Why are There No Basements in the Southern US?
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- Опубліковано 7 кві 2019
- For anyone who has grown up or lived in the south, you probably recognize that there are no basements there. This can be a confusing quirk to southern homes for those who have spent most of their lives up north. The reason why southern homes don't have basements has a lot to do with engineering and how feasible they are to construct down south.
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I always wondered why we don't have basements here despite having tornadoes, thanks for telling me why.
Me too! I never knew until I went through engineering school - I figured this video might be needed :)
Only place ive seen a basement in real life is in Tennessee.......
@@alexanderhobbs5963 I'm in west TN and havent seen one
@@youjustgotcarled ya my buddies live in eastern TN near kingsport.....
@@ConcerningReality why not make the house foundation floatable like boat house and use a anchor system for stability 🤔
Super informative. I’ve lived in FL my whole life, and always wanted a basement
Same
Sea level.
Come up north New York New Jersey we have plenty here
Thank you no click bait no bullshit straight to the answer. Everyone should learn from you
Thanks!
I’m watching this in my basement. 😁
In North Carolina.
And yet it's also hot down south -- even more reason to want the naturally cool climate of a basement
After I moved from the extreme North to the extreme South, it took me a while to realize there weren't any basements anywhere. I thought it was just the combination of living dangerously close to sea level, right next to the coast. It's great to have a fuller understanding of the reasons why and to learn that it's about more than weather induced flooding.
Omgsh we moved from Ohio to mobile AL, and I was like “wait... where are all the basements”? And it’s crazy too because they get so many tornadoes and such
It really all depends what part of the state your living in. For example most of the state of FL doesn’t have basements. Although, a lot of Central and Northern FL is much more elevated compared to most of the state. So like places like Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Melbourne are not suitable for basements. But then, if you go to places like Ocala, Eustis, Clermont, Mount Dora, Brooksville, Gainesville, Lake City, Tallahassee ( most Central/North FL) it’s a lot more common to family homes and small businesses with basements or even wine cellars.
Zachery James
Basements are common in Central and northern Alabama. They’re actually the norm in the northern part of the state.
We had a basement when I lived in Atlanta. I know live in East Texas, and I know of people that have basements. Yes, they aren't as common, but they are all over the south. They just aren't around the coastal areas.
I live in the south (GA) and everyone I know has one (and none of them are rich). This is true for Florida and the coast.
More research should have been done on this. A LOT of the south is mountainous and not near rivers, lakes or oceans.
No kidding. I live in central GA and we have them everywhere and in fact I grew up in a house with one. So I don't even know what to say about this video.
South like Florida and Texas. It clear he is not talking about GA for most of the video
Central Florida we have basements🧢
That’s cool to know because many of the homes in Georgia I’ve seen had basements but they weren’t actually underground they were just on the first level.
Our house was the only house in the neighborhood that had a basement. When my parents moved in, they were told that and to expect people running to their back door if there is a Tornado warning. It was the oldest house on the street and had been used as a community shelter once houses started to get built.
In Florida, its impossible because of shallow water table. Dig down a few feet and you will make a self refilling puddle. I have seen a house in Florida with a basement built in the 1910's and it was on top of a hill thus escaping this problem and it was dry as bone. It was interesting.
Basements are all over the South, the exception being in the coastal areas. For instance you won’t find one in coastal Georgia, but they are all over inland Georgia like in Atlanta. I live in coastal NC near the beach, so no basements. But inland in my city, there are a few basements, especially in the historic homes, that housed maid quarters 70 plus years ago.
We had a basement when I lived in Atlanta. I know live in East Texas, and I know of people that have basements. Yes, they aren't as common, but they are all over.
Thank you
"maid quarters" huh?
So that's what they're calling them now?
Ok.
I’ve lived in NC and Georgia in several different homes, all with full sized finished basements... only place I’ve never had a basement was in Florida, cause of the water levels.
Interesting! Basically no basements in the TX, NM, LA, MS, AZ areas.
Concerning Reality I did live in Dallas for a year too but in a high rise so don’t know about basements there. But basically everyone I knew in NC had a basement.
You guys must’ve never been to FL cus a lot of people in Central and North Florida do have basements homes due to the higher elevations in that part of the state. South Florida on the other definitely does NOT have any basements tho lol.
Pooh Bizzle yeah that’s talking about the crest tip of Florida.. the vast majority of this state do not have basements... also the tip edges of the state are where most of the heinous “Florida man” stories come from 😬
Pooh Bizzle also I’ve lived in central and southern Florida... there’s no basements anywhere around here unless you have a ridiculous amount of money to waste towards building one. The water table is just too high. Keep your crackheads and comments up north, we don’t want y’all here 😂
Never knew... Still, you could make the ground floor your basement, as it was common in medieval European castles (mostly towers, keeps, and fortified homes). Especially, if you build on a slope, it wouldn't be a hassle to enter the living area. It would still add storage, flood protection and storm protection.
This is the most accurate video I've seen on the subject. I restore historical properties in FL. Many buildings put up before the 1920's have basements, and then it just stopped. It all has to do with unnecessary cost. Basements in commercial buildings and homes in Tampa, Tallahassee, and Jacksonville are fairly common. I know of three elaborate tunnel systems that connect basements that date back to the Spanish-American War. Two in Tampa and one in Jax. Interesting stuff.
Friendship tunnels like in King of the Hill?!
We live on 20 acres in central North Carolina.
We have a huge basement.
We built UP the house area, then built.
Great intriguing video! Keep up the quality content!
Thank you🙂 keep up the quality commenting 😉
We have a basement, but the only problem was how they built negative grade back in the 70s. It's sloped about 8-10 ft from ground level, so it floods during heavy rain fall. Still trying to think of a way to prevent flooding.
I want a small looking house with a lot of room.. basements help with this. i don't know why. don't ask..
I love basements. They give you so much more room, and offer so many possibilities
Same
@@jimbeaux89 Yeah, but they are an absolute pain in the ass when they flood.
My father-in-law's house has a two-story basement, it's awesome.
I'm the same way. A tiny shack over a luxurious basement would be primo.
We actually put in a walkout basement when we built our house 35 years ago and we're glad we did at the time because it was less than half that price. My husband and I were both originally from the North so for us it seemed like a normal thing to want in a house. We live in coastal Virginia.
loved this video, you deserve way more subscribers 👍
Thanks! We're growing slowly... we'll get there someday :)
Amazing content as usual. I'm curious what program you use and where you get the footage from?
I use premiere pro to do everything. As I grow I want to get into after effects, but I just haven't had the time to learn since I have a full time job outside of UA-cam. For all the footage, I use Storyblocks. It's about $130 per year for unlimited downloads and they have footage of nearly everything you could imagine.
Basements can be found in much of the South East where the water table isn't an issue. Sure low lying areas like much of Florida, and along the coast have high water tables. One you get off the coastal plain with some elevation basements become more common. Especially walk out basements that are build into a hill. Is the SE we do have clay, but it's not considered expansive clay like much of Texas and many other parts of the mid west. Even in Colorado where they have deep frost lines they don't do basements because of the expansive clay. Up north as was noted in the video the frost line is often 3ft or more down. The added cost of a basement isn't terrible. Basements simply become a cost that isn't required in the South East, however they can certainly be done as long as the water table isn't an issue. Instead they do crawl spaces that are a cesspool for mold and all kinds of nasty things that grow in warm, dark humid places. Go figure...
beautifully spoken sir!!! You sound experienced!!!
A lot of houses in the south have basements just not as much as up north...
I’m in Georgia and have a basement
Where in Georgia?
When I lived in Warner Robbins, the house has a crawlspace.
I once lived in Roswell Georgia in a house with a basement.
@@timothykeith1367 same bro!! Roswell
@@Thinker669 Roswell
@@timothykeith1367 where are u now?
Same reason no subway stations
There is a subway in Atlanta
I live in Pensacola FL and I have a basement. Its great. and when there are tornado warnings; I am watching tv in my theater room.
… See also: “Why are cemeteries in Louisiana full of above-ground mausoleums?... (mausoleae? Mausolei?). Hmmm ... Anyway,
It really depends on where exactly you are… here in Texas, at least, on the one hand, much of Southwest, extreme West, the High Plains and the panhandle, it is not that unusual to have a complete underground house. … In those areas, basements are not that uncommon. I have heard many, many more instances where the consideration of a basement or a swimming pool, was dictated by the cost and hassle of having to use explosives for excavation because so many places have caliche deposits or outcroppings of hard white limestone just a couple of feet down. Just as an aside, these places also tend to have cold, ultra-purified aquifer groundwater whose quality is quite literally second to none, it’s just that you have to bore through 300 feet of this stuff to get to it… LOL.
Now East Texas? hell, you can dig a small cistern with the heel of your boot. Good video and good explanation.
Basements are increasingly problematic in the north as well; here in Alberta, Canada, many houses were built without weeping tile, and periodically basements flood when conditions get unusually wet. I believe the building code no longer permits water heaters and furnaces to be located in basements as too many were lost during periods of flooding. We will undoubtedly see fewer basements constructed in years to come.
The science of basements is fascinating and certainly not stagnant by geo. Thanks for the insight into up north!
Here in Pa, we have sump pumps for flooding basements.
Poor workmanship is problem with basements.
Thanks for the info bro! Didn't know this!
I live in St Petersburg, Florida and I have been in the basements of many homes and buildings here. They are all older homes and buildings, and some of them are waterfront homes along Boca Ciega and Tampa Bays.
Does anybody know how many houses have basements up north, like around Massachusetts and/or New Hampshire? I’m thinking about buying a house up there for work. I’m mostly looking for a 1 story house but with a basement. So, are those types of houses pretty common up north?
There are thousands of homes with basements in Alabama, especially in Birmingham and the hilly areas north of Birmingham. We had a huge walk-out basement in our last home in Birmingham as did virtually every one of the 1,000+ homes in our subdivision. We have property on a large lake in AL and almost every home on the lake has a basement.
The speaker’s points are correct for the southern, flat or plains areas of southern AL, MS, LA and TX.
Definitely! I am in Birmingham as well (Hoover/Inverness) area. I am doing research currently to see if I want to build a basement or not!
Actually I would like to know which countries regularly have basements or if it's literally just states in America that build them.
I live in NZ and I've literally NEVER seen a basement irl.
i am from Kenya and just wanted to know. How will the house float when you have all the weights of the superstructure acting as gravity loads on basement wall?
In the southwest it's because you hit bedrock pretty quick. The only basement I've seen in the SW is when a home is build on a hilly area
Definitely out that way the ground starts getting a lot more solid. Even if you could get through bedrock to build one, any shift in the ground would send massive cracks through your house
That’s how it is in North and Central FL. There’s actually a lot of family homes with basements but they are built into a hillside.
Finally! Been wondering this my whole life.
Why are the reasons stated in the video not a deterrent for building an in-ground pool in the South?
BINGO. Lol. A waterproofed home with good drainage is essentially an inverted pool. Some times these float sure, but usually they dont..
Thank you.
I wanna know the definition of "the south" because basements disappear well before you get high water tables. Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas are a far-cry from swamp or wetlands but have no basements.
We have basements in the South (AL,GA,SC, etc) . Many basements.
I know this is talking about the South. But Michigan is also rather swampy, covered in lakes and rivers, and is surrounded by the Great Lakes. So does this apply to MI as well?
I always thought it was because all those hills I dint really think that deeply
I live in Texas. It is a really big state and the soil varies. If you live along the Gulf Coast, you have things like subsidence.
It is not uncommon to see a fire hydrant a few feet above the ground.
Then you go up around Austin and hit Austin Chalk.
Do know of a house that had a basement, but they had to use a pick and jack hammer to dig it out.
You go up around the DFW area, and you can find them.
West Texas...well...it is dry and damn hot.
Would not mind having one, but I'd have to move....
With rising property taxes more houses in Texas might have basements in the future. From what I'm familiar with in the Midwest a basement might not even be featured in a real estate listing, a basement is not considered to be living space,its like a huge attic that you don't pay much extra property taxes for. A basement with 9 foot ceilings contains a lot of space, but in some of the older basements when you are very tall, you might have to bend over to avoid hitting your head.
Don't consider a basement when the site can not be properly drained. No waterproofing technology will keep a basement dry when the ground outside is soppy.
I just hit water in west texas at 100" down. Still scratching my head on that one at 1800ft elevation.
I couldn't imagine living in a place with tornados and not having a basement. They're bad enough 10 ft under ground.
The closest I can get to a basement in the south is half of it on the outside like the rest of the house and the other half under ground
Interesting
How in netherland can?
Wow thanks
There actually are some. I have one of just a few in my area. My house is built on a slope. I’m considering adding on and that will have a basement also.
I live in northern Florida aka close to Georgia and I always wish we could have basements
I’m over in Texas, me too😭
@@ConcerningReality brother let's Unite make a empire State rename the gulf of Mexico to the gulf of Florida and Texas well call our empires the republic of Texas and the Florinia empire
Basements are the best!! Each house me, my wife and kids moved to, I always make my man cave
It really all depends what part of the state your living in. For example most of the state of FL doesn’t have basements. Although, a lot of Central and Northern FL is much more elevated compared to most of the state. So like places like Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Melbourne are not suitable for basements. But then, if you go to places like Ocala, Eustis, Clermont, Mount Dora, Brooksville, Gainesville, Lake City, Tallahassee ( most Central/North FL) it’s a lot more common to family homes and small businesses with basements or even wine cellars.
Pooh Bizzle wow I never knew that. I’m from NYC but I grew up the majority of my life near the Gulf in Houston I know of only two people who had a basement here. And there house was elevated on a man made steep hill. I always loved going to the basement in my grandparents home in Queens.
I live in the north and sorta just assumed all houses had basements. Interesting.
Many houses in NJ don’t have a basement
All makes sense and good illustrations. I’m not sure those reasons apply to the southwest.
The reasons are definitely variable based on geography. I’m a civil engineer and tried to generalize the answer to make it as simple as possible to understand
It’s still a great video.
Is It basement or celler
TLDR too much water underground
Currently Watching this from my basement in Atlanta.
How about a cellar, like a small room not like a whole basement?
Can I assume these problems would be mitigated if the house was built on a hill?
and what about creating a drainage system around the house too?
I bought a piece of property with 1ft slope per 100ft. I built up the soil 4ft and dug down 6 feet to have a 9'6" basement with waterproof membrane coating on outside with footer drain tile to a sump well. The sump has never turned on and the basement never had sitting water in it, exposed for almost a year. it usually comes down to lazy or inexperienced builders, traditions, local masons, etc...
Many basements in Chicago have drainage problems, but it doesn't prevent homeowners from wanting a basement. Most of the city doesn't naturally drain very well, which in recent years has led to huge engineering projects. But most of that cost was necessitated by environmental regulations against sewage overflow into the lake.
@@arthurheine6522 Builders don't want to do proper site prep and home buyers don't want to pay for it.
Grew up in Ohio my whole life, but recently moved back up after a year of living in Alabama with my wife and kids. I was blown away as to why the heck there were no basements lol
Jim Beaux saaaaammeeee grew up in Youngstown and moved to Tuscaloosa
grew up in maryland, moved to florida, built the first basement in the county. engineer, architect, inspectors, county all said the same thing "ive never seen one. ive never worked on one"
Omg i am kinda lucky i am in New jersey. I am excavating and adding a 40 by 36 and 9 feet tall basement in my house. Kinda happy except for taxes
The Harper House in "Mama's Family" had a basement. 😊
Some places have to much rock in the soil.
One would have to literally dynamite a hole to build a basement where I live.
If you ever got the hole dug one would have 1 HELL of a basement.
But Just to cost prohibitive in my area.
As an example we have several “Rock pits” in the area.
I know 1 pit that has been dug from for over 80 years. 25 train cars a day leave that pit with rock.
To send rock all over the USA.
To make concrete mostly.
Our water is 125’ deep.
So water table is not the issue.
Where I live you hit rock very shallow and its mostly expensive clay in the few inches above it
It is not true that it is generally impractical to build basements in the southern states. And its not true that all houses in northern states have basements.
I'm a yank and it's always something that's perplexed me... still doesn't necessarily explain why most homes here in Appalachian NC don't have them tho
I had a basement in my last home. Not impossible, like he said just super super damn expensive.
This isn’t really true. There many areas of the South in which basements are common, I live in SC. Here basements are fairly uncommon in the eastern half of the state, except in older buildings and in homes built on hills, however they are very common in the upstate of SC, where the elevations are higher. They are also common in Atlanta and north Georgia, as well as most of the interior states in the South.
I was looking at these homes in the south, and thinking ugh, why don't any of them have a basement? Now I know.
But why does the hotels, and big tall buildings still have basement in the South?
3:25 is this a video from Russia? :)
Also thanks for explanation.
Ooh.....
Only seen one basement in Texas that was built on a huge hill
No basements in south or Florida? There are basements all over the south. South Carolina, Georgia, Atlanta and Mississippi. Excluding riverfront and flood plane. You don’t build basements up north in flood plane either.
In the part of Texas I live in, we have a particular technical term for a basement:
We call that an indoor swimming pool.
In Georgia, We do
I live in South Carolina and my grandparents house has a basement
im watching in the basement
Another issue is that the South is the cesspool for the entire North, including Canada.
Hhmm makes sense
Wrong. Depends on area but there are basements. Bungalow homes do but ranch homes don’t as often.
And “the south” more likely coastal but not north/central Alabama and above.
This is not wrong 🙂 as mentioned in the video, there are exceptions.
It really all depends what part of the state your living in. For example most of the state of FL doesn’t have basements. Although, a lot of Central and Northern FL is much more elevated compared to most of the state. So like places like Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Melbourne are not suitable for basements. But then, if you go to places like Ocala, Eustis, Clermont, Mount Dora, Brooksville, Gainesville, Lake City, Tallahassee ( most Central/North FL) it’s a lot more common to family homes and small businesses with basements or even wine cellars.
I just don't believe that in the south the underground water is about 2 or 3 meters under ground. In Europe we have to go down for water a 100 meters or deeper with pumpe for getting underground water and use it for heating at winter time
Most of the southern US was built over swamp, if that helps.
There are houses in the south of basements, probably a lot more than you think
So how come we can have swimming pools?
❤
I have a basement, in the south. As do all my neighbors.
We have 3 attics though
I live in south central Texas.........The reason they don't build basements here is because of rock. Its real expensive to dig a hole in the ground here.........
I found this video searching for anything in US history that shifted people from attic life to basement life lol
"You have never been out of Florida... This nigga a homebody! 😆😆😆
lol, expansive clays and high water tables are almost as common in the north as the south -- the only difference is frost line and people not wanting to spend the extra money to build deeper
also, a 10 ft deep water table would not flood a basement, which are usually only 6 or 8 feet under ground
Civil engineer here 🙋♂️ this video is accurate.
@@ConcerningReality You can have any education you want, doesn't make you correct. Water table can be just as shallow in the North as the South. And there are hills and mountains in the south just like the north.
I'm in colorado, and in this town we have a water table depth of only 8-12 feet in several developments, and all of the houses have basements because we're close to that deep to avoid frost as is.
Civil engineers are the ones responsible for this type of stuff. There’s a number of reasons why there are few to little basements in the south, all presented clearly in this video.
There are basements in N. Louisiana.
If you got a basement in houston boy i tell you u finna have a underground swimming pool
l0w frost line and big rocks
i wanna add a basement. now i know why i cant
I live in tha south and I have a basement and it stay flooded all tha time it was flooded when I moved here im talking knee deep.
I'm thinking AWESOME Underground Swimming Pool.
I've lived in the north most of my life and I hate the cold but love basements. I came to the south to get the best of both worlds only to discover that world doesn't exist 😭😭😭
Below sea level, swamp thang…🤣
Me in the west: what’s a basement
Clay soil = no go
Nah. Nope to that question. /
But if you have lots of money you could fo it right
But it’s more of why do northerners have basements. Not southerners dont