Change of plans: basements

[Rogue]

I used to srt a lot of this stuff out in a past life. To save you a ton of hassle i tank the whole lot out. You have signs of moisture on those walls and they will bite you later. In terms of ventilation, i will assume you have modern central heating in the house. You can minimise that a bit and get away with a couple of air bricks either end of the house. The breathable membrane is this stuff
...

Once I managed to stop staring at your avatar, the rest of the post was very helpful

"Modern" is relative; when the British Gas guys do their annual check up on the boiler they ask if they can send the younger engineers around to see a "rare old classic that they can't believe is still running."

The basement does not extend under the entire house so airbricks would only be viable for the front wall, making unassisted airflow through the basement problematical I guess. Interestingly, the "major" efflorescense was confined to a small area at the back of the basement, which lines up with where the front room (wooden floor) ends and the back room (concrete floor) begins.

A chat with someone earlier reminded me of the following information that may or may not be useful.

First, the three houses at this end of the terrace have some kind of ventilation link through their basements that seems to be by design, possibly to compensate for the lack of front-to-back in the individual basements? The house two doors down had a fire recently and when it was put out the firefighters positively pressurised their basement to force the remaining smoke out, causing it to escape out of the basement vents in front of all three houses.

Second, the neighbour had an issue with a burst waterpipe that flooded all three basements (up to about a foot) roughly two years ago. It was resolved and the water pumped out, but nothing else was done at the time.

It looks like there was some ceiling in the basement at some stage - in fact the rafters/joists/whatever they are called are full of nails that need come out before I impale myself. Putting in the ceiling/floor insulation and putting up plasterboard should be within my ability. Skimming it might be an education, though! My concern was a comment I heard elsewhere that you needed to let air get to the floor. I have no idea why and bow to greater wisdom (ie you lot).

Another point I've realised is that our gas and electric come in through the basement so any work will have to be done around these. Not sure if that's something to pass on to a contractor for my own safety and my wife's stress levels!

My inspiration comes from looking down into the basement and thinking "I wonder if I could fit an X3 down those steps?"

[Swarfing]

I think the fact you are going to make it a usable space will make a huge difference. As for the sealing of the floor that is not an issue, thats why they have DPM :-). If you are worried about ventilation, stick some rads in, put some vents in the floor to equalise the moisture and the good OLD modern heating will sort the rest out. Forget plastering just caulk and tape the joints, a bit of sanding and your done. Insulating between the beams go for 50mm so you have useful joist still that you can hang things up in. I reckon you could get an X4 size machine down there no probs.

[Rogue]

I think the fact you are going to make it a usable space will make a huge difference. As for the sealing of the floor that is not an issue, thats why they have DPM :-). If you are worried about ventilation, stick some rads in, put some vents in the floor to equalise the moisture and the good OLD modern heating will sort the rest out. Forget plastering just caulk and tape the joints, a bit of sanding and your done. Insulating between the beams go for 50mm so you have useful joist still that you can hang things up in. I reckon you could get an X4 size machine down there no probs.

I noticed that with the attic, the atmosphere changed massively once we got it back into use.

My wife is still complaining that the whole house now smells like basement after I had the door open for a few hours today, hopefully with cleaning it out, regular use and fresh air that should change. I said earlier there was no noticeable smell suggesting damp - it turns out that all those years of chainsmoking clearly did kill my sense of smell because the wife clearly disagrees with my assessment!

Now, what do you mean by "rads" and vents in the floor? Are you suggesting venting through the floorboards into the front room?


This is a rough side view for visualisation, it might help my ramblings make a bit more sense!



Edited to add: X4? If I was flush enough to throw money at one of those I'd have enough to just pay a builder to come and do it for me

[Swarfing]

I see what you mean about venting into the lounge, swarf smell does not go down to great.

rad = radiator

Just work with what you got, street side will be fine. You could look for a one way vent to keep the wind blowing in and put a vent in the access door. The place would never be so warm :-)

[Rogue]

I see what you mean about venting into the lounge, swarf smell does not go down to great.

rad = radiator

Just work with what you got, street side will be fine. You could look for a one way vent to keep the wind blowing in and put a vent in the access door. The place would never be so warm :-)

Now there's a blindingly obvious idea that didn't occur to me - vent on the basement door! Then it's just a matter of ensuring that air is mostly going through in the direction we want. It would also make tackling the (alleged) smell very important.

Taking control of that flipping great hole is in line with some other really helpful suggestions I was given, along with possibly using a bathroom vent-type fan.

So, it seems as if step one will be scrubbing the place out and putting together some kind of vent arrangement for that hole in the wall to keep the outside air "outside". It has been suggested that repointing might be a good idea, I assume that holds true whatever steps two onwards might be. That means step one needs to include getting rid of the random paint application!

If that makes the place a bit more palatable then I can convince the wife to let me move to step two!

[Swarfing]

meant to say "stop the wind from blowing in". I have to be honest, i don't know what is but i've always wanted a basement.

[Rogue]

meant to say "stop the wind from blowing in". I have to be honest, i don't know what is but i've always wanted a basement.

You are more than welcome to take mine if you can replace it with a decent brick workshop!