Lowering A Basement Floor Diy

Lowering the floor will usually require underpinning the foundation footings.

Lowering a basement floor diy.

Things are moving along in the basement we decided to use a bench footing technique to gain more headroom. First you have to figure out how to support the existing house. Steven aug 25 14 at 16 26 people dig out basements all the time to raise ceiling height. For those of you unfamiliar with the term bench footing is similar to underpinning which are both basically just fancy pants construction words for the process of lowering the basement floor.

How to lower a basement floor 101 in simple terms your dig out the dirt to make enough headroom extend the foundation all the way below fix the drainage system put in a floor and finish up the basement. Lowering a basement floor is as difficult as it sounds. Lowering a basement floor often referred to as underpinning in the contractor world is a process of digging out the existing basement floor and simply lowering it a foot or so. Check my blog post on an in depth guide on flooring options once you are done lowering the basement.

Make sure you spread it out and make the surface even. This process as you can imagine can create more space making it more usable and even adding value to your home. Basement lowering underpinning and basement renovations. For example if you want to lower your basement floor 6 inches you ll want to dig at least 14 to 16 inches.

Breaking up the slab excavating dozens of yards of dirt by hand and underpinning the existing footings. This is not a diy task and requires proper engineering. Once you have dug as deep as you need you re then going to lay down about 5 inches of gravel. While bench footing is probably the quickest and least expensive way to deepen your basement you should realize that the area of the basement floor will be reduced and a full length bench along the wall limits your options for use of the space.

Always remember though that you should dig at least 8 to 10 inches deeper than where you want your finished floor to be. There is no need to dig under the foundation in order to provide extra. Typical cost for preparing the complete design package required by the municipality for a basement lowering project is between 2 800 for underpinning design only to around 3 800 if you want us to design the new interior basement space show floor drains new laundry room layout specify insulation show location of new stud wall.