Does anyone have experience building these or living in them? I want to know if the heating and cooling savings from a typical basement gets completely negated or significantly lessened when one side of the basement wall is exposed to the elements. Also would it nulify it's use as a fallout shelter as well?
>use as a fallout shelter
I lived in Rome Georgia in the sixties, and one of our neighbors had a legit fallout shelter in his back yard. It was crazy back then, and it's even crazier these days.
A house built in the 1880s in Douglasville had some converted fallout shelter type deal. You opened this hatch in the laundry room and climbed down 25 fricking feet on this little ladder. It was sketchy.
This doesn't answer your question but I was always a fan of stilted houses. It always came off to me as being significantly more hygienic and arguably safer, so long as you're not worrying about disasters like you said.
Depends where you are in the country. I would never want one of those if I lived in Tornado Alley.
On the other hand if you're somewhere that occasionally floods, it could be ideal.
I have one and i love it
I live in a cool humid climate and its always kind of cold and i need to run a dehumidifyer most of the year but i think it keeps the house cool in the summer, i dont really use ac
i also have a wood burner down there so its super cozy even though its technically unfinished i made it into a dope rec room
But yeah its probably not as insulated as a normal basement but it's way more liveable imo
>providing another point-of-entry to your dwelling that is concealed from the street and from the neighbors.
No.
>dying in a fire
>t. all my decisions are based on fear
You can't hear a break-in below. And have no barrier against a stair climber.
Thank you for proving my point.
Why take such a risk for no gain?
>he doesn't live in a castle
>he expects his "neighbors" to be polite and trustworthy
>for the entire duration he lives in that home
I don't take as hardline a stance as that anon but you're an idiot for trusting people in the year of our Lord 1971 + 30 + 23
Bruh just live in an area with no Black folk, it's that easy
But that's true for any dwelling, basement or not. Therefore irrelevant to OP's question.
This. I have a walkout and it is such a vulnerable entryway. But I like in the rural part of my state and there are no nigs and I have a security cam pointed at the door.
Also, I hate my walkout mainly because of my dog. We have to let him out the front door because if we let him out of the back door on the top deck, we cant see him and he bolts down the steps too fast and hurts himself sometimes. and Im too lazy to walk him all the way downstairs to go out the basement door.
Just a minor inconvenience really but something to think about along with the vulnerability of the door.
I have one and i dont lock my house even when im not there
If a shadow demon saunters into my basement, it will not leave alive lmao.
I have a walkout basement. Definitely cooler down there in the summer. Also have a woodstove insert in a fireplace down there and because of that it is also the warmest place in the house in the winter. Overall very comfy. 10/10 would recommend.
>nulify it's use as a fallout shelter
Yes. That one wall isn't going to be radiation proof. But then a basement isn't radiation proof anyway, unless you did something with the ceiling. And fallout shelters are snake oil since MAD became a thing.
I have a walkout and I love it. It's practical and one room has windows, so it's good for overwintering plants. I have a double door for the walkout so you can actually put furniture in there. It's finished and I have my home theater room down there too.
If you're able to have a basement its absolutely the best kind.
>Eastern PA
>half of basement is finished, half is a two-car garage.
>2 sides buried
>1 side driveway
>1 side patio
>8 degrees cooler in the basement. Higher humidity. Dehumidifier necessary.
Attached garages are so ghetto lmao
>Attached garages are so ghetto lmao
Why wouldn't you want your basement machine shop attached to the house? Also that area could easily be finished and turned into more rooms if needed.
Turning your attached garage into a room is triple ghetto
>Why wouldn't you want your basement machine shop attached to the house?
Noise
Air quality
Security
It's a half-finished basement, moron. Damn near every single-family home is set up like that.
my house is a walk out, got no complaints so far but only been here 6 months. no issues with heating or cooling in the basement.
only problem is the room above the garage is fricking frigid due to having 12 windows and the previous owner didn't insulate the garage ceiling.
cheaper to build down then up, or out.
>would a thin fragile sliding glass door negate my man-cave as a fallout shelter
yes.
the purpose of a fallout shelter is to protect you from fallout. fallout is essentially dust. windows/doors/fragile openings are great ways for dust to enter your home.
With a regular basement, to covert it into a makeshift fallout shelter you just block the maindoor and seal off maybe those tiny windows/vents used to make the house breath. with a walk out basement your basement is just as protected (read: not protected) as your first floor.
but they are comfy to live in. I had a house with a walkout basement, didnt feel like living in a basement at all.. which is the whole point.
as other anons have stated, it is a serious security concern. Whether you are afraid of roving packs of YOUTHS or just worried your children might wander off without you noticing, the walk out basement is a design from a more simplier time when you could trust your community, your neighbors, and your family.
Huh. If you live in a basementless one story house, they'll break in through your bedroom window. If you live in a two story house, they'll break into the story below you. What is your actual point?
Nta but I guess one could argue that depending on the layout of the house vs the neighborhood, it would be more secure for the intruder. They don’t have to crawl into a window and (again depending on layout) they would run the risk of neighbors seeing them enter or notice a broken window. But this is true for many layouts so I don’t really get the concern either.
The real security issue in that picture is the sliding glass door. I could be wrong because I don’t have a ton of experience but I’ve yet to see a sliding glass door that can’t be opened by our friend the screwdriver.
*they wouldn’t run the risk
>sliding glass door
Never been a problem. Can fix it with a stick. Again, A walkout basement is the same as a regular first floor, but with fewer access holes.
>Again, A walkout basement is the same as a regular first floor, but with fewer access holes.
Pretty much this. Anyone saying any different is a complete moron. It's no more of a security risk than having a first floor at ground level.
>Noise
>Air quality
>Security
If I'm in my basement machine shop working why would I care about the noise? And yes my machine shop generates SOOOOOOO much dust... And my machines being in the same building where I live makes them much less secure than being in a different building at the back of my property.
None of your arguments make any sense.
Some of us have families to consider
So do I. I make some noise in the garage, my wife makes noise in the kitchen, and my kids make noise in the family room or their bedrooms...
Enjoy not generating dust in your underhouse cuckhovel then
This why the nuclear family is failing. You should all be in the same room making noise together.
Ah yes, we should never be apart from each other 24/7. Great idea.
Gather round family and watch and learn as daddy drops a deuce and shitposts on PrepHole. Maybe later we can gather in the family room while i give mom a good ol' fashioned dicking. For family togetherness of course...
>nuclear family
Was invented as a propaganda tool in the 50s and 60s.
coincides with the invention of the underground attached cuckshed
>It's no more of a security risk than having a first floor at ground level.
It's not visible from the street or by any of your neighbors. Scholars often ring the front doorbell, then head around back. It would be very easy one to accidently enter a walk-out basement.
>, then head around back
Does your house _not_ have a back door? WTF dude? Your arguments are weak.
Then add another back door in a location where criminals can hide.
Grew up with one.
10/10 would recommend.
Why do people never put railings or something around the retaining walls? Everyone I know with one just has a sudden drop and they all have at least one story of a drunk person or a child or a dog running off those and hurting themselves. Usually during the evening when its darker out.
Mine is all on a gentle slope
Looks ugly but it works well
Natural selection. According to that one guy on here, everyone on here with a walkout basement is going to get their house ransacked by thieves, so this is of course just a legal booby trap to kill the thieves stumbling around in the dark.