Talk:Basement

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This article seem to be very culturally specific (perhaps from a certain part of the U.S.?). Much of what it presents as generally the case, I hadn't heard of or come across. It needs to be internationalised. --Phronima 20:54, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

It's based on Canada actually (US northeast also) where basements are mandatory because of the frostine. If you can clarify the article, by all means. I'll try as well. Samw 00:13, 9 September 2005 (UTC)

Crawlspace

I have never heard of a crawl space being called a basement. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.142.132.230 (talk) 19:17, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

I know it's nit-picky, but I frequently am required to work in crawlspaces and would call them far, far from convenient. They're usually difficult to enter, have very low overhead clearance (generally about a foot to a foot and a half)and frequently have "passageways" built into them to access heat producing devices such as floor furnaces which make the crawlspace resemble a labyrinth more than a basement. I have also never seen anyone store anything in a crawlspace, in the hundreds of them I've been in. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tsuujin (talk • contribs) 16:27, 14 November 2011 (UTC)

It would appear that Wikipedia sees a crawl-space as only a type of basement, rather than (as I have understood it to be) any enclosed area used for access, but too low to stand up in. Why is this? Doing I.T. support, such as cable instalations for networks, or placing power cables out of the way, I’ve seen crawl-spaces in many places which are on upper floors, under eaves, beneath floors or above ceilings. So, some basements may be crawl-spaces, but not all crawl-spaces are basements… Jock123 (talk) 12:05, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Crawlspace (1986 Film)

There is a movie from 1986 entitled "Crawlspace", but yet crawlspace, typed in, redirects here, unless there is no article for the movie, I think the redirect page should be made into a disambiguation.

Multistory basements?

How common are multistory basements or cellars in Western countries? I know for sure only very few buildings that have (or had) multistory basements which are the former World Trade Center Twin Towers and in Germany for example the DESY complex or the Institute of Physics of the Cologne University (as far as I know, there are two buildings with a walk out basement and two stories below that. One of the buildings has a small particle accellerator in the lower basement stories, the lowest floor of the other building is unused). Furthermore, there may be multistory underground car parks at some big stores in Germany. But I don't know whether there are residental buildings with multistory basements.--SiriusB 19:42, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Multistory, underground car parks are quite common in Canada, both in office buildings and apartments. In low-rise residential buildings (e.g. a house), there's usual no reason to do that because a basement is more expensive than a house and if land is cheap enough for a house, there's no motivation for a multistory basement. Samw 21:15, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

I know that Imperial College in London has some buildings with basements 3 floors below ground level, linked by subterranean tunnels. Canary Wharf has underground parking going several stories down (not sure how many!). Additionally, multistory basements are believed to be causing significant problems for natural water movements in parts of central London. I know a few houses with recently-constructed cellars going down 3 floors, and have heard of a couple with 4-storey basements but not seen them. It's all down to the extremely high price of property in central London and the stamp duty - it can be cheaper to add square footage by digging down than to buy a larger house and then pay duty on it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.6.35.235 (talk) 01:11, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Geographic considerations

I've noticed that in some states in the US, basements are very common, and in others exteremely rare. For example, Michigan, Utah, and Illinois homes tend to have basements, while California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada homes do not. Does anybody have any information on this?

Yes, see "Design and structural considerations". Basements are effectively mandatory in colder climates to get the foundation below the frostline. Samw 03:22, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Basements are virtually unknown in Florida; I have always assumed this was because the water table is so high for ground water,which is almost everywhere, with a mean elevation around 100 feet.Is this incorrect?? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.71.242.42 (talk) 15:29, 6 November 2011 (UTC)

Request For Expansion

There is almost no information in here at all for non-residential basements, such as in office buildings or subterranean carparks. I came here looking for information on underground floors in office buildings and found almost nothing, and since I'm no expert on the subect, I put a tag up for expansion; please assist if you can. PolarisSLBM 11:45, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

British Cellar

The article says:

In Britain, people tend to store food and drink in a garage, if at all.

What? No we don't... we store food and drink in the kitchen... that's it. In the garage Brits store cars, junk, tools, spare parts, and that kind of thing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.213.102.101 (talk) 16:42, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

I agree. I have occasionally seen beer fridges in garages, but it's the exception rather than the rule. I've definitely never seen food stored in a garage though - I think the hot/cold cycling would ruin it rather quickly. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.6.35.235 (talk) 01:15, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Backflow Prevention Device

In the discussion of drainage considerations, this article incorrectly directs you to "backflow prevention devices." A backflow prevention device is to prevent backflow of potable water from your house into the municipal water supply system (which may occur due to negative pressure).

What the article means to direct you to is "backwater valves," which are used to prevent sanitary sewage from backing up into basements through floor drains and other plumbing fixtures in the basement. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.245.12.98 (talk) 18:20, 28 November 2008 (UTC)

Disambiguation

Basement is also a geologic term, referring to rocks and minerals from early crustal formation that are largely unchanged from formation to the present. I'm not an expert on geology, but I thought this was worth mentioning. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.216.225.96 (talk) 04:32, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

British English

According to the article, "In British English the word 'basement' is...rarely used for a space below a house". This is wrong. Basement is pretty much the most common word used to describe the space below a house. Perhaps this is a result of the americanisation of the way we speak, i dont really know. But to say it is rarely used is a complete myth. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.104.179.17 (talk) 13:34, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

It's convoluted because there's different usage in all this as well. In my experience a "cellar" tends to be a storage area whereas a "basement" tends to be a part of the house that is in day to day use.

Few British houses are actually built with accessible spaces underneath these days for all kinds of planning reasons and in most older town houses this space was originally the servants (day) quarters and is often now a separate flat. So few people living in houses actually have basements in any meaningful sense whereas houses that were built with cellars usually still have them as they're harder to convert. Timrollpickering (talk) 10:42, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

British houses are usually built without cellars for two reasons: 1) it's more expensive to dig down with all our heavy clay 2) cellar dwellings were outlawed in the 1840s for health reasons and have never made a return due to reason 1. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.6.35.235 (talk) 01:19, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

I have lived in both the US and UK, and have occasionally heard the term "cellar" used to describe structures which are recessed into the earth, but which are not located beneath other structures. "Wine cellar" and "root cellar" are examples usually, but not always, found underneath other buildings. Perhaps "basement" has become the preferred term, since it always refers to a space underneath a building? Newell Post (talk) 22:29, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

I'm British and as far as I'm aware, the word basement is never used.VenomousConcept (talk) 02:52, 19 May 2019 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 25 October 2015

2602:306:CD54:DA90:35DE:A59:4C9:BAB7 (talk) 04:39, 25 October 2015 (UTC) poot lovato old home

Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format. Altamel (talk) 05:47, 25 October 2015 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 11 November 2015

within the first few lines I would like to include a detail about a person who is extremely well known for living in a basement her whole life. She basically made basements interesting. I believe that this will add some interesting facts to this information, because basements are not very interesting by themselves. This womans story I would like to include is poot lovato. Here is the part I'd like to change: "A basement or cellar is one or more floors of a building that are either completely or partially below the ground floor." I'd like to change it too: "A basement or cellar is one or more floors of a building that are either completely or partially below the ground floor. A basement has been home to a brave hero, Poot Lovato" thank you this means so much to me v Jeankatherine (talk) 02:40, 11 November 2015 (UTC)

• Not done: Go take your meme elsewhere. This is an encyclopedia not a place to spread nonsense. --Stabila711 (talk) 17:23, 11 November 2015 (UTC)

Access from Finished Basements

In my town in Michigan, there is a fire safety requirement that direct egress (escape) be provided from finished basements that are to contain sleeping quarters. The normal means of accomplishing this is by installing a "basement escape window". --Rpapo (talk) 00:11, 5 June 2016 (UTC)

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"Ban-jiha" listed at Redirects for discussion

An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Ban-jiha. Please participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. _signed, Rosguill ^talk 22:18, 29 November 2019 (UTC)

basements as natural fridge

Maybe it's mentioned and I have overlooked it but historically and sometimes still today cellars/basements were used as natural fridges with sometimes up to 3 intentionally different temperature/humidity levels. For example some cellars have/had an extra hole/cavity that pools cold air. Beer and wine are mentioned but fruit, cabbage, potatoes and more can all be stored well for months at respective conditions. Ice would be another thing often stored. --2A02:8071:B698:6400:594C:F41:C371:E629 (talk) 23:53, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

Merge English basement, Semi-basement, and Basement apartment into this article

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.

The result of this discussion was not merge. (non-admin closure) TheBirdsShedTears (talk) 11:35, 29 December 2021 (UTC)

---

Those other articles are relatively short and much or all of their content is already in this article. Also, this article is highly duplicative within itself, with the same information presented over and over in multiple sections -- it could be trimmed down significantly, resulting is a cleaner and shorter article here even after the merger. Sparkie82 (t•c) 04:19, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

I mostly support this. The main basement article is rather long currently, but indeed could probably be trimmed a bit. Semi-basement should definitely be merged here; it's really short and does not even cite sources. An alternative for the other two might be a merger between them, that is, merge English basement into Basement apartment. --LordPeterII (talk) 00:10, 11 January 2021 (UTC)

Oppose main proposal, but agree that there is some redundancy in the smaller articles. I suggest merging English basement into Semi-basement as they both cover uses of semi-basements. I suggest leaving Basement apartment separate, as it is sufficiently references and seems to form an independently notable topic (as a distinct use for a basement). As has been noted basement is quite long/developed and not really in need of expansion through merges. Klbrain (talk) 10:09, 1 May 2021 (UTC)

• Oppose with respect to Basement apartment, which is a distinct thing with distinct issues. BD2412 T 14:31, 24 September 2021 (UTC)
• Oppose with respect to English basement, which is a distinct thing with distinct issues. Chelmian (talk) 15:45, 10 October 2021 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

lookout basement

Is a basement fully below ground w/ windows but no stairway leading outdoors or to the garage called a lookout basement? That type used to be on the article. My grandma has that kind of basement where we would need to go back to the main level the way we came down. Evope (talk) 03:34, 26 July 2023 (UTC)