Basements in East Texas? (San Antonio, Atlanta: buying a house, buy, tornado)

[Cram]

Change is tough at any age but seems to get harder the older we get. I just wanted people to know we have had very good fortune with our basements here in Tyler, TX

[turf3]

It's not about change. Basements having been a feature of houses since the 1700s, they are hardly something new. It's about the implication that if builders in Texas weren't such idiots, they'd have been putting basements under houses for a long time now; which disregards a whole host of reasons why they have not been the common practice.

[Cram]

It may be just my observation, but it seems like many “senior” level members on this forum have a chip on their shoulder and are sometimes rude to junior members. I have not attacked anyone personally but have challenged some existing thought process and construction norms.

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by Cram

Well, I did not say that about Texans but I do think it is worth exploring different building techniques.

Every single other website I have ever seen states other than this guy, so sorry, but I'm going with that.

Texas is full of transplants. You think they don't know about basements, even if ignorant Texans had never heard of them before?

I sold real estate in NE Texas for many years. The few basements I saw were without exception problematic. And sorry, but I do not believe it was because every builder in NE Texas who tried to build one just didn't know what he or she was doing.

I am not saying an adequate or functional basement simply cannot be built in Texas. What I AM saying is that in most cases it's probably simply not financially or logistically the best option.

I'm not a native Texan by the way, and didn't move here till I was in my 30s.

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by Cram

Change is tough at any age but seems to get harder the older we get. I just wanted people to know we have had very good fortune with our basements here in Tyler, TX

Really? Because when I was selling real estate in Tyler, Texas, every single time I showed or listed a house with a basement, it was too moist and often flooded. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

[Cram]

Wow Kathryn! Is there any other unfriendly and unhelpful attacks you would like to direct my way? You might as well put them out there.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by Cram

Wow Kathryn! Is there any other unfriendly and unhelpful attacks you would like to direct my way? You might as well put them out there.

She wasn't attacking you. Providing actual experience that conflicts with what you and your one source want to believe does not constitute an attack.

[turf3]

Well, we see this often, that people from other parts of the country naturally assume that things are done differently in their new location, not because the conditions in the new place have so dictated, but just because the ignorant benighted inhabitants never realized they could be done SO MUCH BETTER the way "we did it back home".


Then when you push back on their implied assumptions they get all b***-hurt because you didn't immediately agree how much better it would be to do it like they did it back home.


As to the specifics of basements, in Texas there's no need for deep frostfree footings; water tables are often quite high; much of the state has impervious clay soils with extreme expansiveness; and we don't need big furnaces for heating. So we don't really need basements, and the cost to make them watertight will be high. That's why basements are rare in residential construction. Not nonexistent, not impossible, but rare and more expensive than the alternatives.

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by Cram

Wow Kathryn! Is there any other unfriendly and unhelpful attacks you would like to direct my way? You might as well put them out there.

I'm not attacking you. I just disagree with you and am stating why.

[Treasurevalley92]

There is this weird thing with Texans where they think Texas is so great anything that Texas does not have must be less desirable. It's weird.

I've not lived in a house with a basement since I was an infant, but I've known plenty of people who have had them and there is plenty of appeal to them.

They stay cool in the summer, (unlike a finished attic) which would be nice here..and they stay warm in the winter. Lots of finished basements are very nice....It's great to add squarefootage without taking up more yard.

I don't understand why people would not see them as anything besides a positive in and of themselves.

Yeah I get that they are not practical here in North Texas...they aren't practical and might be more trouble than they are worth. The house I grew up in didn't have one because of the water table, but just because we couldn't have one didn't mean it wouldn't be awesome to have one if it was practical.