Why many houses in CA don't have basements?
 

I was just wondering this for awhile and I never met anyone who could give me an answer.

When I lived back east basements were very popular and almost everyone I knew had one.

Here in CA I guess the norm (for most tract homes) is to lay down a cement slab and build the house on top the slab.

I don't know if its a cost issue, zoning, earthquake issue or maybe its just gone out of style. Personally, I think it would be cool to have that much more living space (practically double if its a single story house).

Anyone have a good answer to this?

Its just one of those things I've been wondering about for awhile now.

Thanks!

Basements are quite rare in Napa and Marin County. A few older houses have those small storage areas for say, canned goods...but never a big full lenght basement.
I mean, would YOU want to be down in a basement when the Big One hits? (And all the seismologists keep saying we are over due for a big one over 7.2 in the bay area.)

I lived in Sausalito when the Loma Prieta quake hit several years ago and that's as big as I want to endure ever again.

I grew up in California and I always just assumed it was because we didn't have those scary tornadoes that people in some other states had to hide from. :)

The house I grew up in did have a basement, though. It was handy for storing a bunch of crap and was also where the radiator lived.

I don't actually have anything very useful to say in response to your question. Sorry.

Basements are sometimes used to reduce settlement on a building. If the soil is compressible, they can use a basement to remove a volume of soil. In effect, this reduces the total weight of the house acting to consolidate the soil. If balanced exactly, the house+basement can actually float in the soil, and no settlement will occur. This only happens when the mass of the soil removed = mass of the house. The result is that the soil under the house has already compressed due to that mass, and no additional mass is applied, so no settlement occurs.

You will probably see more basements in poor soil areas, like clays/silts..near rivers, etc.. You will probably also see more basements were frost heave is a problem. If the basement of the house is below the frost line, then the house wont rise much when the ground water freezes. I think, I havent had anything to do with frost heave in a long time.

When I was in Marin County, we had a basement (lived on Hamilton AFB) - and it flooded one year when it rained really really bad. However, my cousins lived elsewhere in Marin County and didn't have one (nor did anyone in their entire development).

Probably for the same reason we in AZ don't. Developers tend not to want the extra expense of running water/sewer/utility deep enough to support a basement.

preventing settlement is an issue, and it could be style carried over from when cold storage was an issue, and a big cement room underground was really useful. for the northeast at least. a friend of mine's house was built around 200 years ago (i think) and theres no entrance to the basement from inside the house, and no air circulation between the house and the basement.

I've lived in Texas my whole life and never even seen a basement. So I'm inclined to agree with above posters who say it's an NE thing.

For my area in NW Oregon, most older (pre-'50s) homes > 700sqft have full basements. They're almost universal for homes built from the 30's back, and those often include evidence of an old pantry/cool room. OTOH, it's very rare to find a home from the 50's up with a basement.

As far as how basements work in our climate, it's dicey. During winter, a 75yr old basement is a wet or at least very humid one. If drainage wasn't maintained it can mean foundation problems and bad flooding. They can be rebuilt to be dry and livable but it's an expensive proposition.

Our native soil has a high clay content which fits with BAMF's explanation.

I do know foundations and drainage have come a long way since the old homes were built. I'll bring this up with a couple builders I know.

My house in Phoenix has a full finished basement - why more people don't here as a heat efficient solution is worth thinking about - However, i have seen them slowly coming back in the newer, larger model homes being built.

A somewhat unrelated issue...some houses (I have read about one, so by some I really mean at least one) have air cooling systems that pump warm air through pipes in the cool underground. The cool air is then circulated in the house.

This would have to be run in conjunction with a dehumidifier to get the same effect as an air conditioner.

Here in Oregon I was told it was an earthquake issue.

None of the newer homes around here seem to have them.

In Denver, it was unusual if your home DIDN'T have one and no one can say that they have worse soil than Bentonite.

In South Dakota every house had one. Then again that is tornado area.

I have to say though finished basements are some of the nicest things in the world. They are dark, cool, and quiet. It was always so much easier to sleep in the basement than upstairs. I love how basements are usually so much cooler (in temp) than the rest of the house.

We do the opposite here, drill deep holes into the bedrock to take up heat to the houses! I suppose it can be run in reverse during the summer though.

I can't access Wikipedia because the fucking "great wall of China" started blocking it last week but here's a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basement

Also: http://www.answers.com/topic/basement (nicely, this acts as a proxy for the Wiki entry, so I guess I've found a minor loophole...unfortunately, I can't log into WP, etc.)

Thanks for all the answers guys...looks to me that cost is the major factor. I would imagine that it would probably add 15%-25% to the overall cost of the house. (this is purely speculation on my part as I'm not a contractor) Running power, water, HVAC, and everything else will definitely add to your build expenses, but IMHO, the gain is worth it. I'm sure that if someone were building a house and they really wanted to put in a basement, its entirely possible no matter where you live. As long as you take the proper precautions (based on type of soil/ground) you have to deal with as well as the climate. I, for one, would love to have a finished basement as its indeed much cooler in hotter climates and if you do it right, could be even more fun to hang out in. i.e. home theater, game room, party room, etc. As for the issue with earthquakes, for those of us who live in earthquake country, it doesn't really matter too much to me as it can happen anytime and I could be anywhere.

Again, thanks for all the replies.

Jelorian,
I would say that when building a house the major cost is ussually the land, so a basement is not a major investment.
However, in CA a builder has to meet WAY stricter guidlines if there is a basement. (As far as load bearing, and resiliency...etc)
These requirements DO make it too expensive. So most people who want the extra storage space just put in a bigger garage, or attic, or something.

In addition to what everyone else has said, let's not forget the matter of radon gas gathering in the basement. This is a rather common occurrence, and when you're going to sell your house one of the first things required is a radon gas test. If the gas is found, it could lower the value of your home.

which explains why they have to dig really deep here in Manhattan when they make skyscrapers.... I've heard this as a reason why they dig, but not the settlement parts... thanks!

knowledge is power!!!!

so.. sounds like a combination of earthquake and cost issues. Around the GTA, or anywhere in Ontario that I know of, all houses have basements. It's just the normal thing. If they don't they are probably either cottages, or mobile homes (which means they are prime targets for tornados! talk about irony.)

Most of the houses (new and old) around here have basements and we're right on top of an earthquake zone and no way near a tornado zone.
Slab constuction is cheaper, I'm sure that's the reason why you don't see basements in some areas.

Here in PA, where basements are common, a high level of radon, usually tested for after an agreement of sale, doesn't lower the value, but rather mandates a ventilation system to evacuate the gas that the seller is responsible for putting in place before the sale.

Most basements are constructed bare- poured walls and a few lights pulled off the fuse box. No HVAC, plumbing, etc.- that's left to the homeowner to "finish" at some future time.

What I'm wondering about, is how much otherwise usable space is taken up in a California home by all the "equipment" typically put in the basement- house HVAC unit(s), hot water heater, (well pump, water conditioner, tanks for sprinkler system, all in my house). Also How the hell do you wire for cable TV on the first floor in a two story house????

gonad,
most people have all of the ancillary stuff out in thier garage, which tend to be a little deeper as a result.

Basements are usually very cheap square footage. I added 700 square feet to my house by going with a partial basement. Only cost me $7000 more and the extra space for furnace/laundry/toy room has been priceless.

I don't know about california, but in nevada, there is a tough layer of clay in the ground called callicci (sp?) through which is extremely expensive to drill. Maybe they have something like that is CA.

It'd be pretty impractical in some areas. Try it in Louisiana and you may as well bypass the usual sump pump and get yourself a few bildge pumps instead ;)

I think the topic should be "How many homes in CA have basement?" I lived in SD for over 21 years and was a real estate agent for 1 1/2 years. Even multi-million mega homes in La Jolla or Rancho Santa Fe (usually) don't have basements.

On the West Coast you worry about earth quakes, wild fires and God forbids, tsunami. Basements there won't do any good when you face any of the above diaster. What good is a basement if it can't provide you a shelter when need it?

For people who can afford multi-million dollar homes, square footage really isn't an issue.

I was thinking along the lines of a finished basement, where its used as living space. I've seen some really nice ones done up as game rooms/dens.

Also, like stated above, a basement wouldn't just be a place to hide during a natural disaster, but a true extension of the house, adding square footage and additional living space, and hopefully added value.

Thanks for the reply....this is all starting to make more sense.

Another Arizonian here . . . my understanding of why few homes in Arizona have basements is due to the expansive soils here. Could be another factor in why more homes in CA don't have basements?

I'd read that somewhere around here is a home build entirely underground and it does not need any A/C at all. Wouldn't that be nice? Seems that if more homes in the West had basements it may lower the cooling costs.

I've lived in the L.A. area all my life and there are some exceptions that have basements. If you look at a map of Southern California from a geological perspective, and go back about 100 years, you'll see that the entire L.A. basin is one giant floodplain. Which means that all the runoff from the mountains washes to the sea in one really wide wave.

I don't know for certain, but my guess is that when experiencing floods, a basement is probably the last place you would want to be. Now, civil engineering has done a lot with the region and the storm drain system (notably the L.A. River and the San Gabriel River) is an engineering marvel in itself. It's probably the one joint venture that all Southern California cities agree on. This is the only reason why we do not experience the type of floods that devastated the South last year.

So the chance of flooding has now been taken out of the equation. Does this mean that architects will start designing houses with basements again? Not likely. Southern Californians have grown accustomed to not having a basement and the trend will continue. Instead, you'll continue to see more cathedral ceilings, skylights, pools and spas.

I can't think of a reason that I would want to have one.

I live in Minnesota and I'd be willing to bet good money that 95% or more of houses have basements around here. The reason I've heard for this is that when putting in the foundation it's nesessary to extend it down into past a frost line, which is the depth of the soil that will freeze and shift during the winters. The frost line around here is apparently so deep (5 feet is sticking in my mind but I have no idea if thats accurate) that the relativly little extra cost to just remove the extra soil and have the basement is the smart route to go. Again, this is just what I've heard and I have no resources to back me up but it's 2am and I thought I'd throw in my two cents.

I noticed the same thing in Florida. I asked a realtor about it; he said that there would be so many problems with flooding during rainy season that basements wouldn't be practical.

Almost every house I've seen in the Midwest and the rest of the east coast has one, though.