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I want a game room! Should I build an UNDERGROUND LAIR or move?

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javeryh:
OK, here's the deal.  I live in a very small house (the footprint is 25' x 25') on a very small property (0.14 acres).  There is a basement but it is unfinishable (is that even a word?) because we constantly get water down there and the ceilings are less than 6 ft.  The walls are made of stone which is how the water gets in - the house is 100+ years old.  We are at maximum capacity with 2 kids and hopefully more on the way in the near future.  We love the neighborhood (old fashioned - there is a center of town with many shops and restaurants that we can walk to, great public schools and a train station to NYC) so we would prefer to stay where we are.  That said, we either need to move to a bigger house in town or put an addition on the current one.  In either scenario there must be a basement big enough for 3 rooms - a home theater, a mini bar and a game room - that is my only requirement.  

Building an addition would be a lot of fun but I'm not sure I'd be able to get all of the room I need.  Moving into a bigger house in town would be VERY expensive.  One of the scenarios I'm thinking about is building a room underneath the back yard that is bigger than the addition to the house (like maybe we extend the back of the house out 12-15 feet but the basement area would extend out 20-25 feet) but I have no idea if this is even feasible or what the cost might be.  Have any of you put additions on your houses recently?  How much am I looking at?  In addition to the basement, we would be adding on a TV room on the main floor and a master bedroom with bath (very small - toilet, sink standing shower) on the second floor...

Level42:
I thought about making a basement in my yard/garden as well. It would have gained me much more space than I have now. However, in my area of our country, the ground is very weak and soft. We need piles if we want to build anything with a high weight.

Over here there are pre-fab concrete basements that you can have installed. The general idea is: dig a hole big enough, put the basement in, finish off.
However, since the mentioned ground condition I would need piles, which are very expensive. (The basement itself is actually pretty reasonably priced). Adding to that is that the water level in the ground is very high here. About 1m. below the surface. This causes another problem because the water will push the basement up (like a boat that floats). So that would require an extra heavy basement.
Plus, for this reason, there would some temporary water management needed and walls to keep the ground up for my neighbors.

All in all, this would have been a great idea if I lived in some other area with a firm but easy to dig ground (sand).

Not sure if that's an option for you, but since you mention it. The pre-fab stuff is great because it's really water-tight.

HaRuMaN:
javeryh, have you looked into the local building codes to see if you can even legally do what you are proposing?

Malenko:
It will cost so much more then you think for any of those options, like take what you think it costs and double or triple it. You most sound choice is to just buy a bigger home or do without a game room.


--- Quote from: HarumaN on February 10, 2010, 08:14:39 am ---javeryh, have you looked into the local building codes to see if you can even legally do what you are proposing?

--- End quote ---

that too

HaRuMaN:

--- Quote from: Malenko on February 10, 2010, 08:47:28 am ---do without a game room.

--- End quote ---

Blasphemy!

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