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Do your neighbors hate you?

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Ummon:

--- Quote from: ChadTower on August 27, 2008, 02:23:46 pm ---
--- Quote from: Ummon on August 26, 2008, 05:41:16 pm ---That's called an earthen cellar, and it's good for all sorts of things.

--- End quote ---


I thought earthen cellars were dug into a hillside with the front entrance at ground level but the back below grade?  The ones I'm talking about are just like slab foundations but predate concrete.  They're made up of rocks placed by hand.

--- End quote ---

Oh I see. Yeah, I missed a couple things. Although, I don't know if all earthen cellars were accessible only from the outside. I got the idea from my grandma that theirs had stairs to it from the inside, also.

ChadTower:

--- Quote from: Ummon on August 28, 2008, 07:18:54 pm ---Oh I see. Yeah, I missed a couple things. Although, I don't know if all earthen cellars were accessible only from the outside. I got the idea from my grandma that theirs had stairs to it from the inside, also.

--- End quote ---

Lots of them have entrances into the house.  They're normal basements, really, but built into the grade of the hillside.

HaRuMaN:

--- Quote from: shmokes on August 24, 2008, 11:51:16 pm ---You'll find that there are also no basements in Phoenix, AZ.  I think it has to do with foundations needing to be set below the frost line.
--- End quote ---

Incorrect.  There are homes with basements here.  In fact, that's one of the criteria we have for buying a home next year.

shmokes:
Of course there are.  That's not what I meant.  It's not like you're forbidden from building a basement just because you don't have to have one.  But basements are a helluva lot more expensive than a second-story, and they're less marketable (lack of sunlight, for example).  But where it freezes, the foundation of the home must be below the frost line.  In NYC, for example, that's four feet . . . and the foundation has to go deeper than that.  And many places get a lot colder than NYC.  So they build basements there as a matter of course, not just because someone wants a basement.

ChadTower:

Went into a basement 4-5 houses down from mine... identical house, really, except their basement is like 2' deeper than mine.  Have to say I was a bit frustrated as ceiling height is a little low in my basement.   :banghead:  Can't think of a good reason for the difference.

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