Basement on stick home

[Shannonbeth]

My friend just bought a 5 bedroom hobby farm on 5acres.
He does not have a basement and he wants one, we have a lot of twisters around here and not many ppl feel safe sitting in a bathroom...lol

What is the best way to go about it? I'm assuming that you'd have to have the house jacked and one put in? What are the advantages and disadvantages about this?
I've seen it done on homes before, but never really knew.
or sometimes you also get a person selling a house to be moved so they have a basement poured and then pt house on it.

Any information, thoughts and ideas?

Thanks!
Shannon

[GENE13]

If the purpose is just for shelter from a twister, then one way would be to build a small cellar, and build it away from the house (avoiding a house cave-in coming down on you) Or if you want access to it from the inside of the house, excavate just enough under the house to connect the two, stair way opening size is all you would need under the house. Just a couple ideas you might find helpful.


Gene :-)

ps. Whenever you are jacking up a house you have to deal with the plumbing, electrical, loosening of lumber, foundation problems, cracked drywall, and the list goes on.

[jeffro]

It would be easier to buy another house with a basement under it. Build something near or beside the house to hide in. If they paid very little for the place and don't like the first idea, put an addition on with a basement, probably cost the same or less than adding the basement under the other house.

[wood bug]

I would build a 1' thick cement room with vents, phone and storage, say 6'x6 next to the house with a steel door. Finish it to match the house.
Here in Texas you can get a pre-fab (concrete) for underground for $2500-$4000. Either way, it's alot cheaper than a complete mod. of the house.

[zato_ichi]

Better and cheaper to build one out in the yard, plus the house won't trap you underneath it should the storm level the house.
Check out this shelter guide, fema has several also but require some plugin to view the plans the plugin was 42 mb didn't feel like downloading it so i kept looking and this one is pretty good

http://extension.missouri.edu/swregion/news/storm/STORMSHELTERPACKET.pdf

[Shannonbeth]

Thanks for the information guys! I will let him know.