We're buying a house and closing in two weeks. I have a crazy idea to convert the crawlspace into a basement. Currently the crawlspace is 5' 11'' high with a partial concrete pad and already has heat, AC, and electrical. This is a picture of just part of it:



As far as I can tell this is what I'd have to do:

- Jackhammer and remove the concrete pad
- excavate 2 - 3' of soil
- repour concrete pad
- flooring
- drywall
- stairs
- cosmetics

Anything I'm missing? How much do you think that would cost? The picture shows less than half of the space, it's maybe 1300 sq ft down there.

What do you all think? Crazy?

You forgot drainage...sump pumps, tiling, etc. What about septic? Planning on putting in a bathroom? If so, you may have to pump it depending on how your septic is played out. Cost...very expensive and labor intensive. Honestly, in my opinion as an engineer while it can be done, I would find another house. Just not worth the hassle unless you are in some sort of crazy housing market.

BTW...is the existing basement block (reinforced or not?) or cast-in-place reinforced concrete? Also, what are your soil conditions? Lots of clay or sandy/gravel soils?

That's a pretty ritzy "crawlspace". Mine's a real crawlspace that you actually have to crawl in. With spiders and bees and you might poke out your eye.

How tall are you?

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
How tall are you?

LOL, my head barely touches the ceiling. I'm super happy with how it is, just thinking about feasibility.

I'm in the Puget Sound area so it is a crazy housing market.

quote:

Originally posted by jcsabolt2:
You forgot drainage...sump pumps, tiling, etc. What about septic? Planning on putting in a bathroom? If so, you may have to pump it depending on how your septic is played out. Cost...very expensive and labor intensive. Honestly, in my opinion as an engineer while it can be done, I would find another house. Just not worth the hassle unless you are in some sort of crazy housing market.

BTW...is the existing basement block (reinforced or not?) or cast-in-place reinforced concrete? Also, what are your soil conditions? Lots of clay or sandy/gravel soils?

On city sewer, no idea about the concrete or soil, it's Southeast of Seattle. Just very curious about feasibility, if it'd be $100k to completely contract it out or $50k if I did the excavation and most of the laborious stuff myself. Definitely not something I'm going to be doing right away, just curious what it would take. New house has me all excited about the different possibilities.

Where are the footings for the foundation walls?

I can't imagine you'd get away with busting up the floor and digging down another 2 feet without compromising the footings.

I also can't imagine you have any idea just how much work busting up that floor and removing it would be, not to mention the X cubic yards of dirt.

I suspect it would be easier, and quite probably cheaper, to jack the house up and add a couple feet to the top of the walls.

Maybe they knew something you don't know......the house is setting on bed rock.

I can't understand why anyone would build a house with only a ceiling of less than 6 feet.

I would find out who built the house. Something like this would influence the value of the house.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
to jack the house up and add a couple feet to the top of the walls.

Ah, a lift kit for the house! Just like a hillbilly's truck!

.

Hopefully you didn't list construction permits because you wanted to focus on the specific job tasks?

It can be done. There was a guy at work that did his. He used one of those farm devices that have a conveyor belt to take hay bales to a hay loft.

He dug out the dirt and put it on that device and it carried the dirt out.

It can be done, but the foundation will need to be supported, it's not going to continue down 3', you'll be adding concrete. It's a job for someone who knows what they're doing, unless you want your house to "settle" drastically.

Your crawlspace looks a lot better than my basement.

That's like no crawlspace I've ever seen. You even have a cool, hip looking door!

Do you live in The Shire?

Start with having a structural engineer weigh in.

[Roy D. Mercer voice on] How big a boy are ya'?[/Roy off]

It might be easier to cut your legs off a coupla' inches.

Seriously, I like the looks of it the way it is, & I'd be scraping the top of my head just a little bit.

Let me save you thousands of dollars by suggesting a bump cap. Use the saved money to treat you and the family to a nice vacation.

I'm 6'4"...if I had something that nice as a crawlspace...I would buy a nice rolling office chair, sit down in it and happily roll from place to place

That's the fanciest basement-looking "crawlspace" I have ever seen.

Why not, you're 95% there already.

Whether you do the dig or not, it seems like it'd be a good idea to hang some sheetrock on the ceiling. It might give you more time to find the fire extinguisher if the need arises.