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Our sales rep told us that as well. SHe suggested it would be considered "commercial" instead of residential. WE opted for the finished 3rd floor attic. We still have 3 floors and it was way cheaper than a basement.
Sounds like you have a very misinformed agent who will tell you anything.
Its my understanding that its really an issue with the composition of the clay and how it retains water / or drains water. My experience has been that there are not alot of 4sided buried basements - most of the basements I have seen over the last 10 years have been three sided poured cement (or cement block) and the 4th wall being stick built , which leads itself to having a walkout basement which is nice to have. I have my own home set up like that. (I have not had any water leakages in the 6 yrs I have lived in the home) .
Its my understanding that its really an issue with the composition of the clay and how it retains water / or drains water. My experience has been that there are not alot of 4sided buried basements - most of the basements I have seen over the last 10 years have been three sided poured cement (or cement block) and the 4th wall being stick built , which leads itself to having a walkout basement which is nice to have. I have my own home set up like that. (I have not had any water leakages in the 6 yrs I have lived in the home) .
I don't even see a lot of walkout basements around NC, but if you go up to Northern Virginia, they're standard there. The soil and water type can't be that much different, and there both at similar elevations (Charlotte actually maybe higher and more hilly) and unlike there, the land is cheaper here, so would really cost them that much more to put add a basement?
I know they have bonus rooms over the garages to try and substitute a basement, but it's just not the same, especially in the summer time, when you can go downstairs and a have a few drinks while watching a movie or a game in your cool dark basement.
I don't even see a lot of walkout basements around NC, but if you go up to Northern Virginia, they're standard there. The soil and water type can't be that much different, and there both at similar elevations (Charlotte actually maybe higher and more hilly) and unlike there, the land is cheaper here, so would really cost them that much more to put add a basement?
I know they have bonus rooms over the garages to try and substitute a basement, but it's just not the same, especially in the summer time, when you can go downstairs and a have a few drinks while watching a movie or a game in your cool dark basement.
e2ksj3 - I noticed the same thing whenever I travelled down 81, I'd get the real estate books at the rest stops and it seemed that a majority of VA homes had basements. Many of the homes in GA that I see on HGTV also seem to have them. It still remains a mystery to me, especially when I see a development of $600,000 houses and they all appear to have been built on a slab or crawlspace.
I think that I'd rather have a slab than a crawlspace tho'. I still associate crawlspaces with creepy things and horror movies. The snakes, the psycho killer hiding out in "The Crawlspace!"
Ohhh, these threads make me miss my old house in Cincinnati, Ohio. Built in 1930, all brick, 2 stories and a huge, perfectly dry, basement (not a cellar which has low ceilings) with root cellar and workshop room with an old big work bench, and a shower and toilet. *Sigh* Double garage, gigantic front porch ... that house was straight and sturdy and built right. Hardwood floors, original black & white tile in the kitchen, and I bought it for $70k in 2001. All our supplies, tools, laundry, craft stuff, went into the basement, as well as a couple of relaxing chairs and a TV. I'd come in after lawn mowing and gardening on a 98 degree August day and enjoy the cool, dry darkness of that basement and a beer. Ohhhh. :-) OK, time to snap out of it! I do NOT miss the ice, slush, snow, sub-zero temps ...!
Bugs..can you imagine the bugs in a poorly sealed in foundation here...ugh..I dont want to think about it.
It seems that so many native North Carolinians and recent transplants complain about bugs! I find that the bugs here are no worse than NJ and it's fun to see some new species. There are these tiny spiders that scurry across my front porch. I never saw these kind in NJ and I named them "Meth Spiders" because they seem to be in such a hurry! I also saw my first snake last May crawling past the ac unit, at first I was scared, but I had bookmarked a page about the "Snakes of NC" and realized it was just a common 4 foot black racer. I followed it around the yard until it went into the swampy buffer zone between the two developments. So much for my big Discovery Channel moment!
Sunny - Thanks for all the basement info! I read it all, and there still seems to be no definitive answer about basements. Sometime before I'm "looking at roots" as my native NC neighbor likes to say, I will discover the "real" reason for the lack of basements!
Last edited by TheEmissary; 12-28-2007 at 09:36 PM..
Reason: Sp
One realtor told me it was the cost of digging into the red clay...another told me it was because of the low water table making moldy basements here....I like not having a basement. Didn't think I would, but I do....
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