Basement is the bonus space you can have in your house. Once you settle in your house with kids and lots of paraphernalia needed for living, house seems cramped. If you have basement in your house, you can get it converted into a wonderful, livable and useful space. If you dream of large spaces like large kitchens, large bathrooms, gym, family room or teenager’s room, you can accomplish that with a basement conversion project. Many people, who believe in lavish lifestyle, can go for indoor swimming pool or entertainment area. These are just few suggestions but you have to assess your own requirements of space.
By basement conversion, you can have one room converted to a full apartment. It all depends upon your requirements and budget. Families who need space but do not want to move to other properties can make use of their basement space. Though all the houses can have basement, supporting tall and narrow houses is a problem. Foundation needs to be strengthened for digging a basement.
Converting a basement is an expensive project and it also depends upon the part of the country you are living. Adding a useful basement space in your house, actually, enhances the value of your property. While you sell your property, it will fetch more prices and you will recover all the costs of conversion.
While digging basement in an existing building, you will have to take certain precautions. To avoid vibrations in building, this should be done partly with hands. Also, it will be quite difficult to take heavy equipments under the ground. Most of the times, builders enter the basement through the front room. After digging each one square meter, house is supported at steels and props.
Waterproofing of the basement is very important task as the success of the whole project depends upon this. Modern basements do have damp-proofing to solve this issue. This involves creating a gap between the actual wall and the waterproof membrane. Water is made to pass through these two walls to a drainage channel in the floor of the basement. From there, it is redirected into the waste water system. This system needs yearly maintenance and replacement of pipes after every eight to ten years. And when humidity reaches certain level, you need to have good ventilation using airbricks, windows and mechanical extractor.
Before going for basement conversion, you need to have approval from Building regulations department. But yes, if you already have a cellar, you need not have any planning permission. Remember to talk to your neighbours before starting the work as you need to have party-wall agreements.
Author Resource:-
Joanna is a well renowned Polish journalist specialising in Polish, Russian and English translation services. She has been residing in the UK for 3 years where she has made her home among the Polish community in Tooting, South West London.
http://www.balhambuilder.co.uk
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