# A Poll and Thread About Basements **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 15, 2016, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-and-thread-about-basements/743271 "2016-01-15T20:35:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-and-thread-about-basements/743271/1 "2016-01-15T20:35:28Z")
I wanted to put this in MPSIMS but you can’t set up polls there. Basically, what I want to know is do they have basements where you live? Answer the poll and then in the posts below state where you live. If they don’t have basements where you live, say why. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-and-thread-about-basements/743271/2 "2016-01-15T20:46:49Z")
Common around here. Also called a ‘down-cellar’ because people here are strange. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-and-thread-about-basements/743271/3 "2016-01-15T20:52:41Z")
I live in New South Wales, where basements are unusual in houses. (I’ve lived in England and in Ohio in houses with basements.) ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-and-thread-about-basements/743271/4 "2016-01-15T20:54:48Z")
Basements are common anywhere where it gets cold. You have to dig the foundation below the frost line anyway, so you might as well make it a room. In warm climates or places with high water tables they tend to use other solutions like relatively thin concrete slabs or piles and crawlspaces. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-and-thread-about-basements/743271/5 "2016-01-15T20:56:50Z")
Maryland, and yes. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-and-thread-about-basements/743271/6 "2016-01-15T21:01:03Z")
NY. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-and-thread-about-basements/743271/7 "2016-01-15T21:12:50Z")
Coastal North Carolina. The water table is too high for a basement. I’m only 23 feet above mean high tide, and the realtor said the house was “on a virtual mountain”. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-and-thread-about-basements/743271/8 "2016-01-15T21:38:12Z")
Maryland. Yes. Around where I am, it depends on whether you’re in the Chesapeake flood plain. I’m less than a mile from the bay, as the crow flies, but I’m on a plateau about 90 feet above sea level, so a basement is no problem. But I live just a few minutes from houses that can’t realistically have basements. States are big places, and in some parts of them, houses will have basements, and other parts, not. The house I grew up in in northern Virginia had a basement; houses in Newport News, where I lived a bit later, didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![MissTake](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misstake/32/3189_2.png) [@MissTake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissTake)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-and-thread-about-basements/743271/9 "2016-01-15T21:38:27Z")
Minnesota and yes. I couldn’t fathom living in a house without a basement. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-and-thread-about-basements/743271/10 "2016-01-15T21:40:49Z")
Washington state, and yes, generally. My current home, and previous home did not, but most do. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-and-thread-about-basements/743271/11 "2016-01-15T21:42:36Z")
Northern Virginia, yes. > [@TriPolar](#): > > Common around here. Also called a ‘down-cellar’ because people here are strange. That’s to distinguish it from an up-cellar. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-and-thread-about-basements/743271/12 "2016-01-15T21:52:10Z")
I live in Dallas, and basements aren’t common at all. And FWIW, they’re not common in parts south either- I’ve never heard of one in Houston, Austin or San Antonio either. ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-and-thread-about-basements/743271/13 "2016-01-15T22:03:58Z")
South Georgia, and no. High water table, no frost line to dig below. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-and-thread-about-basements/743271/14 "2016-01-15T22:38:22Z")
No, not in California or Nevada, including places where it gets cold and snows. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-and-thread-about-basements/743271/15 "2016-01-15T22:55:54Z")
We don’t have one but “they” have them here, there, some places in the area of Memphis. I had one when I lived in midtown. I don’t really know how to answer the poll. You need an “I don’t have one but they are not unheard of in this area” option. Or pie. ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-and-thread-about-basements/743271/16 "2016-01-15T22:56:33Z")
South Carolina and they exist, but are rare - most often as “half-basements” where the house is built into a steep slope. High water table here, and it rarely freezes, so there’s no need to stabilize the structure into the ground that deeply, and if you build one, you’re constantly sump-pumping it out. ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-and-thread-about-basements/743271/17 "2016-01-15T22:59:58Z")
Nope - [Why Don’t Homes in Texas Have Basements?](http://hubpages.com/living/Why-Dont-Homes-in-Texas-Have-Basements) ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-and-thread-about-basements/743271/18 "2016-01-15T23:03:10Z")
Yes, here in Minnesota. No, not in California where I grew up, although people I knew had a disturbing tendency to call the crawl-space under the house their “basement,” even going so far as to install some shelves to the pillars holding the house up because they’re so desperate for storage space because they don’t have a basement. ---
**Author:** ![somepumpkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@somepumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/somepumpkin)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-and-thread-about-basements/743271/19 "2016-01-15T23:04:41Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > Coastal North Carolina. The water table is too high for a basement. I’m only 23 feet above mean high tide, and the realtor said the house was “on a virtual mountain”. I grew-up in Jacksonville and I agree… very few basements to be found in the NC Coastal Plain. Now I live in the Piedmont and you can find basements in old construction around here -if the topography allows for it. It’s one of my \*requirements \*for a home. I love them for their easy access to the bowels of the house; esp. come repair time. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-and-thread-about-basements/743271/20 "2016-01-15T23:41:42Z")
Portland, OR. Most houses have basements. Or at least houses that are Craftsman style, or older Victorian style. I’d venture to say that most of them are finished, and that there is a significant percentage that use that space as a rental unit. Ours is finished (Craftsman bungalow), but it’s used for storage. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-poll-and-thread-about-basements/743271.md?page=2)