ᐅ Demolition / New Construction / Renovation / Building on Existing Basement – Ideas & Experiences?

Created on: 15 Oct 2021 17:45

As I have mentioned in several places, we purchased a plot with a small settlement house (semi-detached house) from the 1950s on it.
The house is about 90 m2 (970 ft2) in size and is presumably partially basemented.
The other semi-detached house, to which we also need to extend, does not have a basement.
This means that if we demolish the basement, we would probably (?) have to carry out underpinning, which sounds costly and not entirely straightforward.
Therefore, we have now considered whether it might be "easier" to only demolish the house but keep the basement and build a new structure on top of it.
Alternatively, we could renovate the old house and add an extension (although this might again cause issues due to different settlement behavior?).
We would not build only on the basement area or the current house footprint, but want to expand significantly overall (approximately 200 m2 (2,150 ft2)).

So now my question is about experiences with building larger on an old basement?
Has anyone done this here? Is it even possible?
Is there any other option besides having to do underpinning when demolishing? (I originally thought that you could simply fill in the basement, but apparently that is not possible (?)

11ant15 Oct 2021 19:43

haydee schrieb:

Do not demolish the entire basement, only excavate as deep as it does not interfere with the new construction.
Backfill the basement and compact it in layers.

That would also be a feasible option (if you do not intend to use the basement but just want to avoid further excavation).

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Franzbrot15 Oct 2021 20:02

haydee schrieb:

Don’t demolish the entire basement, just dig down deep enough so that it doesn’t interfere with a new building.
Fill the basement and compact it layer by layer.

If something like that is possible, that would obviously be great, and it’s the option I can most easily imagine if the basement is no longer usable.
Exactly, we went down without a tape measure. I hope the stacked million in cash is behind the wall.
But of course, it’s also an idea to measure it properly first 😀

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haydee15 Oct 2021 20:49

If you don’t want or need a basement, it should be possible. Under the kitchen, we still have the wall of the slurry pit, and beneath the driveway, parts of the Gewöll cellar.

Smialbuddler16 Oct 2021 07:21

#10

A completely different question than the basement: Have you checked how the houses are connected? Back then, they often didn’t build them "side by side" as we do today, meaning structurally independent, but rather as basically one single building, with a shared party wall, etc. Demolishing one half of such a building would be quite challenging anyway.

Franzbrot16 Oct 2021 10:39

#11

Smialbuddler schrieb:

A completely different question from the basement: Have you checked how the houses are connected? At that time, it was common to build houses not side by side as independent structures like today, but practically as one single house, with a shared party wall, etc. Demolishing half of such a building would be quite challenging anyway.

Yes, that is likely the case here as well.
At least for the neighbors, it was only one wall.

hanghaus200016 Oct 2021 10:50

#12

Is there a development plan? Often, the roof pitch must not deviate from that of the neighboring half of the house, as the existing building also shows.

I would rather consider an extension and renovation.

ᐅ Demolition / New Construction / Renovation / Building on Existing Basement – Ideas & Experiences?

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