Hello everyone,
I wanted to ask for your opinions and experiences regarding natural cellars / earth cellars.
Due to an inheritance, a house in the family is currently empty. Here are some basic details:
Year of construction around 1900
1 and 1/2 floors
No external insulation
No roof insulation
Natural / earth cellar with a submersible pump
Clay-straw insulation between ground floor and upper floor
Single-glazed wooden frame windows
Now to my question: In this mentioned cellar, there is a heating system installed on a concrete floor, which has not been in use for several years. About 40 square meters of the cellar has a natural floor, meaning a hole was dug in the middle of the room and a submersible pump was installed there.
The cellar is always damp, and the "patio slabs" lying on the clay/sand floor are always wet.
The cellar ceiling is simply insulated with very old insulation material, and the load-bearing beams of the ground floor are visible.
Are you familiar with this issue or do you have any experience or advice? Is it possible to renovate the house like this, meaning a new roof (the roof frame is very deteriorated), a new bathroom with completely new piping, and so on?
I will upload a few photos.
I am very grateful for any advice.
Regards,
Daniel
I wanted to ask for your opinions and experiences regarding natural cellars / earth cellars.
Due to an inheritance, a house in the family is currently empty. Here are some basic details:
Year of construction around 1900
1 and 1/2 floors
No external insulation
No roof insulation
Natural / earth cellar with a submersible pump
Clay-straw insulation between ground floor and upper floor
Single-glazed wooden frame windows
Now to my question: In this mentioned cellar, there is a heating system installed on a concrete floor, which has not been in use for several years. About 40 square meters of the cellar has a natural floor, meaning a hole was dug in the middle of the room and a submersible pump was installed there.
The cellar is always damp, and the "patio slabs" lying on the clay/sand floor are always wet.
The cellar ceiling is simply insulated with very old insulation material, and the load-bearing beams of the ground floor are visible.
Are you familiar with this issue or do you have any experience or advice? Is it possible to renovate the house like this, meaning a new roof (the roof frame is very deteriorated), a new bathroom with completely new piping, and so on?
I will upload a few photos.
I am very grateful for any advice.
Regards,
Daniel
A "basement" like this is not uncommon in houses that are around 100 years old.
The heating system is most likely an oil heating system due to the lack of other connections. Such systems were only allowed to be installed with an oil catch pan, which is why the heating room was concreted.
If you really want to keep the property, you should try to reduce the moisture in the basement as much as possible.
There are many solutions available on the market, including technical drainage systems and chemical injections. Search for "basement waterproofing" online.
You can also seal the remaining floor.
It is best to consult several specialized companies.
Before sealing everything, try to find out whether your water supply pipes have been replaced in the last 30-40 years.
In the past, water pipes made of lead were installed.
The heating system is most likely an oil heating system due to the lack of other connections. Such systems were only allowed to be installed with an oil catch pan, which is why the heating room was concreted.
If you really want to keep the property, you should try to reduce the moisture in the basement as much as possible.
There are many solutions available on the market, including technical drainage systems and chemical injections. Search for "basement waterproofing" online.
You can also seal the remaining floor.
It is best to consult several specialized companies.
Before sealing everything, try to find out whether your water supply pipes have been replaced in the last 30-40 years.
In the past, water pipes made of lead were installed.
Danatos schrieb:
The basement ceiling is simply insulated with very old insulation material; you can see the load-bearing beams of the ground floor. What do you mean by load-bearing beams? There were quite a few different ceiling "systems" back then...
I assume the house only housed the deceased’s household and now doesn’t really serve a specific purpose anymore (?).
Vacancy is always a risk to the building’s condition; this also applies, in a way, to partial vacancy (rooms unused for a long time, or rooms just storing clutter). When considering whether renovation makes sense, it is always important that the property will be used again afterwards.
Basically, neither the year of construction nor the typical construction methods of that time, nor a deteriorating basement on its own, indicate that renovation wouldn’t be worthwhile.
Simply put, renovation costs for each fully replaced component (pipes, plaster, windows, etc.) are about the same as if you needed them for a new build. But always add demolition costs for what was there before. You either save those costs elsewhere (by leaving some parts as they are or with little effort to repair) or the total cost ends up higher. Drying out a basement can require as much effort as excavating a new one.
Often, such old houses have nice details, like tiled floors at the entrance; old bricks are also in demand. Old doors and windows can still be useful for 3D scanning to authentically replicate similar elements. For that reason, you shouldn’t just demolish everything aggressively.
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AOLNCM schrieb:
Before sealing everything, try to find out if your water connection has been replaced in the last 30-40 years.
In the past, water pipes were made of lead.Yes, the sewage pipes are made of cast iron; the entire installation would need to be redone.
Musketier schrieb:
I would first go through everything with a professional to check whether the house is really worth preserving, or if it might just be a bottomless pit.Is there a list of experts for the Freiburg area available here in the forum?
Thanks and best regards