Anyone built one of these?

[Bird]

Neil, Ron's already explained that they need a foundation going down below the frost line in the northern part of the country, so a large percentage of the houses have a basement or cellar. In Texas, you'll rarely find a house with a basement or cellar, except for some of the very old houses. It's much cheaper to just build on concrete slabs and we don't have to worry about the ground freezing. However, quite a few homes (not a majority) in the country do have cellars somewhere near the house (and my wife has fussed at me for not building one), primarily because they're afraid of tornados. But they are also very handy for storing canned goods where they won't freeze. I'm afraid in reality, a "storm cellar" does very little good. I grew up living with them as a kid and what happens is that everytime a cloud shows up, everyone goes and sits in the cellar awhile, or stands around in the yard near the cellar door until they decided there won't be a tornado, but when there actually is a tornado, it arrives so quickly that no one gets to the cellar. When I was a kid, we had two cellars; one lined with shelves for the fruit and vegetables mother canned all summer, and the other one was for storing potatoes, and for storm protection. And I really hated being awakened in the middle of the night to go to the cellar because there was a little thunder and lightning./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

 

[Tom_Trees]

<font color=blue>Interesting comparisons. Guessing the family car is 'roughly' half of the annual wages here. How does that compare with you?</font color=blue>

beenthere -- about the time I graduated from high school my father was making a fairly good income as a tool & die maker - about $16,000 US per year. Or, to look at it another way, about 5.2 Chevy station wagons per year. Now, 35 years later, I make about four times what he did - but only about 3.5 Chevy station wagons per year. I keep getting the feeling I've lost ground, somewhere.

Tom

 

[Tom_Trees]

<font color=blue>Why do you have them. I always see a family in the cellar when there is a tornado on the TV. Is that why you have them??</font color=blue>

Well, when you live in the tornado belt they do come in handy!/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif They also make a great place to dump the utilities and the laundry room. I don't know about anywhere else, but in northern Indiana a basement is some of the cheapest square footage you can add to a house.

Part of it is a requirement to carry footings down at least 36 inches to get below the frost line. Some two-wide modulars stop there, and have a 36 inch crawl space. Most houses have the full basement. Prior to the 1930s in this area most houses used coal-fired furnaces with either gravity-return or forced-air heat. The furnace would be about six feet in diameter and surrounded by a maze of 12 inch and 18 inch ductwork. Houses built in this area from about 1890 to the mid twenties had either a full basement or a 'Michigan' basement - a crawl space around the perimeter, with a center pit for the monster furnace and a coal bin good for about 10 tons of coal.

As for the tornados - we had one go through here in 1966 that is still called The Great Palm Sunday Tornado. It absolutely leveled a major mobile home park south of town. We were visiting my grandfather, an ex-policeman and heard the reports come in on the police scanner. Just minutes after the storm went through all the television shows were interrupted with a request from the Chief of Police and the county Sheriff's department for "all tow-moter operators, all forklift operators, all light crane operators to please report to your place of employment immediately". Thirty minutes later we heard an incredible number of sirens from emergncy vehicles and went out onto the porch to see what was going on.

At a speed of about 30 miles per hour there was a procession lead by two squad cars, with four police motorcycles to the side of the procession. All escorting four flat-bed semis with four fork-lifts each, heading for the mobile home park.

I don't think I'll ever get that sight out of my mind. And I know I'll never live in a mobile home.

Tom

 

[njrqs]

Gee

Anyone earning 3.5 times a family station wagon here is on BIG $ !!!

Maybe I need to branch out and look for work over there !!!

Interesting about the cellars. Also interesting why (in the movies anyway) the cellar doors are on the outside Why not from inside the house ??

Hmmmm

Anyway there are pics of my house in "Australian Rural" . It is a typical Aussie brick veneer construction.

Mind you, down south where it does get cold, their homes are different, but I don't think they have cellars. We are in a sub-tropical region and all the homes look similar.

Cheers

<font color=blue>Neil from OZ.</font color=blue>

 

[Bird]

<font color=blue>cellar doors are on the outside Why not from inside the house ??</font color=blue>

Putting stairs, doors, etc. inside the house takes up a little of your floor space, adds a little to the cost, etc.; however, many of them have both which, of course, I think is preferable. If you have to move heavy, bulky, or dirty items in or out of the basement, the outside door is preferable, but if you want to get there quickly during a storm, just go down to check the furnace or get small items to bring into the house, inside access is better. But if a storm, fire, etc. should cause the house to collapse while you're in the basement, an outside escape route would be kinda nice./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

I spent a lot of time in a lot of those basements in Pennsylvania when I was doing gas leakage surveys./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[Molerj]

I have a full basement in my ranch style home. House is 30' X 76'. Half of the basement
is a furnace/play room for kids, laundry room, & a storage room. The other half is a
bathroom, rec room (tv room/with bar) & a den. We spend most of our time downstairs.
Also have three entrances, one inside, one from the attached garage, & one from the
outside.
Alot of the basements are finished on the newer homes in our area. I grew up in a
old two story home that had the cellar that was only half dug out with sandstone walls,
coal furnace, coal bin, storage bin for potatoes, jet pump. Also had the outside door that
you had to lift up.

 

[njrqs]

Hmmm

We spend a lot of time downstairs in our 2 level house, because it is cooler, but under the house..................

Many houses here are single level slab on ground. I don't like them as they are hot !!

Maybe I need a cyclone shelter......

<font color=blue>Neil from OZ.</font color=blue>

 

[bgott]

And a new tractor with a backhoe to dig it...

 

[RonL]

hemenway 21
I have to ask, did you ever build your Miracle Truss building? I'm still considering this option. TIA
RonL

 

[forestcreature]

there is no finer building than a morton, i have been around steel buildings all my life - check them out. http://www.mortonbuildings.com/