Basement Discussion Thread

[LoFi Banana]

Let's have thread about basements and all of their greatness.

So, I was born in California. The house I lived in there didn't have a basement, only a crawlspace. When I was 7, we moved to a house in a rural town in central New Jersey. The house was built sometime in the 1950s and had an unfinished basement. It was scary for me since it had no windows, had only a single lightbulb which made is pretty dark, and had lots of exposed pipes. It also smelled weird. They only things that were down there were the water heater, furnace, and washer and dryer.

When I was 13, we moved our current house in northern New Jersey. The house is older (built in 1949), but had been renovated before we moved in. The basement is finished, so all of the pipes and stuff are behind walls, and it has small windows on the top. It is well-lit, has multiple rooms including a game room, bedroom, kitchenette, bathroom, and utility room that houses the water heater and furnace. Even though my bedroom is on the second floor, I love hanging out in the basement because of the extra privacy it offers. It has pretty much become my personal lair were I can play as many video games as I want and hangout with my cats and friends. It's almost like my own private house within a house.

Sadly, we will soon be moving to a new house in Texas that has no basement, so I have to say goodbye to my lair soon I never really thought much of basements until we moved into our current house. The basement has really given me a lot of privacy and I have shared lots of nice memories with my friends down there. It is like both a private domain and a clubhouse, and I think it has played a role in my development. I am going to miss it.

I was kind of surprised when I learned that our new house in Texas has no basement, since one of my online friends in Texas has a basement in her house. Maybe the basement situation depends on the part of the state? I don't know. Anyway, what are your thoughts about basements? Do you have one or want one?

[Psyurot Valavingarat]

A few of the older houses here in Houston have basements, but not mine. I dare say that unless you live in the panhandle, you are going to have a hard time finding a house with a basement here in the Lone Star State. Though I think I read something about more houses in Dallas and Fort Worth being build with basements in recent years.

I used to live in Washington state, and the house I grew up in there had a partially finished walkout basement that was pretty nice.

[Great Algerstonia]

K so I've been thinking a lot about basements. And how hard it is to tell the difference between basements and grass. I have written a short guide to determine whether you're looking at a basement or at grass.

Basements and grass have the following similarities:

• Both have foundations below the ground
• Both are visible to the human eye
• Both are present within a 100 mile radius of Four Seasons Total Landscaping
• Both are essential to the protection of life (basements for protecting from tornadoes, grass for a whole bunch of things)
• Both would get destroyed if the Incredible Hulk picked it up
• Both have been victim of the American bombings in Syria
• Both have interiors

This can make it easy to forget the difference between basements and grass. However, there is one key difference. Cows eat grass, but cows do not eat basements. To decide if an object you are seeing is a basement or a piece of grass, try the Cow Test. If the cow eats it, it's grass. If the cow doesn't eat it, it's a basement. I hope I have helped you.

[The Two Jerseys]

Unfinished basements in postwar ranchers are awesome, my grandmother's basement was so big that I had room to ride a scooter and rollerblade down there.

[Torisakia]

Basement? You mean the storm shelter?

The basement, at least in my house, serves as a way to see just how badly the plumbing and electricity were done and how out-of-date they are that my landlord should have fixed but didn't and poses a huge safety hazard to everyone living in the house.

[Neutraligon]

My house growing up was on a hill, so from the front it looked single story, but from the back it would be a 2 story house. I guess that could've considered a basement, but it was a fully finished basement, and really was no different from a second floor. I guess the biggest difference was that there was only 1 bedroom down there, which acted as a guest bedroom. The rest was utility/washer dryer, and a family room. Everything we needed
to live except the washer/dryer was upstairs.

[Herador]

Every apartment I've ever had has been a fully furnished, multi room basement. Aside from the time one flooded, they've all been pretty rad.

[Cereskia 2]

My house has no basement.

Basements are one of the most common settings for scary stories or creepypastas imo

[Ifreann]

I'm sure someone in Ireland has a house with a basement, but whoever they are I don't know them.

---

My house growing up was on a hill, so from the front it looked single story, but from the back it would be a 2 story house. I guess that could've considered a basement, but it was a fully finished basement, and really was no different from a second floor. I guess the biggest difference was that there was only 1 bedroom down there, which acted as a guest bedroom. The rest was utility/washer dryer, and a family room. Everything we needed
to live except the washer/dryer was upstairs.

I do know someone with a house like this, but it was 2 stories from the front and 3 from the back. Though I think the very bottom storey was just a small kitchen and only half the size of the stories above.

[LoFi Banana]

I'm sure someone in Ireland has a house with a basement, but whoever they are I don't know them.

---

My house growing up was on a hill, so from the front it looked single story, but from the back it would be a 2 story house. I guess that could've considered a basement, but it was a fully finished basement, and really was no different from a second floor. I guess the biggest difference was that there was only 1 bedroom down there, which acted as a guest bedroom. The rest was utility/washer dryer, and a family room. Everything we needed
to live except the washer/dryer was upstairs.

I do know someone with a house like this, but it was 2 stories from the front and 3 from the back. Though I think the very bottom storey was just a small kitchen and only half the size of the stories above.

I saw a video on YouTube of these guys inspecting a house in Minnesota that had both a basement and a sub-basement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHSYZz2H5ko

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

I had a basement when a child, but I can't remember much of it. Currently my home has an attic.

[LoFi Banana]

I had a basement when a child, but I can't remember much of it. Currently my home has an attic.

Both my current and last house here in New Jersey have both a basement and an attic. My old house in California had neither (only a crawlspace), while my new house in Texas appears to only have an attic. No basement, no crawlspace, just an attic.

[Cavirfi]

I was born and am living in the Philippines, we don't have much basements here, however I have been to a house with basements in the Netherlands, and let me tell you they are amazing.

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

I had a basement when a child, but I can't remember much of it. Currently my home has an attic.

Both my current and last house here in New Jersey have both a basement and an attic. My old house in California had neither (only a crawlspace), while my new house in Texas appears to only have an attic. No basement, no crawlspace, just an attic.

My in-laws' house in AR has a crawlspace and an attic. IIRC AR's soil is mainly rock and it's difficult for houses to include basements for that reason. It requires blasting. Particularly if you're in the northern part of the state. Southern AR is another matter.

[Neutraligon]

I'm sure someone in Ireland has a house with a basement, but whoever they are I don't know them.

---

My house growing up was on a hill, so from the front it looked single story, but from the back it would be a 2 story house. I guess that could've considered a basement, but it was a fully finished basement, and really was no different from a second floor. I guess the biggest difference was that there was only 1 bedroom down there, which acted as a guest bedroom. The rest was utility/washer dryer, and a family room. Everything we needed
to live except the washer/dryer was upstairs.

I do know someone with a house like this, but it was 2 stories from the front and 3 from the back. Though I think the very bottom storey was just a small kitchen and only half the size of the stories above.

Yeah for us it was the same size as the top floor.

[Lord Dominator]

Basements are great for not needing curtains to avoid the sun & general noise avoidance - in my experience the temperature seems to be more stable/bearable without modification as well.

[Thermodolia]

In the places I’ve lived only four out of the 12 have had basements. My current home doesn’t have one, and neither did the house I grew up in

[Thermodolia]

Both my current and last house here in New Jersey have both a basement and an attic. My old house in California had neither (only a crawlspace), while my new house in Texas appears to only have an attic. No basement, no crawlspace, just an attic.

My in-laws' house in AR has a crawlspace and an attic. IIRC AR's soil is mainly rock and it's difficult for houses to include basements for that reason. It requires blasting. Particularly if you're in the northern part of the state. Southern AR is another matter.

Same in AZ. The ground is just too hard. It’s really expensive to have a basement which is why only rich people have em. It’s also way too expensive to cool the second floor so that’s why everyone has just a single floor

[Cavirfi]

Basements are great for not needing curtains to avoid the sun & general noise avoidance - in my experience the temperature seems to be more stable/bearable without modification as well.

Damn, I wish the ground was cool around here, maybe then would a basement be practical.

[Lord Dominator]

Basements are great for not needing curtains to avoid the sun & general noise avoidance - in my experience the temperature seems to be more stable/bearable without modification as well.

Damn, I wish the ground was cool around here, maybe then would a basement be practical.

TV tells me putting a giant ice cube outside your house should do it

[Heloin]

Never lived in a house with a basement. They seem cool i guess.

I had a basement when a child, but I can't remember much of it. Currently my home has an attic.

Can confirm. It’s a great place to hold a party.

[Czervenika]

My high school years were spent in a pretty awesome basement in my dad's home. I had everything I needed down there except for a kitchen so often I only went upstairs to eat.

[Australian rePublic]

Basements aren't really a thing here in Australia. I guess they're more popular in colder climates, rather than warmer ones...

I've never really seen a residential basement in real life. However, in Australia, public buildings will usually have the following numbering system

G for Ground Level
1 for the first floor above the ground
2 for the second floor above the ground, etc.
But when you go below ground, it's usually something like this

B1 for the first floor below the ground
B2 for the second floor below the ground
etc.

In Greece, the system tends to go something like this:

0 for ground floor
1 for the first floor above the ground
2 for the second floor above the ground, etc
-1 for the first floor below the ground
-2 for the second floor below the ground etc

So whilst Australia generally uses G for ground floor and B for floors below that, Greece generally uses 0 for ground and negative numbers for floors below that, which I find interesting

Shopping centres/malls, however, around the globe, tend to use a different system altogther, where 1 is the lowest floor, even if below ground, 2 is the second lowest ground, even if below ground, 3 is the third lowest level, even if at ground level, etc.

[Cavirfi]

Damn, I wish the ground was cool around here, maybe then would a basement be practical.

TV tells me putting a giant ice cube outside your house should do it

But seriously, where I live Summer can reach 50 Celsius at Noon (which I think is about 120 Fahrenheit if you use American units), so the ground is pretty much half-boiling, in the Winter, it's 20 celsius, so it's only boiling like four-tenths the rate of Summer, but it's still boiling. So yeah, the Philippines is not the best place to have a basement.

[Herador]

TV tells me putting a giant ice cube outside your house should do it

But seriously, where I live Summer can reach 50 Celsius at Noon (which I think is about 120 Fahrenheit if you use American units), so the ground is pretty much half-boiling, in the Winter, it's 20 celsius, so it's only boiling like four-tenths the rate of Summer, but it's still boiling. So yeah, the Philippines is not the best place to have a basement.

Is that accounting for humidity?