Basements have footings and walls. The footings have to be below the frost line so that things don't shift around as the ground freezes and thaws. That's why we don't see many slabs around here. Our town won't even let you pour a concrete front porch without putting in footings.

The floor is a separate pour that happens after the footings and walls are in.

There is usually weeping tile installed around the base of the wall on the outside that allows ground water to be carried away so that it doesn't seep into the joint between the floor and wall.

A good picture paints a thousand words:

https://www.staydrywaterproofi...5.07.18-1920x960.jpg

In our house, the weeping tile empties into a sump pit in our basement and is pumped out to the town sewer, which in our area is a combined storm/sanitary sewer. In some areas, storm and sanitary services are separate (as shown in the pic I linked to above).

Weeping tile back when our house was built was made of clay pipe and it can collapse. That means it won't carry the groundwater away and you get seepage at the wall/floor joint in the basement.

When was your house built, WTG?

I've been reading around and it sounds like, in this area (i.e. not as cold as where you live), it's a toss up between crawl space vs. slab... But probably crawl space is preferable compared to a slab... maybe.

Our preference is still for a walkout basement, but that assumes we'll have a choice.

Our house was built in 1960.

Oh, so I think the type of walkout you're talking about is just a basement that is built into a hill. Because the ground slopes away in the back, it allows for a section of basement wall to be omitted and you can put a door in to allow egress at ground level.

We have a door from our basement to the outside, but it opens into a stairwell that has concrete retaining walls to keep the soil in place. The stairs lead to the backyard. It's also a walkout, but the exit point is below grade rather than at grade. Kind of like this, only ours is a mess and I wish it looked this tidy:

Yes, our last house had a walkout basement, it was great.

quote:

The stairs lead to the backyard.

Do you mean the stairs lead up to the backyard?

There are lots of reasons I prefer a walkout. Assuming that you can easily get around to the back of the house where the walk out is -- one of the houses we visited recently, you couldn't -- but assuming you can, that makes it much easier to use the space. And I like the walkout for light too.

We want to have an exercise room in the basement, so if you can wheel that stuff around to the back and walk it in, it makes it much easier.

At our last house, you could drive up to where the walkout door was. That made things soooo easy, for delivery and those heavy exercise equipment items, and also when we had construction projects etc.

WTG, we're simul-posting.

Yep, I'd call that a walk-up basement.

I want a walkout.

If the house is built on a slope, and the water control is done right, a walkout basement should have fewer water control issues than a traditional basement.

With our last house, if you were at the front of the house (outside) and walked to the back, you were walking down hill. If you were in the basement, you opened the walkout door, and walked straight outside, same level. That side of the basement had two full sized doors and three full sized windows. As well as two half-sized windows.

It's a little hard to explain.

Oh and that house (the one we sold last year) was built in 1960 as well, btw.

As I said above, a portion of the house was over a crawl space but the rest of it was over the basement. I think they positioned it really carefully when building it to take advantage of the slope. The front yard was (mostly) level, the part of the backyard was level, just lower, and then side of the house was sloped, and there was a retaining wall where part of the slope was steeper.

Yes, our stairs lead up to the backyard.

I'm seeing the term walkout used to describe any house that allows access from the basement directly to the outside, whether that exit is below grade (ours) or at grade (your house). edit: I just saw "walk-up"used for my kind of basement.

Our area is flat as a pancake. Started as prairie, morphed to farmland, and then to subdivisions. Because we don't have grade changes we don't see the kind of at-grade walkout you're looking for. Like this one:

quote:

If the house is built on a slope, and the water control is done right, a walkout basement should have fewer water control issues than a traditional basement.

You could still have the same problem with weeping tile even with a walkout basement. (I'll use "walkout" to describe your preferred, at-grade, style).

quote:

Our area is flat as a pancake.

Ahh, right, I forgot about that!

Where we lived before, it was kind of roll-y (I wouldn't call it hilly). But where we live now, some neighborhoods are quite hilly. It really depends, but there are lots of "three" story houses with walkouts.

We just have to get lucky enough to buy one. All three of the houses that we've seriously considered in the last few weeks have had walkouts.

We're going to see the FSBO house next week, it has a traditional basement.

Oh and we went to one last week with a traditional basement.

I know it sounds silly, but another reason I prefer the walkout style is because, with a traditional basement, I feel like I'm stuck down there. With a walkout, I don't feel that way.

Basically a walkout is a basement where part of it isn't underground. There's no question that it is much nicer for all the reasons you mention - light, access, etc. It feels more like ground level living space because...it is!

Yep. There are lots of different kinds though...

This is what I mean by a house with a walkout that you can't easily get to. Can you tell how steep the hill is that this house is built on?


Before we visited the open house, I didn't realize how bad it was. I feel like routine outside maintenance would be a nightmare, and you wouldn't really be able to use the basement entry for loading in things.

This house, on the other hand,


Would be great. We entered from that gate on the left and it's not much of a slope, it would be very easy to drag a dolly back there for loading or construction, and you can walk all the way around the perimeter of the house (without worrying that you're going to fall into the ravine in the photo above).

Yes, I see what you mean about access on that first one. Definitely a result of a much hillier area, and clearly not what you're looking for.

And it's hard to see from the photo, but I wonder what the grade is between the house to the right of the subject property. It looks to be uphill, and unless there's a swale between the two houses, all the water would be running down to the subject house.

quote:

I wonder what the grade is between the house to the right of the subject property. It looks to be uphill, and unless there's a swale between the two houses, all the water would be running down to the subject house.

IIRC it's not that much uphill, and that house also looks over the ravine... But it wouldn't take much though, would it.

I didn't really look too closely because that's the house where none of the floors are level and we decided we're not interested.

At the house with the gappy garage, the yard dips down between the garage and the neighbor's property and I remember thinking that drainage looked like it was designed pretty well. But the neighbor's house was lower than that house, which, if I were the neighbor, would make me nervous...

Anyway, we really have water control on our radar, and being able to access the entire perimeter and walk around the house easily is a must-have I think.

quote:

the house where none of the floors are level

BTW, they dropped the price on this house again. It's the one where I really love the interior design... if only it wasn't built on a ravine....

I think the best feature of a house with a true walkout basement is that you don’t need a sump pump. Water just drains to the back yard.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Miller:
I think the best feature of a house with a true walkout basement is that you don’t need a sump pump. Water just drains to the back yard.

Yep, that's definitely one of the reasons we're hoping for a walkout.

It will be March soon, hopefully there will be some good listings that we can jump on before someone else does!

(hope springs eternal...)

We went to see the FSBO house today... I think it's a no-go...

The main reason is because, although most of the house has been updated, the kitchen has not, and it needs a lot of work that I think we are just not up to doing. He gave us his (anticipated) price, which he said is minus the $35,000 that he priced out for the work the kitchen needs. But his anticipated price is kind of at the top of our budget, so not only is the thought of re-doing a kitchen exhausting, it would also mean we'd have to pay for that work ourselves.

If the house was amazing, it might be worth it, but I don't think the house is amazing...

The bad:
The house has a full, finished basement (not a walkout but with good sized windows) but the backyard is not level and although it dips down in the middle of the yard, it slopes up as you go away from the house (not down) so I could imagine a bad rain pushing water towards the house. So I would be really worried about water control. He said they never had water in the 8 years they lived there, but the former owner did and so they had re-done all the drywall and flooring in the basement. He said the water was because the previous owners didn't take care of the gutters, and he's probably right, but the upkeep would be a lot, I think.

The second floor bedrooms are all very cramped.

We found a (possibly dead) bat hanging from a blind pull in the primary bedroom. We didn't stick around in there long enough to confirm.

The house has cedar siding, and there was a hole in the siding on that outside of the house where that bedroom is.

I told the owner about the bat, and the hole in the wall. He said he'd never seen a bat in the house before (they're not living there now). But he did go on to say that they have to deal with birds making holes in the siding like that probably once a year. Thanks for the honesty!

Also, on one side, the neighbor's house is pretty close, it's a rental and my colleague who lives in that neighborhood described it as "the sketchy house." The house on the other side also looked kinda sketchy...

There were some nice things about it, the first floor has a very nice layout and they have done a great job with the upgrades, but there were just too many down sides.

So yeah, I don't think we're going to pursue this one...