extending a walkout basement

4 years ago

Hello, we bought a house that was a fixer upper and have lots of projects going on but thank God is almost complete! We live in Missouri and have lots of severe weather. We have a walkout basement on the west side of our house, it is a sloped lot but looks lopsided. We would like to make the basement bigger by extending it. The stairs go right through the middle of the basement and there are six metal poles right in the middle - it makes it very hard to finish and make it look right. The other is making the basement a safer place for my family to go in severe weather, currently the side is all very large windows and a door. My husband is a fireman so I am completely aware that there has to be windows ect to meet code so besides that part has anyone else done a project like this? I have included a

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Comments (3)

PRO
GN Builders L.L.C
4 years ago
What you trying to do is pretty much straightforward as the construction goes... Get in touch with a local architect and come up with a design of what you need.

Good luck
Kate
4 years ago
It might throw off the beautiful symmetry of your house and porch.
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3onthetree
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
There are 2 things you are looking for: more livable area and a storm shelter. Expanding the basement does not necessarily accomplish both of those at the same time and may result in something quite strange depending on your specifics for each of those.

- a storm shelter can be built within the basement, or a small addition under the porch in that little recess next to the fireplace bumpout. It can even be in the ground outside next to the basement. You could follow FEMA's guidelines for building this, but I imagine a firefighter will want a concrete structure including ceiling.

- more livable area, depending on how much, would result in needing a roof over it if you do not add on to the upper floors. It would surely also have the same windows and door. So no help in storm shelter there, as those walk-out walls and roof could blow off too. Whether you extend the upper floor porch over it, and a roof over that, is where the challenge will be.