Dig out a basement

irishguy

I was looking at a period house (late 1800's) which has two rooms (the 3rd bedroom and a second sitting room) in the basement which are fully done out, but the head height is only 6' 4" (thats not a typo). So I was wondering if anyone would know how much it would cost to dig it out and add another 1-2 feet of head room (the floor area it C.25msq). Would it be a big job? Would such a low ceiling put people off, it doesnt bother me that much just thinking about resale in the future.

Carlow52

very expensive to do:
underpinning the external and internal load bearing walls would alone make it a non economic venture

gman2k

I was involved in a project before - a period house terrace house in Dublin.
Basement head height was quite low, so we dug down some more to get 8ft.
Ran into problems such as (the obvious ones first)
Stairs to be extended,
Messed up fireplaces at basement level,
Entrance areas from outside at basement level.
Biggie: Met the foundations very soon under the existing floor level, which cannot be cut back!
Therefore ended up with ledges around the perimeter c. 300m up from floor level.

irishguy

I forgot I posted this. Would anyone have any recomended reading about undepinning/digging out a basement in a period property. With such a low head height would that not put people off buying a house? I am just under the head height so I am grand, but just worried about resale value.

Basements

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irishguy

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Hi, these building regs only apply to new houses built after the regulations came in. The house was built in the late 19th century so all the floor area is considered livable space.

What kind of rough guide price would you be quoting for the above job?

gman2k

I would recommend you speak to a conservation architect before you start talking to contractors. If you mess up a period house, you will end up subtracting from it's value, not adding to it.

picorette

It is impossible to say without investigations. Many nineteenth century basements were poorly constructed, being the left over unseen part of the house. There also could be considerable deterioration over two hundred years.

I did lowering of a basement in Dublin 4 where the underpinning cost €50,000 for an area of 60 sq. m. Underpinning is expensive and it will depend on the condition of the property

You need professionals ( Conservation Architect & Structural Engineer) to look at it to give you more firm advice.