How costly to lower cement basement floor?

Question

Apologies in advance if this the wrong forum. I looked around for a while and couldn't figure the best place for this question.

Here's the situation: I'm looking at BRRRRing an early 20th Century house in Nebraska. It's in pretty good shape, but the basement is unfinished with a fairly low ceiling. Normally I'd just leave it as is, but the house is only 1200 square feet and the basement is 1/3 of that footage, so that leaves only 800 square feet of finished space. I'd like to finish the basement, but it'd likely require lowering the floor by a foot or two.

But I can't calculate if this is a deal breaker because I have no idea how much to budget for something like this. I figure it will entail: 1) jackhammering, 2) removal of rubble and dirt, 3) pouring a new concrete floor. But am I missing any other potential issues?

Does anyone have any experience with projects like this? How much should I budget?

Account Closed · Answer

Its not worth it.

Steve Babiak · Answer

Might be a smarter move to jack the house up to make the basement higher; of course, there is a lot that goes into doing that properly, but you will have a more functional space than leaving the "shelves" (that will resemble benches) taking up some of that valuable square footage.

Matthew Paul · Answer

Budget a lot , its all hand work . Now you have to concern yourself with the footers , they cant dig down right next to them they have to stay in 2 to 3 feet . So the perimiter of the basement will be a shelf . Second concern is ground water , if any . Dig too deep and you may hit water .

How costly to lower cement basement floor?

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