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The only basements I've seen here in Albuquerque have been in the
older areas ( around UNM and Nob Hill ). They all had an "unfinished"
look compared to the nice, neat concrete of my childhood home in
Dayton.
They also were not under 100 percent of the house above. That is;
the part where you could stand stopped and then there was a crawlspace
from there to the edge. Some of them had just bare dirt as a wall.
I've always thought that an ideal house to buy would be one that has
just burned down to the ground in Nob Hill where I would rebuild *after*
fitting out an expansive and tidy basement - *larger* than the house
with possibly underground parking ...
One other advantage to basements is ease of working on everything from plumbing to electrical. It's all exposed in our home. I always used to worry about having a water pipe issue under the slab.
I had a water pipe issue under a slab. Home built in 1973, galvanized pipe, mineral content caused a pinhole leak. One day I heard what sounded like a toilet running on the other side of the wall, or, if you have ever lived in an apt, your neighbor running the sink.
Put ear to the wall, then the floor, and found the general area. Turned off the water main, and a day later, the plumber came out with a jackhammer and located the leak. While he did fill the hole back in after the repair with concrete, we had to replace the vinyl flooring that had to be torn up.
What a PITA.
Of course, here we are on a slab again. I guess its better than creepy crawlies living in my crawlspace. Maybe.
Basements go along with deep frost levels. A building's foundation has to be placed below the extreme winter frost line (depth of frozen ground) to prevent frost related heaving and cracking. When the excavations for the deep footings have to be dug the excavator might just as well dig out the rest of the dirt between the trenches. This volume is used as a basement.
That's a key factor. In some areas, you might have to dig four feet for a perimeter foundation, you might as well go ahead and dig out the remainder. Where we lived in PA I think the frost depth was about 40 inches. A lot of the older homes had "Root Cellars" to store some of the homegrown produce. Some of those older homes have their root cellars converted to regular cellars.
Of course, here we are on a slab again. I guess its better than creepy crawlies living in my crawlspace. Maybe.
I think I'd take the slab over a crawlspace! Lord knows what's crawling aorund down there...black widows & recluses. Centipedes. By the time you realize your clothing has been compromised, they're scurrying down your back and up your trousers. Mouse droppings, hanta virus. No thanks. The basements I like are the ones Mortimer refers to, with a full basement under the whole house. In our basement, we have a finished, "bonus" family room, and a big, unfinished U around it. Lots and lots of dry storage space for the coming, apocalyptic depression.
I am in the process of relocating to N.M. from S.W. Washington State. I've looked at 100s of homes over the past month, and very few of them have basements. Most of the homes I have seen which have basements have been built within the last 10 years.
It is interesting that few home have basements here in NM. I never really gave it much thought as to why. It must be a regional thing. When I lived in Salt Lake City, it was hard to find a home that didn't have a basement.
Lots of mostly older homes have basements her in DFW, but the ground shifts so much here that they are a real pain. It's hard to keep foundations in good shape here. But I love the idea of a basement, even an underground house for that matter.
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