Do houses in Knoxville have basements? (established neighborhood, storage, shop)

[SunKrist]

Hey,

I haven't read the whole thread, but I just thought I'd comment.

I have lived in Florida my whole life, and as you can imagine, no one has a basement here. Where I live you literally only have to dig 4 or 5 feet and you get water. Needless to say, storage is a problem. When my family moves to Tennessee, we are going to do all we can to get a house with a basement. We are looking mainly at the Knoxville area, and the majority of the houses we saw did have basements.

[samiam1215]

any comments on what a "crawl space" is?

[mbmouse]

It is a space under your house that gives you access to things such as your pluming pipes and you have to crawl in it cause that is usually about all the space you have under there.

[jmarkey]

This website gives a pretty good illustration of what a crawl space is:

http://home.howstuffworks.com/house6.htm

A moisture barrier, plenty of drainage, and good venting are essential. Your home inspector will check that area out.

[oldmanbob]

Basements are every where, we just moved in Oct 07, and most homes in our new area, have basements. Builders will tell you, it usually depends on the lot and usually find them when the lots have some slope or different levels. It usually adds a good value for resales also.

[Beretta]

My house, in Maryville, has a partial basement. One half of the basement is crawl space, accessible from outside. The other half is a "real" basement, heated and cooled,etc. with stairs from inside. We bought this house from the owners/builders and they only wanted to dig out half a basement. Our basement is around 1000 sq feet.

[gemkeeper]

I cannot speak for the entire area, but with the real estate that we have seen so far, they have all have full basements.

We plan on having a basement if we build and will only buy an existing house that does have a basement.

They not only offer storm protection, if needed, and storage area, but they are a wonderful way to save energy in the bargain. In the winter they help to keep your first floor warmer by insulating it from the colder ground. In the summer they will help keep your house cooler, again by offering a buffer space where cool air (being heavier) will collect and keep at least your flooring cooler.

In other homes we have had with basements we have even used the basement as a make shift air conditioner by opening the basement door on very hot days and using a whole house fan, pulled the cooler air upstairs. This was in Michigan where central air was uncommon in homes.

A basement can also pprovide additiona; living space, if needed, remembering that if it is used for a bedroom there must be an adequate egress window or door in that room.

I say dig a basement if you can afford the additional $10 - $25K.

(Bbkaren, please do a little spell check for me here. I don't have my glasses on and this whole page is a blur!)

[J&Em]

Since we looked primarily in the Maryville area I can't say it is the same in Knoxville... Half the house we looked at had basements, but many of the brand new ones did not, and had a crawl space instead.. The one we got has the basement. I agree with Gem, those were all good reasons to have one!!

[ThatTNGuy]

Originally Posted by oldmanbob

Basements are every where, we just moved in Oct 07, and most homes in our new area, have basements. Builders will tell you, it usually depends on the lot and usually find them when the lots have some slope or different levels. It usually adds a good value for resales also.

Bob, I had no idea it was you!

This is the son of your former next-door neighbors.

Edit - And to answer the topic starter's question, yes, there are a lot of basements in Knoxville.

[knoxmomma]

With the area so hilly I think a lot of houses have basements which open to the ground on one side (downhill). Maybe technically not a basement but better because of light and windows!