good. | ||
| Skinstains |
Ifr you have three bikes a one car garage is definately not sufficient. | ||
| Corporatemonkey |
Ziptab, There is something very zen to that photo. The perfect little rows of shrubs (corn?), straight lawn mower lines. I don't know exactly why I like it, but it is soothing. Maybe I should post a photo of my neighborhood to even things out.  | ||
| Ratbuell |
My folks did a setup like you're thinking of, but they did it after I moved out...so I don't know details. Theirs was a completely below-grade basement, so it was a lot of digging. They just did stairs so they could market it as a "walkout", and built a nice roof over the entrance and stairway, keeping it all nice and dry down there. *However*, I currently live in a FEMA floodplain so I'm familiar with water. Dig deep enough for a french drain (basically a large gravel pit underground, allows the water to filter down from the surface and prevents/reduces pooling). If you already have a basement drain system, definitely tap into it. Another option is dig a sump pit at the bottom of your slope and put in a submersible - when the float gets to a certain height, pump fires and sends water out the drain pipe. Just run PVC to your street gully so it doesn't drain back into the basement. When I bought my place, the sump outlet (I have a basement sump in the laundry room) was "upstream" of the basement, so it just pumped it back into what was going to seep in anyway. Duh. First thing I fixed, by running it out to the roadway ditch. For water flowing down the ramp (i.e. rainfall), just build it like a garage - have the door up on a 1" or 2" "curb", above the surface of the ramp. That way, if some water *does* pool down there, it has a ways to go before coming over the threshold and into the basement. Of course, your french drain or sump pump should get it out of there long before it overflows.... | ||
| Trac95ker |
There are to many good deals to be had. rates are rumored to drop even more. You can probably find exactly what you want. Start throwing out some low bids and see what you come up with. you should put a post up asking for advice on how to negotiate rates,realtor fees and so on. These people are starving and will probably take what they can get! | ||
| Cowboy |
Nothing to do with the topic. I read these post and get sick to my stomach when I see what our country is coming to/ with all these permits ect. before you can build any thing. I own my own land and will build what I want when I want be damed if I let some one that dont have a pot to pxxx in or a window to through it out of run my business.--- I have finished bitching sorry | ||
| Xl1200r |
I actually found a place I really like. A little smaller than my mom's place, but has a full basement, 1.5 acres of open field, a pool and an oversized 4 car garage/workshop. It's just a little further north than I wanted, and I don't have any down payment saved up, lol. | ||
| Just_ziptab |
I hear you Cowboy........... have to have a "building" permit........to TEAR down a frickin fence! | ||
| Cowboy |
Tab. I am very lucky my ranch has been in my family from the mid. 1800's and I am in a remote area, I do just about any thing I want to. I just dont know how long my kids will be able to. When I am gone. It is scary | ||
| Teddagreek |
If your doing permit work on your house, I Strongly suggest taking lots of pictures... On this project down the road IMO they screwed up and missed a rebar and footer inspection.. I'm lucky I had pictures of the work or I would have had to bust up 2 yards of crete..  | ||
| Just_ziptab |
"There is something very zen to that photo. The perfect little rows of shrubs (corn?), straight lawn mower lines.I don't know exactly why I like it, but it is soothing.". . . . . . . . . . .Thanks Corporatemonkey. That pic was of the soybean field. The next one is corn and next is the front yard. The place is inside the city limits, but you would never know it when out on the back elevated deck. Soothing? Oh man, to sip a beer at the end of every evening with that view and the sun setting. And to think people thought I was crazy to build there. The last pic is a composite of what I started with, before I fired up a chain saw.    | ||
| Corporatemonkey |
Ziptab, do we have an OCD candidate amongst us? Most people do not give a rat a** about the aesthetics of lawn mowing. Poorly space lawn mower lines are a pet peeve of mine. | ||
| Just_ziptab |
OCD candidate? Heck no, my Dad has that. I'm just a weak result of the spin off from his upbringing of me. He would yawn at my lawn lines and for that matter, I usually use a garden tractor to mow,but when gas was $35.00 a jug for the rider,I used the push mower a few times last year and mowed the whole damned thing for a gallon...........I had the time. His row crops were laser straight by seat of the pants experience,the fire wood stacks were like brick and mortar and his storm windows that got re glazed on the kitchen table looked like they were CNC machined when he was done. It sucks to be me/him at times, but I guess it's worth it........../  | ||
| Corporatemonkey |
His row crops were laser straight by seat of the pants experience,the fire wood stacks were like brick and mortar and his storm windows that got re glazed on the kitchen table looked like they were CNC machined when he was done. Now your just talking dirty to me  | ||
| Just_ziptab |
I guess you don't want to know that he could turn Walnut into glass with a can of varnish, an old brush and some sandpaper.........  |
