I would add the basement because if most houses in your area have basements a house without a basement will be odd and there’s probably a reason most houses have basements - such as a need for the foundation to go below the frost line. But I don’t see the need for this
Unfinished basement, yes- but I don’t see the reason for a chairlift friendly stairwell or the need for a toilet if you don’t want to put a guest room in the basement. Allthough people might refuse to buy a house without a basement, I can’t imagine someone refusing to buy because the unfinished basement doesn’t have a toilet.
I understand the idea of designing the house so you can age in place- but if you aren’t planning to use the basement for storage and will have the washer/dryer in the main living space , I don’t see why the stairwell needs to be chairlift friendly.
A foundation and a basement are two different things. The foundation goes below the basement. Even if you build on a slab, the slab will be on a foundation/footing.
If you have a basement, the walls are the foundation for the rest of the house (and footings underneath that), but there’s no reason you can place footings 48" below grade and a foundation up the level where you want the slab.
I’m considering it primarily because having these features gives me options and it is hugely cheaper and easier to make these decisions during the initial construction as opposed to trying to retrofit them later. I personally would not consider living in a house that did not have at least a half bath on every level that contained a bedroom. Waking up in the middle of the night needing to urinate and then having to walk upstairs with your legs crossed is not my idea of fun. Yes I could strip the basement down to a bare, concrete box with no windows and no plumbing but that’s hardly what I consider usable living space. If I’m going to put this house on a basement, it’s because I’m hoping the initial investment in increased construction costs will hopefully pay off in resale value. Spending the money up front to fit the basement with a toilet, climb out windows and a proper sump pit seems like a good gamble.
As far as the chairlift friendly stair well, all that’s required is to make sure it’s as straight as possible and is wide enough (I think 42" is standard but I’m calling for 48"). You then simply add extra wooden blocking between the studs to provide a good mounting surface. This can be done with scrap pieces of lumber and cost essentially nothing when done during construction.
Living in the Chicago area, I have always had at least a crawl space (which might alleviate some of the plumbing/HVAC access issues). If you had asked me 10 yrs ago, I would’ve said I would always have a basement.
We are in our late 50s, and moved into a split-level w/ sub-basement about 6 yrs ago. We figured we would be carried out of there in boxes, so to hell w/ resale value. That would be our kids’ problem.
5 yrs ago I shattered my ankle. Only then did I realize that we had no one level where I could sleep, eat, and use a bathroom. Made me think about mobility issues down the line. Our laundry is in the sub-basement, 3 1/2-flights of stairs down from the bedrooms.
I see some nice ranches in the area, but most of them have laundry in the basement. I can imagine that being an issue for older folk.
If I were doing it again and building my own, I would eschew the basement. You can expand the floorplan/garage considerably to accommodate any utilities/storage needs.
As you age, you may find you need/want less stuff. When you move, take advantage of the opportunity to purge unneeded shit. As a result, you’ll have less stuff that needs to be stored - in a basement or elsewhere.
I think you should do a basement, but only put appliances down there which aren’t used on a daily basis. Things like a water heater and furnace could be put in the basement, but the washer and dryer should be on the main floor. That way they could just have a friend or service tech go in the basement at the rare times those appliances need service, but they can wash their clothes without having to deal with any stairs.
I’m not sure I agree about a toilet in particular. Putting a toilet in an otherwise-unfinished basement means that anyone who wants to finish it is limited in their design flexibility by your choice of a toilet location.
And I don’t think there’s all that much difference in whether the toilet is put in upfront or later, since the pipes are all readily available in the basement. You would have to crack open the concrete floor and reseal it, but that seems about it, and is not a big deal.
One other reason I think you should have a basement is because your house is so small. Even if you don’t have a lot of stuff, the next owner probably will. A <700 sqft house isn’t going to have a lot of storage space in the main living areas.
I used to live in basementland, and don’t really miss having one, but if they are the norm in your area it makes sense to put one in. In Texas the name for “basement” is “covered swimming pool”.
I grew up in a ranch on a slab. I never missed having a basement. My parents have not had any problems due to the slab construction except their pipes freezing every so often. Oh also I guess more running of wires outside the house than inside (cable, because the cable installers didn’t want to go in the attic). Now that they’re old it’s great that they have a slab. Boomers are clamoring for slab homes and condos around here.
I bought a house with a basement and I’m not crazy about it. I can’t afford to have it finished, although I don’t want to have it finished anyway due to the handful of times I’ve had water down there. I’ve had people live down there for some time, and then I made a bit of a rec room/playroom down there. The rest of the space is just storage - for my brother’s stuff.
That being said…if the home you’re building is only 700sqft and you’re planning on putting everything upstairs (laundry, mechanicals) and the basement will have a bathroom and a climbout window, AND basements are expected where you live, then go for it. If it’s going to have the accessibility of a slab with the extra room provided by a basement, then it sounds like a winning combination!
You may be right, I’m going to have to consult with local experts and my contractor before making any firm plans. With that being said, making sure I understand my options right from the start is important. In my current house, the basement has a couple of floor drains meaning that the main waste line is buried deeply enough that gravity alone can carry waste water to the sewer line. I know that pumping toilet systems are available that can push waste water up several feet to a waste line that is buried too shallowly. In my experience, such systems are expensive, noisy and unreliable. If it’s possible, and it may not be, I want to ensure that my waste line is buried deeply enough that my new home’s basement can use a simple gravity flusher and, maybe, a couple of floor drains.
A friend did and it was one thing owned by someone that I truly coveted. The house was late 50s/early 60s construction and we never knew if it had been intended as some sort of shelter or what. The regular basement was say 3/4 or a little less of the foundation size and at the other 1/4 was a sort of stone/block staircase that brought you to the lowest level – say 7.5 feet below the basement floor. That was their entertainment room with some really comfy chairs and a super sound system and all. It really was this great space just for family and the closest of friends. Last time the house hit the market I made a stab for it but couldn’t match what the current owners were willing to pay.
We also had a place near our current house with a bunker, steel vault door and all, built below basement level and extending out (underground) into the back yard. That one was out of my price league as well.
In my (limited) experience - that being having had one installed about 10 years ago when I finished the basement - such systems are cheap, quiet, and reliable. The main downsides are that it takes up a small closet (though we also installed shelves in that closet) and - more significantly - that you can’t flush tissues down that toilet since it clogs up that type of system. (Toilet paper is made to disintegrate in water, while tissues are apparently not, or at least to the same extent.)
That said, I would absolutely agree that if you can get by on gravity alone that would be far more preferable. But I think the limitation here is the height of the basement floor relative to the sewer pipe in the street. In my case, I didn’t want a lot of steps in front so I made the basement relatively deep, which made the basement floor too low for gravity. It sounds like you similarly want a low-set first floor, so you may find yourself in the same situation if you make a basement. (This may also conflict with your desire for entry windows, unless you use window wells.) Though it’s possible that your street’s sewer pipe is set deeper.
I just skimmed the thread, but did anyone mention that basements reduce heating costs (because they’re below the frostline, they’re at about 50 degrees year-round)? So rather than trying to heat a frozen slab, you’re heating air that’s above freezing. And depending on the landscape, you could make the basement accessible from the outside at ground level. So even if you’re in a wheelchair, you could (when the weather is right) get to it without having to go down the stairs.
My parents are in their 80s and have had mobility issues so I appreciate the idea of designing a home for accessibility. It’s something I would include if I built from scratch.
one issue the OP hasn’t mentioned: local zoning regulations.
Have you checked them? 700 sq feet is very small. Many jurisdictions have regulations specifying the minimum size of a new house,sometimes 800 sq ft, sometimes 1500.
I grew up in houses with basements, and never understood why they existed.Dark, cold, damp,…ugh!
Even when they were nicely finished with wood paneling and carpet,the basement is still a basement–not a natural part of the house.You have to make an effort to go “down there”----to an appendage, artificially attached to the house, but not part of the comfortable living space.
If you want extra space in a one-story house, build a second story!
Whether it’s a kid’s playroom,a TV-watching room,a bar, a place to set up your your model trains, —whatever you want to do, you’ll find it’s more pleasant to do it in a room which has windows and sunlight.
