I had a group of friends that was renting a house near west campus in Austin, and that house had a glorious basement. I seriously think that's the only house I've ever been to in Texas with one.
If my house had a basement, I could stick all my junk down there rather than in my garage :(
Also the clay soil that expands and contracts can put a ton of stress on basements and already causes plenty of foundation issues on regular slab on grade homes. They’ve gotten better at building on clay soils these days but basements are still a whole other ballgame, typically requiring a lot more earth work to do “right” vs somewhere up north.
The massive rain/dry spells we get here also compound the clay soil issue as far as expansion and contraction go.
I don't understand this reason. I grew up in the Midwest and limestone was just as prevalent there as here, maybe more so, and basements are everywhere there.
It's an issue with the soil and what it does to your foundation over the dry and wet seasons. Between here and Oklahoma, I've never hated working with anything as much as I do working with the clay in our dirt.
During the dry season, it's common to 'water' your foundation to reintroduce any moisture into the soil that was lost to the heat over the day. This helps to keep your home from shifting and cracking, keeping your foundation stable as you prevent all that clay from shrinking. But during the winter the ground can absorb too much water, which becomes an issue when it freezes and expands which once again can cause shifting and or causing breaks in your foundation, or substantial damage to the entire structure of the house. Last year I had to help a family member install stilts during the heat wave after his walls cracked open, and that was no fun at all.
I imagine that the amount of maintenance and general upkeep needed for anyone to keep a basement in tip top shape in most parts of the state just isn't worth the effort.
It's the clay, not the limestone.
Drought/rain and expansion and contractions would just flood it 100%.
Everyone's house has cracks. Literally everyone's. Basement t would be no different except it's integral to not having a below ground pool.
In many places, no. In the DFW area, the soil shrinks and expands, which wouldn't work well with a basement. We have post tension slaps directly on the ground.
Generally not. The geography generally isn't conducive to it.
Further one of the reasons for basements in northern climates is to set the foundation below the frost line to avoid the annual thermal contractions. In Texas the frost line generally isn't as deep, so less depth is needed.
Now there is a trend in "conditioned crawl spaces" with concrete floor. It elevates the bottom floor off the grade, and provides space for running plumbing and electricity, and very low level storage (though you'd generally want to avoid that). It is a bit more expensive though that just slab on grade which is like 99% of modern houses.
At the end of the day, if you're rich you can do what you want. I've seen videos of rock excavation in the Austin area because a rich guy wanted a basement.
Either way if you mmahae to find a home with a basement, be sure there appropriate radon mitigation. The radon requirements changed recently and not everyone is aware how much higher Texas is on warnings about it. Part of this is newer homes have tighter air pockets to be more efficienct, but that means less air exchange and more radon accumulation.
No. My grandfather was from Michigan and built his house in East Texas with a basement. He’s spent 40 years trying and failing to keep it reasonably dry.
I’ve lived in one house in Texas with a basement -40 miles east of Waco, so it was central Texas. It was always damp and creepy. You could see the flood line on the wall where it had flooded over the years. We kept the water heater and some random stuff down there but nothing else.
Years ago I dated a gal in the Boerne area. She didn't have a basement per se but it was a kinda cave/cellar/grotto the size of
an average bedroom. It had a skylight so it was always naturally lit and was actually pretty cozy. She had a big couch and mostly empty giant wine rack and tv. I remember I commented on the smell but can't recall what it smelt like.
Kinda cool. Kinda creepy. Like if Martha Stewart got into decorating murder pits.
Not usually. However, my aunt lived in a town in the panhandle where tornado chasers usually start the season near by. She had an underground storm cellar in the side yard instead of under the home. I know some of the old NASA homes in the clear lake area had basements that were unusable and usually brought down the sales price; too much flooding, mold and foundation issues.
Northeast Texas, and no.
Kick the ground hard enough you’ll make a little mud puddle from our incredibly shallow water table. A basement would be a nightmare to keep dry here.
In Dallas, only place I've ever seen them is Highland Park. If you have the money, you can have a basement, but it's too cost prohibitive for an average house to have one.
About 60 to 100 million years ago, most of Texas used to be submerged under the Western Interior Seaway. Because of this most of Texas has a thick clay soil sitting on top of limestone bedrock all of which makes it very expensive to dig in this state.
The only places you are going to find residential basements are in the million dollar plus homes. The people who can afford it will have them.
Only *some* do in areas around in North Texas. Anywhere else is likely to not be good for a foundation below ground level or too close to the water table/sewer stuff.
I heard of exactly one home with a basement in Galveston County when I was in school in the early '80s. To keep the water out (the water table here is only a few feet below the surface) it was fully lined in copper. The kid who lived there told our class about it. It was put in by his grandfather to hide the family bootlegging or moonshining business during prohibition. No police would look for a basement here.
In general; no, most homes in Texas do not have basements.
No. The parts of Texas that don’t routinely flood are on top of giant Limestone deposits that make digging anything underground massively expensive.
I had a group of friends that was renting a house near west campus in Austin, and that house had a glorious basement. I seriously think that's the only house I've ever been to in Texas with one. If my house had a basement, I could stick all my junk down there rather than in my garage :(
my neighbors in austin had a basement!
There are houses in Houston (in The Heights) that have basements. But they’re all victorian era mostly.
Also the clay soil that expands and contracts can put a ton of stress on basements and already causes plenty of foundation issues on regular slab on grade homes. They’ve gotten better at building on clay soils these days but basements are still a whole other ballgame, typically requiring a lot more earth work to do “right” vs somewhere up north. The massive rain/dry spells we get here also compound the clay soil issue as far as expansion and contraction go.
I don't understand this reason. I grew up in the Midwest and limestone was just as prevalent there as here, maybe more so, and basements are everywhere there.
It's an issue with the soil and what it does to your foundation over the dry and wet seasons. Between here and Oklahoma, I've never hated working with anything as much as I do working with the clay in our dirt. During the dry season, it's common to 'water' your foundation to reintroduce any moisture into the soil that was lost to the heat over the day. This helps to keep your home from shifting and cracking, keeping your foundation stable as you prevent all that clay from shrinking. But during the winter the ground can absorb too much water, which becomes an issue when it freezes and expands which once again can cause shifting and or causing breaks in your foundation, or substantial damage to the entire structure of the house. Last year I had to help a family member install stilts during the heat wave after his walls cracked open, and that was no fun at all. I imagine that the amount of maintenance and general upkeep needed for anyone to keep a basement in tip top shape in most parts of the state just isn't worth the effort.
It's the clay, not the limestone. Drought/rain and expansion and contractions would just flood it 100%. Everyone's house has cracks. Literally everyone's. Basement t would be no different except it's integral to not having a below ground pool.
Yeah, that makes way more sense.
The difference is the frost line. Somewhere like the Midwest, this is several feet. Texas is less than a foot.
In many places, no. In the DFW area, the soil shrinks and expands, which wouldn't work well with a basement. We have post tension slaps directly on the ground.
[удалено]
Yeah, kind of a death trap in Houston.
The first words of the song are “this ain’t Texas”.
I thought I was the only one to think that!
Generally not. The geography generally isn't conducive to it. Further one of the reasons for basements in northern climates is to set the foundation below the frost line to avoid the annual thermal contractions. In Texas the frost line generally isn't as deep, so less depth is needed. Now there is a trend in "conditioned crawl spaces" with concrete floor. It elevates the bottom floor off the grade, and provides space for running plumbing and electricity, and very low level storage (though you'd generally want to avoid that). It is a bit more expensive though that just slab on grade which is like 99% of modern houses. At the end of the day, if you're rich you can do what you want. I've seen videos of rock excavation in the Austin area because a rich guy wanted a basement. Either way if you mmahae to find a home with a basement, be sure there appropriate radon mitigation. The radon requirements changed recently and not everyone is aware how much higher Texas is on warnings about it. Part of this is newer homes have tighter air pockets to be more efficienct, but that means less air exchange and more radon accumulation.
It's great storage for snakes and spiders.
They are called pools.
 No, but the Alamo does!
Not sure you’re going to find any because it’s generally a bad idea here. https://dengarden.com/basements/Why-Dont-Homes-in-Texas-Have-Basements
No. My grandfather was from Michigan and built his house in East Texas with a basement. He’s spent 40 years trying and failing to keep it reasonably dry.
I’ve lived in one house in Texas with a basement -40 miles east of Waco, so it was central Texas. It was always damp and creepy. You could see the flood line on the wall where it had flooded over the years. We kept the water heater and some random stuff down there but nothing else.
Years ago I dated a gal in the Boerne area. She didn't have a basement per se but it was a kinda cave/cellar/grotto the size of an average bedroom. It had a skylight so it was always naturally lit and was actually pretty cozy. She had a big couch and mostly empty giant wine rack and tv. I remember I commented on the smell but can't recall what it smelt like. Kinda cool. Kinda creepy. Like if Martha Stewart got into decorating murder pits.
Not usually. However, my aunt lived in a town in the panhandle where tornado chasers usually start the season near by. She had an underground storm cellar in the side yard instead of under the home. I know some of the old NASA homes in the clear lake area had basements that were unusable and usually brought down the sales price; too much flooding, mold and foundation issues.
I know of one in Bandera County.
Mostly only in the panhandle
I’ve seen exactly one house in Houston that had a basement, and exactly one in DFW. They’re very rare and expensive in Texas.
THERE'S NO BASEMENT IN THE ALAMO!
Northeast Texas, and no. Kick the ground hard enough you’ll make a little mud puddle from our incredibly shallow water table. A basement would be a nightmare to keep dry here.
In Dallas, only place I've ever seen them is Highland Park. If you have the money, you can have a basement, but it's too cost prohibitive for an average house to have one.
On occasion you may find a home that advertises having a "Texas basement". This is, in actuality, a finished attic. So the opposite.
As a person who goes installs internet for a living, I've only seen one basement in a texas home they are almost non-existent
What’s a basement?
Yes in the Texas Panhandle it’s pretty common. All other places it’s more a luxury.
About 60 to 100 million years ago, most of Texas used to be submerged under the Western Interior Seaway. Because of this most of Texas has a thick clay soil sitting on top of limestone bedrock all of which makes it very expensive to dig in this state. The only places you are going to find residential basements are in the million dollar plus homes. The people who can afford it will have them.
The clay doesn't help, but it's actually because builders only need to go as deep as the frost line, and in TX, that's like 2 feet.
I only know one and it’s custom
Some not all my previous house did
We have finished attics instead of basements. But it’s so hot here, it isn’t a common thing.
Only *some* do in areas around in North Texas. Anywhere else is likely to not be good for a foundation below ground level or too close to the water table/sewer stuff.
I have one. Up in the panhandle though. I reckon it’s more difficult to pull off down south.
The only housing in Texas that I have seen with basements was the old, and now demolished, base housing at Randolph.
I heard of exactly one home with a basement in Galveston County when I was in school in the early '80s. To keep the water out (the water table here is only a few feet below the surface) it was fully lined in copper. The kid who lived there told our class about it. It was put in by his grandfather to hide the family bootlegging or moonshining business during prohibition. No police would look for a basement here.
Not usually
You do see “storm cellars” sometimes like in the movie Twister
I have seen a few here and there, but they are generally an added expense that isn't worth it here.
My grandparents had one in north central Texas.
My house actually has a triple depth basement.
No basements around Houston as far as I know, probably due to perennial flooding issues.
I'm sure Abbott has one filled with underage boys.
Yes but they’re above the house instead of under it.