House with a basement

[WVH1977]

We are currently looking/drawing house plans for a new house. The land has a good roll to it. There are several nice spots for a walkout basement. We also have a few flat places to put a house without a basement. Does anyone on here have a house with a walkout basement and do you like it? Is it quite a bit cheaper than doing a regular two story? My thinking is heating and cooling a ranch with a basement will be substantially less than a two story house. Am I right in this thinking?

I have been told by both a mortgage lender and my builder that a basement even when finished is not counted as square footage living space when appraising the property. This is not too much of a concern since we have a good amount of cash to put down on the house. However, I don't want to go into a new house with a low appraisal.

We really want a ranch with a basement but could live with a two story also or just a big ranch. We will also need an in-law suite (which has to be on the first floor) and rooms for the kids so two masters are needed with two additional bedrooms. Just curious if anyone has gone through a similar process and which way you decided to go. So many details to think about especially when doing two master suites. We plan on living in this new house for a very long time so I want to get it as right as we can. Any thoughts or opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[4570Man]

I’d guess you’re right about the heating cost. My basement stays pretty cool year round. Aside from that I must’ve missed the point of your post.

 

[2ndhalf]

I just moved from a house with a full-walkout basement to a smaller home with only a crawl space. Love my new, to me, house except for one thing that I absolutely hate; No basement.

I loved my basement for getting under things and fixing leaks plumbing issues etc. Trust me you will still have those with a new house if you plan to stay in it.

I loved my walk out basement because if you think about it; you store a lot of things in a basement and it was so nice just to back the trailer up to the walkout and just take it through the basement door. The only think I would have done differently, in hindsite, put in a double entry basement door so that I could pull a car or tractor etc. into the basement to work on it.

The walkout will add a few thousand to your cost because of extra footer, labor and door but worth it IMO.

 

[marchanna]

I致e always had houses with basements. The last two had walk-outs. Your appraisal should take into account all the features. Just make sure your insurance covers full replacement cost.

A nice thing about basements is, you don稚 have to worry about animals taking up residence underneath them. Bad thing is water. If you have a high water table or poor drainage you will want a good sump pump or a monolithic foundation.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

If the basement is finished, then it counts towards "living space" on the appraisal. If the basement is unfinished, then you are not allowed to count it's sq ft towards your house's appraised living space.

As far as I've known, it's always been that way.

I like basements. I like walk out basements even more.

 

[MossRoad]

You can't put bedrooms in a basement without egress windows or doors to the outside to provide fire entrance/exit. So lets say you put two bedrooms in the basement and they don't have egress entries, you can't count them as bedrooms. They can't be counted as living space. Walkouts are great. Just be sure to consider which direction they face. Facing north, no sun ever comes in except in early morning and late afternoon/evening in summer only. No winter sun. Facing east, sun comes in morning till noon. West, just the opposite. Facing south, you can get good sun inside during winter to warm things up, and if you plan decking, overhangs, etc... correctly, it'll be shaded in summer.

Personally, I'd never own a house without a basement. Don't know if that comes from being raised in a house with a bomb shelter or not, but I sure felt safe down there when the tornadoes were coming! :shocked:

We use ours mostly for storage and laundry. We have no ground water issues or dampness issues in our area due to sandy, well-drained soils. Ground water issues will be your biggest concern. A damp basement is a nasty basement.

 

[WVH1977]

If we do go with the basement, we were thinking about finishing it and having the kids rooms and our master suite down there with a big rec room in the middle and make it a daylight basement with sliding doors and windows. This would give my mother her own privacy upstairs. We are also considering putting all the rooms on the first floor and having an unfinished basement with a shop on one side.

As far as I have been told so far concerning the appraisal, when you finish a basement it will only appraise at about half the square foot cost as the living space above ground.

 

[WVH1977]

The daylight side of the basement will be facing south. We are also lucky to have good draining soil. Water issues should not be a problem.

 

[MossRoad]

Sounds nice! :thumbsup:

 

[goeduck]

I have owned and lived in each style. A house with a crawl space, a daylight basement and a full underground basement. My preference would be the daylight if it had accessable ceilings in the daylight. The daylight that I had was hard-lid in which case my preference would be a tall crawl space. I didn’t care for the full underground basement, seemed to always have a smell.