ᐅ Reopen and renovate an old basement (partially filled in)?

Hi.

I have an old house, originally built around 1850. However, it has been renovated, remodeled, and extended several times over the years. Most of the current building structure dates from the 1950s and 1970s. The last major renovation was about 5 years ago.

About 5 years ago, when I installed a new water pipe in the garden, I removed the terrace and dug a trench about 1 meter (3 feet) deep near the house wall to lay the pipe. During this work, I noticed the remains of an old staircase. I partially uncovered it and found an old entrance to the house. By crawling in a bit or using an inspection camera, I discovered that there is a cellar beneath the oldest/original part of the house. The later extensions do not have a cellar.

The cellar is largely filled with construction debris. At the front, there is still about 1.5 meters (5 feet) of headroom left, but further inside there is less or it is almost filled to the ceiling. I also found water and mud in the front area.

I could use a cellar room and have been considering whether it is feasible to reopen the cellar, remove the debris, and renovate the cellar. Or would it be better to leave it as it is?

Best regards

There must have been a reason for filling in the basement, and that reason probably still exists. Eliminating the cause and manually clearing out the basement will likely be quite costly.

Hmm. Water and mud would certainly be reason enough to take a closer look, even if only part of the house has a basement. Fix the cause first, and then you could potentially use the room again. So, I would definitely check it out. It’s also always interesting to see how a house changes over the decades.

So, what have you done now?