 Basement
A basement is a great asset to have in a home.
It offers major storage room and an easily accessible center for
the systems that make the house work. The power service panel is
there along with your main heating and cooling equipment and ductwork.
Usually the hot water heater, clothes washer and dryer are also
there along with plumbing. The basement makes troubleshooting and
repair work much easier.
Basements can come unfinished, partially finished or fully finished.
When fully finished it should functionally and visually
be an integral part of the main living space. Traditionally
a finished basement has a family room, a bathroom, a laundry room
and usually a bedroom or "sleeping accommodations". A
good measure is if you can see yourself spending time there, to
relax, sleep or work without feeling uncomfortable. You should not
see cobwebs, insulation, concrete, structural timber, bare sheet
rock walls and so on. Ducts and main drain pipes are usually not
concealed but they should not be eye sores or obtrusive.
A full basement has the same footprint of the main floor. In another
words a fully finished full basement will double the square footage
of a home.
Basement entrances and stairs must have adequate clearing. You
should not feel like you are about to bonk your head going down
the stairs. If you can picture yourself carrying large objects safely
up or down the stairs, it is probably okay. The local building code
will have specification for stairs, its width, angle of decent,
head clearance, and so on.
A point to keep in mind is that many home ads will include the basement
in the total square footage irregardless of the condition. The
square footage of a home should apply to actual living space and
not potential ones.
The big worry for basements is moisture and water coming in through
the floor or walls through hydrostatic pressure, a tremendous force
that will drive water through unprotected concrete. That can happen
with inadequate water proofing on the outside buried surfaces or
insufficient drainage of the soil around the house. Any hints of
mold, mildew, dampness, musty odor or green algae on the edges of
window panes are bad signs. An experienced home inspector should
be able to tell if there are signs for concern.
If the home does not have a basement then there must be an adequate
crawl space and entrance as defined by the local building code.
There has to be access and room to perform repairs. In northern
locations like Spokane, the crawl space needs to be completely
enclosed to stop cold air and wind penetration. In the
winter it will help keep the plumbing from freezing and the floor
to stay at a reasonable temperature.
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