Basements in St. Louis (Webster Groves, Bridgeton: apartments, condos, appliances)

[wustu87]

We love our basement and spend much of our time downstairs, especially in the summer. We installed a perimeter drainage system in ours and have a dehumidifier running from March to September pretty much nonstop. There are a few slab construction homes in our neighborhood and those ones are definitely not at popular as the homes with the full basements. Our previous house was a split level so the lower level square footage counted in its total assessed square footage, but in our current home our finished basement is not. That makes square footage numbers quite misleading. Our current house with its full finished basement has much more livable space than our old house even though its assessed square footage looks lower. So you should definitely keep that in mind when comparing homes online from their numbers.

And yes, we got a permit when we finished our basement. It is not a big deal to get one.

[jccorn]

Thank you all for your input. This is great information! We are looking forward to having the addition of subterranean space in our house. ;-)

[jccorn]

imperialmog,

Basements in Texas, at least in Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio, are non-existent. There are what people call storm cellars in some regions of Texas (mainly panhandle and along the Red River) but they are separate from the house. Thank you for your response, the info is most appreciated!

[mike0421]

We have no basements in Southern New Mexico either, and will never take them for granted again, after living in New Jersey most of my life. It is good to know that basements are a commonality when it comes to St.Louis area housing stock.

More than one person, however, has mentioned crime, as it pertains to breaking into walk out basements. Are larcenies common in the suburbs of St.L?

[pdm_ad]

Originally Posted by mike0421

We have no basements in Southern New Mexico either, and will never take them for granted again, after living in New Jersey most of my life. It is good to know that basements are a commonality when it comes to St.Louis area housing stock.

More than one person, however, has mentioned crime, as it pertains to breaking into walk out basements. Are larcenies common in the suburbs of St.L?

No. STL suburbs are very safe.

[Marksman84]

Originally Posted by mike0421

More than one person, however, has mentioned crime, as it pertains to breaking into walk out basements. Are larcenies common in the suburbs of St.L?

You'll be fine in the suburbs. Your biggest safety concerns in suburban St. Louis:

(1) Getting run over by fatass soccer mom in the minivan/SUV simultaneously working the cell phone, Starbucks, Virginia Slim and yelling at the little "soccer stars" munching on their Happy Meals.

(2) Sunday Morning - 6:45-7:45 church rush, followed by the 10:45-12:00 (the Catholics tend to run the longest) buffet rush. Between 8:30-10:30 and after 1:00 PM on a Sunday, St. Louis roads are the safest of any major metro area in the U.S.

(3) I'm not sure if you and your family walk/run/bicycle, but drivers here have almost zero regard for pedestrians/cyclists/runners (most likely out of jealousy as most of the flabby drivers can barely move without wheezing). Just do what motorcyclists do - ride/walk/run as if you are invisible, and be prepared to evade an erratic moron from time to time.

St. Louis has an excellent selection of parks and trails - I strongly recommend using them instead of rolling the dice on public roads with horrid drivers.

[BoomBoxing]

Lol marksman. I do feel relatively safe riding my bike in the city and central county. The grid street system makes it so you can avoid major streets and drivers are actually quite courteous, in my experience.

[Marksman84]

Originally Posted by BoomBoxing

Lol marksman. I do feel relatively safe riding my bike in the city and central county. The grid street system makes it so you can avoid major streets and drivers are actually quite courteous, in my experience.

Well yeah, you actually have BIKE LANES in the City, I'll give you that. For once that is tax revenue well spent .

Glad you've had a favorable experience. Once when cycling in the Country, one driver cursed at our little girl when she was six (for NO reason, crackhead was on the opposite side of the street and apparently having a bad day) and I almost ended up pulling my Glock out of my Camelback on the POS. Lobbing an empty water bottle at his car did the trick.

[loki03xlh]

Originally Posted by kshe95girl

Never, EVER store musical instruments in a basement!

I have to disagree with you on this. As long as you take reasonable precautions, and you don't have a damp, moldy, leaky basement, there is no reason to not store your musical instruments in a basement. I have been storing and playing drums, electric and acoustic guitars and basses, amplifiers, and pa systems for the past 20 years and had only one incident which was my fault.

As far as drums, it is recomended to have some sort of a riser to keep the bass drum from sitting on the floor. This way, you do not have to worry about a leak seperating plys of the shell. Amps and guitar stands can also be stored on risers. They are easy and cheap to build. I usually buy some remnant carpet to cover them so that they look decent.

The only thing I wouldn't store in a basement is vintage instruments that you can't replace.

I have a digital thermometer that also measure humidity. Any basement with over 60% humidity should have some sort of dehumidifier.

And make sure your homeowners coverage is sufficient to cover any losses you may inccur.

[kshe95girl]

Originally Posted by loki03xlh

I have to disagree with you on this. As long as you take reasonable precautions, and you don't have a damp, moldy, leaky basement, there is no reason to not store your musical instruments in a basement. I have been storing and playing drums, electric and acoustic guitars and basses, amplifiers, and pa systems for the past 20 years and had only one incident which was my fault.

As far as drums, it is recomended to have some sort of a riser to keep the bass drum from sitting on the floor. This way, you do not have to worry about a leak seperating plys of the shell. Amps and guitar stands can also be stored on risers. They are easy and cheap to build. I usually buy some remnant carpet to cover them so that they look decent.

The only thing I wouldn't store in a basement is vintage instruments that you can't replace.

I have a digital thermometer that also measure humidity. Any basement with over 60% humidity should have some sort of dehumidifier.

And make sure your homeowners coverage is sufficient to cover any losses you may inccur.

Actually, those were not the kind I was speaking of.
Anything made of wood, especially pianos, should never, ever be put in a basement.
You cant dehumidify enough to keep from damaging the instrument.