Can a basement be added on to an existing ranch home?

Question

I heard on a podcast yesterday about digging out a basement to increase the head room. Is it possible to dig out to create a basement where none exists on a ranch home built in 1965?

Dustin Allen · Answer

@Marysue Connelly

Virtually anything is possible to accomplish. The real question is does it make any financial sense to do it. People raise houses and add another story under the existing one so I imagine you could add a basement. The question would be why a basement instead of more above ground living. Then, do you need to raise existing and build under it or could you RE-engineer the lower level and build another story on top.

Account Closed · Answer

@Marysue Connelly

As above, likely doesn’t make sense . Best case scenario you’ve got the acreage to dig your basement somewhere close and move the house onto it once complete.

JD Martin · Answer

Where do you live? Possible, yes. Practical, probably not but it depends. Most place with cold-weather footings already have basements because you have to go that far to put a footer in anyway. But if you are somewhere that's already got a deep footer, you may be able to do exactly that. I have been in a couple of houses with later-add basements and the most common thing I've seen locally is a basement footprint that's about a foot or two smaller than the outer wall of the house all the way around, with a pony wall poured or blocked on the inside around the perimeter to provide stability to keep the walls from kicking out after excavation.

Payton Chung · Answer

As mentioned above, it might be possible but I assure you it's not worth it.

Basement excavations are sometimes done here in DC, which has very high prices and very strict height limits -- a combination I wouldn't wish upon anywhere else. Even then, it's done where there's already a crawlspace rather than cutting out a slab from below.

Wayne Brooks · Answer

Not practical....there is no foundation that deep for the existing house. Digging a foot deeper in an existing basement even is dependent on the foundation already being deep enough.

Can a basement be added on to an existing ranch home?

Can a basement be added on to an existing ranch home?

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