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I'd say run a dehumidifier and get some of those damp-rid containers....if you're going to store clothing and toys, I'd suggest picking up a couple of those huge air tight containers. I have to store my clothes in that otherwise they get covered in mold over the course of one summer... I don't have AC in my house at all, so mold is ALWAYS a problem we deal with.
Something to consider as well with your basement...
Not sure where exactly you live on the island, but my parents have a somewhat "finished" basement....my bedroom and my brother's are downstairs. There's been 2 storms within the past 5 years that have resulted in our basements flooding out with water because of a high water table...I live, I guess you'd say, in a low-lying area--I'm in East Rockaway near the bay.
After the first time it happened, I told my parents that they shouldn't put carpeting down anymore in case this were to happen again...they didn't listen (b/c they were looking to save $$) and they put down cheap industrial carpeting and then we ended up flooding out again this past March. The carpeting was nasty.
It really narrows down to location. Somewhat.
Some areas of LI will never see even a drop of water in their basement, while others need to spend a few grand on french drains and sump wells, etc...Which is all fine and dandy until you have apower outage and the pump becomes a useless underwater decoration in the basement. That is unless, after all the other expenses you also install a generator to run the pumps until power is restored.
I've also encounterd a few poor bastards who have never so much as had drop of water in their basement, get flooded out after a few of these wicked storms we've been having over the past few years. I also knew somebody who had their basement flooded out by a neighbors aboveground pool that collapsed. And, I've also encountered people who have had their basements flooded out by jackass pool guys who pumped out the pool water in a bad direction.
I'm definitely not a fan of basements, but it would not cause me to pass on a home purchase because of it.
Last edited by hotkarl; 09-25-2010 at 09:59 AM..
Reason: spelliNg mastake bekaws i only got ged
Something to keep in mind is that a Certificate of Occupancy is required for finished basements (well legal ones anyway). You'll need to have a secondary means of egress, the hot water heater and furnace area must be 'walled-off and fire-proofed', you'll need to have an electrical inspection, also a plumbing inspection if you have a bathroom in the basement and of course said bathroom itself must be 'to code', etc. Of course you can go ahead and finish your basement off and skip all of this now but it'll come back to haunt you when you sell down the road.
Something to keep in mind is that a Certificate of Occupancy is required for finished basements (well legal ones anyway). You'll need to have a secondary means of egress, the hot water heater and furnace area must be 'walled-off and fire-proofed', you'll need to have an electrical inspection, also a plumbing inspection if you have a bathroom in the basement and of course said bathroom itself must be 'to code', etc. Of course you can go ahead and finish your basement off and skip all of this now but it'll come back to haunt you when you sell down the road.
You can probably get away with it if there is no bathroom down there. Also, if you do any other work on the house that requires permits, the basement will come back to bite you. I can see that GPC and I had similar experiences selling our houses recently, LOL.
You can probably get away with it if there is no bathroom down there. Also, if you do any other work on the house that requires permits, the basement will come back to bite you. I can see that GPC and I had similar experiences selling our houses recently, LOL.
It's really a gamble and yes, other work will definitely send up 'flares'. If you choose to go the 'illegal' route, I'd recommend never doing any other work on your house that requires a permit. You're more likely to 'get away' with finishing your basement in that scenario.
I got stuck having to legalize a bunch of stuff on my house. 95% of it was stuff the previous owners had done but wasn't caught when we bought the house. Lesson learned for sure. There was a bathroom in my finished basement but even if there wasn't, I was going to have to legalize it anyway. As per my town, a finished basement, with or without a bathroom, requires a permit and CO. Ugh...
Something to keep in mind is that a Certificate of Occupancy is required for finished basements (well legal ones anyway). You'll need to have a secondary means of egress, the hot water heater and furnace area must be 'walled-off and fire-proofed', you'll need to have an electrical inspection, also a plumbing inspection if you have a bathroom in the basement and of course said bathroom itself must be 'to code', etc. Of course you can go ahead and finish your basement off and skip all of this now but it'll come back to haunt you when you sell down the road.
The only way a C/O would be required is if they put a bedroom with closet and secondary means of egress or kitchen or a bathroom down there. A new bathroom will definitely never pass w/o a CO, but I have seen a few people get away with bedrooms (no closet). Never heard of anyone having a problem selling after fin basement as long as none of the above are present..Also, basements are not counted in livable sq footage calculation by the town.
Yeah same here. Never heard of a plain finished basement with no bath/kitchen needing a co.
On the other hand...why would a inpector need to be in your basement anyways?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pequaman
The only way a C/O would be required is if they put a bedroom with closet and secondary means of egress or kitchen or a bathroom down there. A new bathroom will definitely never pass w/o a CO, but I have seen a few people get away with bedrooms (no closet). Never heard of anyone having a problem selling after fin basement as long as none of the above are present..Also, basements are not counted in livable sq footage calculation by the town.
The only way a C/O would be required is if they put a bedroom with closet and secondary means of egress or kitchen or a bathroom down there. A new bathroom will definitely never pass w/o a CO, but I have seen a few people get away with bedrooms (no closet). Never heard of anyone having a problem selling after fin basement as long as none of the above are present..Also, basements are not counted in livable sq footage calculation by the town.
The town inspector that came to my house only saw the finished basement first and told us a permit and CO is required. He wasn't aware of the bathroom at the time. After that was discovered, we had to get a permit and CO for that as well. We didn't have a bedroom or kitchen in our basement. We had to get an electrical inspection, had to have a secondary means of egress (which thankfully we already had), had to wall off and fire-proof the hot water heater and furnace, etc. None of these items had anything to do with the fact that we had a bathroom in the basement - that brought its own set of issues.
Maybe it varies by town but in my town a finished basement, with or without a bathroom, requires a permit and CO. A finished basement is obviously not a very conspicuous item; certainly not as noticeable as something like an in-ground pool but if the OP does anything else on his house that requires a permit and CO down the road, he'll have to get an updated survey. The town inspector will then look closely at said survey and something like a secondary means of egress is likely to be noticed. This will then lead to the question as to whether or not a finished basement exists and voila, the 'can of worms' will officially be opened.
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