ᐅ Is a Basement Practical for a Single-Family Home or Usually Too Expensive?
Created on: 30 Jun 2018 21:56
A
Abzug86
Hello everyone,
I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce myself briefly: my name is Michael, I’m 32 years old, married, (currently) no children, employed at an insurance agency in northern Bavaria, and my wife and I are planning to build a new single-family house in 2019. I will share more details in a separate thread once the concept is worked out in detail.
At the moment, we are getting inspiration from the catalogs of several general contractors and are considering which "type" of house is right for us. This raised the question: do we need a basement? And if so, for what purpose? I’ll explain this further with an example (both plots are level):
Single-family house 1: basement, ground floor, usable attic, footprint 100 m² (1,076 sq ft), living area (according to the Wohnflächenverordnung) 140 m² (1,507 sq ft).
Single-family house 2: ground floor, usable attic, footprint 130 m² (1,399 sq ft), living area (according to the Wohnflächenverordnung) 185 m² (1,992 sq ft).
Both options would cost roughly the same (~375,000 EUR turnkey). Single-family house 1 has a basement; single-family house 2 does not but offers significantly more living space. Both are heated by a heat pump.
In my understanding, there are three main reasons for having a basement: 1. as storage space, 2. for the heating system, and 3. for the utility/laundry room. Step by step:
1.) I can’t really think of much that I would need to store down there—at least not on a total area of about 50+ m² (540+ sq ft)...
2.) Since heating is provided by a heat pump, the "heater" itself would be located outside anyway. The basement would only house the controls (and the hot water tank?). I assume these could also be installed on the ground floor, right?
3.) If the utility room is in the basement and the bedroom is on the upper floor, my wife would have to go up and down two levels. Also, ventilation would be difficult when air-drying laundry. For these reasons, it might even make more sense to move this area to the ground floor.
I’m curious to hear your thoughts on basements—perhaps I am missing important points or have a wrong understanding regarding the "heating room." Thanks in advance for your help!
I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce myself briefly: my name is Michael, I’m 32 years old, married, (currently) no children, employed at an insurance agency in northern Bavaria, and my wife and I are planning to build a new single-family house in 2019. I will share more details in a separate thread once the concept is worked out in detail.
At the moment, we are getting inspiration from the catalogs of several general contractors and are considering which "type" of house is right for us. This raised the question: do we need a basement? And if so, for what purpose? I’ll explain this further with an example (both plots are level):
Single-family house 1: basement, ground floor, usable attic, footprint 100 m² (1,076 sq ft), living area (according to the Wohnflächenverordnung) 140 m² (1,507 sq ft).
Single-family house 2: ground floor, usable attic, footprint 130 m² (1,399 sq ft), living area (according to the Wohnflächenverordnung) 185 m² (1,992 sq ft).
Both options would cost roughly the same (~375,000 EUR turnkey). Single-family house 1 has a basement; single-family house 2 does not but offers significantly more living space. Both are heated by a heat pump.
In my understanding, there are three main reasons for having a basement: 1. as storage space, 2. for the heating system, and 3. for the utility/laundry room. Step by step:
1.) I can’t really think of much that I would need to store down there—at least not on a total area of about 50+ m² (540+ sq ft)...
2.) Since heating is provided by a heat pump, the "heater" itself would be located outside anyway. The basement would only house the controls (and the hot water tank?). I assume these could also be installed on the ground floor, right?
3.) If the utility room is in the basement and the bedroom is on the upper floor, my wife would have to go up and down two levels. Also, ventilation would be difficult when air-drying laundry. For these reasons, it might even make more sense to move this area to the ground floor.
I’m curious to hear your thoughts on basements—perhaps I am missing important points or have a wrong understanding regarding the "heating room." Thanks in advance for your help!
We have no basement. The utility area (the space requirements should not be underestimated) with a washing machine, dryer, large cat litter box, and shoe rack is just under 9 sqm (97 sq ft). The storage room right next to it is 5 sqm (54 sq ft). It’s filled with a freezer, groceries, some tools, paintball gear, and everything I’ve thrown in there to keep it out of sight.
Everything else (boxes with baby clothes, decorations, suitcases, cat stuff, ...) is in the attic.
The workshop will go into the garage as soon as my gardening tools are moved to the not-yet-built garden shed, the scattered carport is assembled, and the bicycles are stored in a “cage” that still needs to be built.
By the way, the garage is exclusively home to my husband’s motorcycle. The car will be kept in the carport.
Conclusion: WE don’t need a basement.
Everything else (boxes with baby clothes, decorations, suitcases, cat stuff, ...) is in the attic.
The workshop will go into the garage as soon as my gardening tools are moved to the not-yet-built garden shed, the scattered carport is assembled, and the bicycles are stored in a “cage” that still needs to be built.
By the way, the garage is exclusively home to my husband’s motorcycle. The car will be kept in the carport.
Conclusion: WE don’t need a basement.
B
Bonnie_Ham2 Jul 2018 13:56Only pests that live underground benefit from a basement. Since I have a panic reaction to the sight of eight-legged creatures, I would always prefer a house without a basement. I don’t use it anyway.
The space provided by the attic, garage, and storage room is more than enough. You only really accumulate a lot of stuff if you have the space for a lot of stuff.
The space provided by the attic, garage, and storage room is more than enough. You only really accumulate a lot of stuff if you have the space for a lot of stuff.
D
daniels872 Jul 2018 14:14KingSong schrieb:
Yes, the garden shed doesn’t exist yet; it’s only planned so far, and the 120m² (1,292 sq ft) attic space came about naturally due to the building’s footprint. By the way, it was overall cheaper than a basement, so that’s additional living space. And the insulated attic is included with our general contractor.
The question was whether a basement makes sense if you can get more living space for the same cost... including the utility room on the upper floor.A second upper floor doesn’t match the look of every architectural style. It wouldn’t have been easy to get approval for one in our case either.
I’d also find the layout somewhat difficult. I often move between the ground floor and basement. Having to go up and down another floor regularly would annoy me in the long run. For me, a larger floor area would have been preferable to an additional upper level.
Bonnie_Ham schrieb:
Only the pests living underground are happy about a basement. And since I panic at the sight of eight-legged creatures, I would always prefer a house without a basement. I don’t even go down there anyway.
The space provided by the attic, garage, and storage room is more than enough. You only really have a lot of stuff if you have the space for a lot of stuff.I’m really surprised how those eight-legged creatures manage to get through a 20cm (8 inch) reinforced concrete wall.
B
Bonnie_Ham2 Jul 2018 14:24daniels87 schrieb:
I find it hard to believe how these eight-legged creatures manage to diffuse through a 20cm (8 inch) reinforced concrete wall. Now don’t tell me you’ve never seen spiders in a basement before.........?
Things exist! .. and often there is no attic, so there is nothing to convert. I always find attics quite useless — they are hard to access, have sloped ceilings, tend to get hot, and any noise carries throughout the entire house. If you want to carry something upstairs, you have to haul it up two floors. A disaster!
A basement is much better.
A basement is much better.
daniels87 schrieb:
I find it hard to believe how these eight-legged creatures manage to diffuse through a 20cm (8 inch) reinforced concrete wall. Don’t be surprised if Google soon shows lots of results for spider barrier membranes here *LOL*
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