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Grade II New Build With Basement
A concrete box with no escape
Posted by Fay Plumb
on 27th November 2009
Since my last entry all efforts have gone into constructing the basement walls. There was a brief interlude one day when the gas utility company descended on us to finally remove the forlorn gas meter and install a new one for the existing house but otherwise, huge amounts of effort and time have gone into constructing the shuttering for the basement walls, filling them with concrete, removing the shuttering and then waterproofing them.
Shuttering, made from wood, was constructed with reinforced steel mesh within.
In order to withstand the pressure of the concrete, the shuttering was meticulously reinforced with metal clamps and battened wood. If the shuttering had split during the concrete pour the whole lot would have had to been removed and the process of shuttering re-started.
A strip of waterproof sealant was placed at the bottom of the wall to form a seal between the walls and the floor. Over the weekend this expanded and rucked up - let's hope it wasn't crucial!
The concrete was poured in one day and rapidly set within 24 hours. The shuttering was removed to reveal a concrete box without a lid! There's no escape from this room...
The outside of the wall was then painted in a black, waterproof coating and a thick, plastic corrugated sheet attached of Bituthene which cha,nnels any water seeping through from the back-filled hardcore around the walls, and prevents mud seeping through into the concrete. It's evidently the same stuff you'd put under a hardcore drive, to stop it discolouring over time.
And finally - our wonderful, new gas meter cupboard is installed! This involved our builder's plumber visiting at 8am to switch of the gas, then Team 1 from the gas utility company rolled up to take out the old gas meter, followed, several hours later, by Team 2, who installed the new gas meter, followed by the builder's plumber returning to switch the gas back on and check there were no problems; I'm pleased to say there weren't because by then it was 4.30pm and Team 1 and Team 2 had long gone!
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Fay Plumb
Fay and her husband are taking on a new-build next door to their grade II thatched cottage. They want to achieve the ‘normal height’ rooms they are lacking presently and make the most of the surrounding views. Their plans for a basement will also create the extra space they desperately want.
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I've always thought basements were a great idea and would like to have one in my new build (very much in the planning still.)
Why do more people not have basements - are they a particularly expensive way to add space?
Do you have any plans to get natural light into the basement?
In Denmark many houses are built with a concrete basement. I think this may have something to do with permafrost. However, what they generally do is build the concrete box up to ground level + 12". They then put a row of windows on top of this and then build a house on top. The windows do not go all the way around the house but incorporate some load bearing posts on which to lay the foundations. This gives light to the basement. I was quite impressed with this utilisation of land and the only down side was that people could look into your basement from ground level outside, although with advances in glass technology, I am sue tis could be overcome.
Faye,
Obviously I do not know the reasons why you had done what you had done, having only seen this one article, but surely all that shuttering must have cost you a small fortune??
ICF, insulated concrete forms, effectively could be built (your whole basement) in one week and the equivalent of your shuttering is made of Polystyrene and becomes your insulation and not thrown away as your shuttering probably was. As you can fill it with waterproof concrete too it negates the need to use expensive tanking too (though most advise still using some pain on coating).
Perhaps there were reasons but, if you ever do it again, do consider it for a basement:)
All the best with the rest of it.
Regards, Dave
We did look into a number of different methods to build the basement, including pre-fabrication, which was our original preferred method. Unfortunately, narrow access to the site meant that there was insufficient room to deliver the length of walls required.
I have a building site next door where the basement room seems to be much larger than the (proposed and approved) house above it. Is this allowed in Denmark?
By properly tanking the basement it effectively becomes a fully
usable room of your house. You could turn it into a kitchen, a
bedroom, a bathroom, a wine cellar, a living room, work office or even
a rented area to lodgers. Your only limited really is your
imagination. What's more; your properties' value will increase too.
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