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When I lived in West Virginia and Maryland most houses had basements or at least partial basements.
Here in South Louisiana basements don't make sense because of the water level and because of the swampy soil. Same reason Miami also can't have an underground subway. The only exception is some of the high rises in downtown New Orleans but those foundations are laid VERY deep to get to completely solid ground. Flooding risk is another reason why many places in the Gulf coast don't have basements.
The frost line and type of soil here are the two main reasons we don't generally have basements in northeast Texas. I sold real estate for many years and the few homes that I saw that had basements had problems with flooding in the basements. Even walk out "root cellars" are problematic around here.
When I lived in West Virginia and Maryland most houses had basements or at least partial basements.
Here in South Louisiana basements don't make sense because of the water level and because of the swampy soil. Same reason Miami also can't have an underground subway. The only exception is some of the high rises in downtown New Orleans but those foundations are laid VERY deep to get to completely solid ground. Flooding risk is another reason why many places in the Gulf coast don't have basements.
I run into people fairly often who aren't from this area and who think the lack of basements surely has something to do with ignorance since we live in Tornado Alley - as if people just didn't KNOW about basements or whatever and if we knew about them surely we'd have them. Errr, no. Generally speaking, they don't work around here - that's why we don't have them.
95% of houses in the Detroit and Flint areas have basements.
However, there are a few areas in those cities where cheap, working class houses were built in the 1940's,50's, and 60's that were built on concrete slabs. In addition, in the suburban Detroit home I grew up, one-half of the footprint of the house had a basement, while the other half was on a concrete slab.
Moreover, there are alot of suburban houses built in the 1960's and 70's that were built in the TRI-LEVEL style, where half of the house was built on a slab, so I don't quite understand these folks that are claiming that the frost lines in the colder regions are the reasons why basements were necessary. Most commercial buildings don't have basements around here, so why would a residential building have a basement requirement?
dumb question...to the houses that do not have basements... where are your heaters? hot water heater?
Outside in Southern California. No need to take up valuable space in a conditioned area when it is fine outside, usually in a little shed just slightly larger than the tank but sometimes it just sits out there exposed if it somewhat protected by an overhang or deck. Tankless of course just looks like a small suitcase on the side of an exterior wall.
Mine is in my basement though, I call it a cellar, but in a more typical Southern California hill lot with levels which open up and cause a house to be one story in front and two at the back (or visa versa). The cellar is a dug out below grade space behind (towards the front of the house) the fully finished lower level which walks out to a terraced hillside.
Houses with basements in the U.S. always remind me of the movie ‘The silence of the lambs’. I used to live in a house in Wisconsin with a basement where the washer and dryer were located and it always creeped me out to go there in the evening.
The idea of not having a basement in a house is a bizarre concept to me. Pretty much every single-family detached home in Minnesota has a basement. Even the oldest Victorian-era homes have them.
One feature you find in a lot of Minnesota basements (not sure if it's common elsewhere) is a sump pump, since often the water table is so high that water slowly seeps in and needs to be continually pumped out. Growing up in my parents house as a young kid, the low drone of the sump pump kicking in at odd hours of the night always scared the hell out of me.
95% of houses in the Detroit and Flint areas have basements.
However, there are a few areas in those cities where cheap, working class houses were built in the 1940's,50's, and 60's that were built on concrete slabs. In addition, in the suburban Detroit home I grew up, one-half of the footprint of the house had a basement, while the other half was on a concrete slab.
Moreover, there are alot of suburban houses built in the 1960's and 70's that were built in the TRI-LEVEL style, where half of the house was built on a slab, so I don't quite understand these folks that are claiming that the frost lines in the colder regions are the reasons why basements were necessary. Most commercial buildings don't have basements around here, so why would a residential building have a basement requirement?
You don't have to have a basement, but until some recent ground insulation techniques, you had to dig down below the frostline to keep the foundation from being damaged by the freeze/thaw cycle in cold climates. In some places in the Midwest, it may just be 2 ft you have to dig. In parts of MN, it's more than 5 ft. Once you've already dug 5 ft, you can have a basement with 8 ft celiengs just by elevating the first floor a few feet. It is silly not to put a basement in that circumstance.
Not everywhere in the Midwest has basements. It all depends on the site a home is built on. I have relatives in the Midwest who's house doesn't have a basement, because 6 inches under the dirt lies limestone bedrock. You'd have to blast it or quarry it out if you wanted to build a basement.
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