Looking at a house w/o basement...is it a mistake? (Altoona: crawl space, buy)

[ksbd4]

Originally Posted by Tiger One

There are specially reinforced materials that are for shelter construction, that will give you substantial protection from airborne objects in a twister. THAT is what you need to use to build a "storm closet" in the corner of your basement. You can build your "storm closet" as a regular closet, storage room, a laundry room, a bathroom, canning room, etc. FEMA has shelter plans available for free, that are for adding a shelter in a basement. Go to the FEMA web site, and check it out. I got my FEMA book several years ago. Not only does it have all the shelter info, it also gives you an idea as to what kind of hazards are most likely in your area.

WOW!! Great... thank you so much.

[Tiger One]

No problem ! Glad I could help !

[capitalcityguy]

You need to talk to several trustworthly local Realtors. My guess is they will caution you and tell you about the difficulty you may have in trying to resell it in the future.

[Lovethem]

Tiger has a really good idea. We are from the southwest and have one of few basements which we LOVE. But one of the homes we were considering here in Iowa for our move has a FEMA room in lieu of a basement (10X10 block room built within the house and used for an office when not for tornados).
You can use the cement blocks to reinforce the root cellar - fab idea!
The only thing I wonder is how much colder the floor is in the winter without a basement - brrrr.

[metro223]

Originally Posted by Lovethem

The only thing I wonder is how much colder the floor is in the winter without a basement - brrrr.

You can just get heated floors for that. I had a basement at my previous house but we still had heated floors in many of the rooms - we even used them on summer nights.

[GreenMama]

I'm from Minnesota and plan to build a house in Iowa with a slab foundation. Basements are not a friendly living space as they tend to be dark and damp and expensive to excavate. However, I also think of tornadoes. I plan on building a root cellar( I'm an avid gardener) to head to for shelter if need be. I'd say if you like the house go for it!

[Chicago60614]

Yeah, I've grown up assuming everyone has basements. It was mostly for the tornado threat.

Even though if you rationally think about it, over 99% of people will never actually be hit directly by a tornado.

[Worriedsister]

I was wonderin....would a cellar built close to the house work with a tunnel leading from house to said cellar?? Not a long tunnel, but ...say a short one leading from home door ,to, underground straight to cellar. Does that make sense? (I'm a blonde, lol)

[LPerkins33]

basements are overrated, mine floods yearly even with a sump pump.

[WoodwardGirl]

Originally Posted by Worriedsister

I was wonderin....would a cellar built close to the house work with a tunnel leading from house to said cellar?? Not a long tunnel, but ...say a short one leading from home door ,to, underground straight to cellar. Does that make sense? (I'm a blonde, lol)

Well... it could be done, sure, but if you're going to go to all that trouble, a basement would probably be easier and less expensive <g>. The mounded up cellars you've seen, where the cellar is only partially underground but earth is mounded up over the top of it, is kind of what has been used instead of your solution, I think.

It could be a fun secret passage, though. I'm a big fan of secret passages <g>.