What is an English basement?
An English basement is a basement with exterior doors and windows that are mostly above ground. You can enter an English basement separately from the rest of the house, and they’re often used as separate living spaces. The biggest advantage to English basements is that they provide a lot of space.
What is the difference between a walkout basement and English basement?
The average walkout basement is at ground level, whereas English basements are at least partially below ground. Walkout basements feature separate entry and exit doors like English basements, but they also feature back exterior doors. Some listings refer to walkout basements as daylight basements due to the typical sliding glass walkout door.
How much does it cost to build an English basement?
It is expensive to build a home with a basement of any kind, and the same is true for English basements. You can expect to spend an average of $55 per square foot to build a home with an English basement. It is easy to confuse an English basement with a walkout basement, and listings advertise both features.
What are the different types of basements?
The 4 Types of Basements and How to Identify Them. 1 A crawlspace. Crawlspaces are generally a part of a basement, but not an entire one. “You go down to the basement to get there, and at maybe chest or ... 2 A cellar. 3 A daylight or lookout basement. 4 A walkout basement.
What is an English style basement?
Today an English basement is really just a fancy name for a basement or garden apartment. English basements usually have a few windows that are at street level, and assuming the landlord is a good one, these units rarely have leaks or rats, provided that the landlord takes good care of the property.
What are basements called in England?
Amongst the estate agents and property professionals in the UK, the term 'cellar' is often used to describe residential projects while the term 'basement' is used to describe new build and commercial projects alike. A cellar is often a smaller space than a basement.
Where does the term English basement come from?
The lower floor came to be known as an English basement, and a 1913 Washington Star article cited a vogue for it among “people of means who come to Washington for the winter season” with an eye to frequent entertainment.
Why do English have basements?
English basements can provide an extra living space for family or friends. It can provide rental income for homeowners. The separate entrance provides some privacy as the occupant doesn't have to go through the main living area of the home. Basement units can be more affordable.
Do English houses have basements?
Except for Britain, Australia and New Zealand, cellars are popular in most western countries. In the United Kingdom, almost all new homes built since the 1960s have no cellar or basement due to the extra cost of digging down further into the sub-soil and a requirement for much deeper foundations and waterproof tanking.
Why do Brits say floor instead of ground?
“Floor” was an archaic word for “ground” centuries ago. And according to the Oxford English Dictionary, “floor” has been used in the game of cricket to refer to the ground (but this must be an uncommon usage, since it doesn't currently appear in any standard British dictionaries).
What is an English basement in Chicago?
Those who like basements with lots of windows might consider an English basement, which is partially raised above ground level. Typically, this means that a row of windows can be added above the ground, allowing more light to filter into the room.
Do houses in Washington DC have basements?
This type of apartment is partially below ground level and will have its own entrance, which is separate from the rest of the building. English basements are often found in many major older cities such as New York, or Washington DC.
What is a fancy name for basement?
In this page you can discover 33 synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and related words for basement, like: cellar, storage room, vault, boiler room, , storeroom, wine-cellar, ground floor, attic, root-cellar and subterranean apartment.
Why are British houses so badly built?
Experts say the rush to build homes amid Britain's chronic housing shortage, and the dominance of a few big building firms that use a multitude of subcontractors, are also to blame for poor building standards.
Why are British houses so small?
There are two reasons why most British houses are so small: first, they were built before building regulations required larger homes; second, they're still being used for income rather than occupancy purposes, so owners don't need that much space.
Can you build a basement in the UK?
Is it legal to build a house with a basement in the UK? Whether you're digging a basement under your existing home or have one planned in your new property design, building a basement is usually legal.
Why there are no basements in UK?
Basements in the UK and Ireland are quite expensive because of the relative difficulty of keeping the wet out, plus I think most of the pipework (water mains, sewage system) is not that far underground which can lead to problems if you want to use the basement for a purpose that needs plumbing.
What is a Yankee basement?
They call it a “Yankee basement” or, well, sometimes a “root cellar,” where basically you take the interior perimeter of the foundation wall, move in about 2½, 3 feet and then dig down there. So you leave this sort of berm of soil to support the foundation that's under the footing.
Do Victorian houses have cellars?
By the end of the Victorian era, many houses had gas. A basement with a cellar for the storage of coal, required for open fires and to heat water. Sash windows but with larger panes of glass, from the 1850s, than the characteristic 6 plus 6 smaller panes seen in Georgian and Regency architecture.
Why are British houses so badly built?
Experts say the rush to build homes amid Britain's chronic housing shortage, and the dominance of a few big building firms that use a multitude of subcontractors, are also to blame for poor building standards.
What Is an English Basement?
Loosely translated, an English basement means subterranean terrarium. In real terms, an English basement is an apartment that is located on the lowest floor of a building. Typically found in brownstones or townhouses, an English basement is partially below ground and partially above ground level.
Where Are English Basements Most Common?
Because of the aforementioned lack of land, English basements are most commonly found in big cities, especially on the East Coast of the United States. Boston, New York, and Philadelphia are all locations where English basements are common, but they are perhaps most often found in Washington, D.C.
What Are the Pros and Cons of English Basements?
Like with anything, there are both advantages and disadvantages to putting an English basement in your housing unit. Like with any type of living arrangement, the quality of the unit has big factor in whether it is a good place to live or a bad living unit. But there are some general pros and cons that can apply to most English basements.
What is an English basement?
An English basement is an apartment on the lowest floor of a building, generally a townhouse or brownstone, which is partially below and partially above ground level and which has its own entrance separate from those of the rest of the building.
Where are English basements most common?
English basements are most common in larger, older cities like London, New York City, Boston, and Washington, D.C. .
What is a half-basement called?
In Québec, in both English and French, this space is known as a "demi sous-sol, " literally a "half-basement.". In the United Kingdom, this style of apartment is usually known as a "garden flat". The origin of the term "English basement" dates back to at least the mid-19th century.
What is a garden level?
Building codes in most cities use neither of the phrases, stating that any floor partly below grade-level is simply a "basement" and a floor more than 50% below grade-level is a "cellar".
What is a full basement called in Indiana?
But in Indiana, where my family had our summer house, locals often called the full basement in their homes a cellar, regardless of where it hit ground level. Local housing laws will give you the proper definition of each term, but colloquially, they’re often used interchangeably. The biggest thing to know here is that cellars are typically fully ...
What is a walk out basement?
“A walk-out basement adds square footage to a home, providing additional space for bedrooms, bathrooms, living areas, or even a mother-in-law suite ,” Melcher says. Jennifer Billock.
What is a root cellar?
Just remember: a standard cellar is different from a wine cellar or a root cellar. Those are something you add to an existing space, or more often, are a separate space of their own. “Often built underground, into a side of a hill or the ground, a root cellar uses natural cooling and insulation to act like a refrigerator,” Melcher says.
Is a basement considered a cellar?
A cellar. Depending on what part of the world you’re from, a cellar and a basement could mean the same thing. In New York City, for example, if a basement is more than halfway underground, it’s considered a cellar (and disallows garden apartments ).
Is a daylight basement underground?
A daylight basement is similar to a cellar with one distinction —it’s not completely underground. Only about half the space is below ground level. These are also called lookout basements, Benach says. They generally have windows that come down to about your chest, and the space is the same height as a standard floor in the home. These basements are also regularly finished to provide extra living space.
