For some reason or another there are no homes around Midland with basements. I don't know the real reason, but I hear people say the ground is too hard. I'm thinking about buying a small piece of land and building a house on it, and I'd love to have a finished basement to use as my bar/theater/gun stuff room.


There are a few pieces of land for sale around here, and one has a caliche pit on it. Would it be feasible to build over the pit and use it as a basement? Would there be issues with back-filling the soil around the rest of the house? Or would it be more practical to have a backhoe dig only what I need on a fresh peice of land? Do I just need to forget this idea all together?

TIA.

I would dig out the area on a new location. Shouldn't be a problem building a basement in midland.

I am a homebuilder, but no where near Midland. Around here, we don't do basements due to the expansive soils we have and what it would take to build one that will hold up to the soil movement. I am sure that it could be done in an old caliche pit, I would check around with the area custom builders and see what they think. They may can answer your question for you.

Helped a friend build his way out on the ass end of Odessa back in HS. The problem I'm assuming is from the ungodly Hard rock and dirt and boulders everywhere. Took forever to get it dug. Set back their construction plans about a week. The area itself is very stable seismically speaking so it should be good on that account IMO. Just ask some contractors over there. Sure they got an answer.

I'm not sure that Texas has any real basement heavy areas. I don't know a single person living in Texas with a basement. Don't know anybody living in the South with a basement.

Seems to be a yankee thing.

We had one in Kentucky and it was about the best thing ever. Would LOVE a basement.

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I'm not sure that Texas has any real basement heavy areas. I don't know a single person living in Texas with a basement. Don't know anybody living in the South with a basement.

Seems to be a yankee thing.

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1. Shrink/swell soils
2. Shallow depth to bedrock

Those are your factors. Not as much of an issue in northern states. If those issues didn't exist here there would be more basements.

[This message has been edited by AgResearch (edited 3/10/2012 12:17p).]

there was a thread on here recently about basements, but i can't find it. seems like the consensus bottom line was: no one builds basements here because there's no freeze line they must get below, and it's cheaper to build up (second story) than it is to build down (basement).

My granddad's house in Sweetwater had a basement.

Amarillo has several address where basements are common. Tornadoes and the risk therein are probably the main drivers.

I don't buy the "ground is too hard" argument. The ground is hard in the Ozarks and Appalachians too.

The shrinking/swelling ground is a feasible argument I guess but I think a lot homes around Atlanta have basements. This is based on my extensive House Hunters research.

Lastly, my cousin's old house in Giddings had a basement. It was small and wasn't finished but it was there. It was the oldest brick home in town so it proves it can be done I guess.

I would love to have a basement some day. Great place for a gun vault and a wine cellar/closet. The gun vault could also double as a storm shelter which I am very much in favor of.

We don't have enough subsurface moisture here in West Texas for a basement to be an issue. People don't build basements because land is plentiful and it is cheaper to add square footage above ground than below. Except for a few places rocky places in west Midland, the soil is caliche/clay. If you want a basement, dig one. It is best accomplished with a slab and cinder block laid for walls then filled with pea gravel cement. Paint the entire outside with block sealer and then get roofing tar and cover it all before you backfill with soil.

Since 1997 a man has been digging out his basement using only rc scale model construction equipment and his Youtube page.

SIAP

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there was a thread on here recently about basements, but i can't find it. seems like the consensus bottom line was: no one builds basements here because there's no freeze line they must get below, and it's cheaper to build up (second story) than it is to build down (basement).

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This is the correct reason why there are few basements in Texas.

I know of a basement in an old house east of Houston near the port. It was built in the early 1900s. I think cheap land, bad soil, and water table are the main factors in the eastern part of the state.

TX AG 88 is correct.

If people up north didn't have to dig below the frostline, they wouldn't have basements either. At least on a large scale.

When I lived in Lubbock from 1998-2005, about 1/3 of new homes were being built with basements.

Of course it CAN be done. Whether it makes economical sense to do it is the real question. We build commercial buildings with basements all the time. Especially in places where land is hard to come by (college campuses, for instance).

Not sure I'd be too interested in a basement, but I do want my next house to have a hardened safe room.

As said, cheaper to build up around here than down. Basement walls equal CMU or concrete with waterproofing and drainage systems plus all the excavation to make the big pit in the ground. House walls equal sticks and bricks, much cheaper and no excavation below finished floor.

Cost and water table elevations are the biggest reasons basements are not prevalent in most parts of Texas.

To the OP:

Before making any decisions, talk to a local structural engineer and find out about the soil characteristics in your area. Spend the money on a geotech report for the area you want to build the house. A couple grand investment is far better than spending a lot more guessing.

And if you decide to move forward, get a PE to design your basement so that the liability is theirs.

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If people up north didn't have to dig below the frostline, they wouldn't have basements either.

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I have a dumb question, what does digging below the frostline get you? Thermal efficiency? More stable foundation?

They have to get below the frost line because of something called frost heave.

The ground freezing can move the foundation around.

Ice is really an amazing thing.

Thanks for all the responses. This is just a dream right now, but you all have some good ideas.

I have an idea for a dream house with a below ground wine cellar/storm cellar as well and I follow these discussions with interest. Unfortunately I live in BCS and with the cost/soil issues I'm expecting to end up going above ground when we eventually do this.

As an expatriate of TX living up north right now, I can tell you that tradition is the biggest reason that people don't have basements in TX.

First settlers realized that they didn't need to get below the frost line so they didn't dig the hole or gather the stones build the rudimentary basement. After a couple of hundred years of civilized settlement in TX, you will be very hard pressed to find a residential builder who has even worked on a house with a basement--unless he moved to TX from up north and then you wouldn't trust him 'cause he's a carpetbagging yankee!

If you try to sell a house in most northern states without a basement, it may as well be a trailer. Again, because of tradition. New building techniques allow housed to be built entirely above grade, buy you'll take a huge hit to resell.

As for water table, expansive soils, rocky soils, etc, those are problems that people with basements deal with all the time to no great expense or trouble. As mentioned, frost heave makes all soils expansive, and all the lakes and swamps around here means the water table is plenty high.

Having just gone through an extensive renovation of an existing house with a basement, I can tell you that I love the idea of plumbing and electric accessibility! Want to put a toilet in the middle of the living room, fine, just cut a hole and move the plumbing underneath. Want to put an upstairs laundry in your walk in closet, no problem, just move the supply hoses and run a drain.

Having lived my entire life in one-story, concrete slab homes, I am still getting used to the feeling of less 'firmness' underfoot, though. Kind of like living in a pier and beam house, where grandma's china cabinet rattles when walk by.

When/if I move back to TX, I will work very hard to find a builder who can build a basement.

The Lubbock area has a lot of basements.

There are many reason why they built basements up north. Some are freezing, older construction techniques, tradition, land cost, and taxes. I have been in a home in Houston built in the '20s with a full basement. Just off the Rice campus. It was pretty cool and they had enough wine and boos down there to stock a couple of specs stores.

One of my good friends built a house just a year or two ago in West U (Houston), and he had a basement put in, the full size of the house type. He told me it cost ~$60,000 for the basement because they had to put in a water pump system (and a backup) to keep water from settling around the structure. It's awesome, and now I want to do it if/when I build something. He's got a large A/V room, a wine cellar/room, and a half bath.

The whole basement is below the house with no external access (doors, windows). You wouldn't even know there was a basement if you didn't go in the house.

It's excellent but I don't know the hazards if a flood or something of that nature hits.

Check out Doomsday Bunkers on Discovery channel.