The basement floor is the floor below the level of the dwelling. Typically, such premises are used for technical needs. The main difference between the basement and the basement is the height of the walls of the basement and should be at least 180 cm. According to the documents, the basement is considered above-ground, and the house will be considered two-story.

Advantages and disadvantages of building a house with a basement

The benefits include:

  • additional square meters: the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe basement floor can significantly exceed the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe first floor, so that the house will have much more space;
  • a garage can be placed in the basement, which will avoid the construction of additional buildings on the site;
  • in the basement there can be rooms that do not fit into the general style of the house: you can organize a workshop, a boiler room, a game room, a gym;
  • thanks to an additional underground room, it will be possible to save on the insulation of the floor of the first floor, this role will be played by the lower floor.

The disadvantages may be as follows:

  • difficulties with earthworks: a sufficiently large pit is needed for the basement floor, special equipment will be needed to remove the earth and lay the floor slabs - you can’t do it yourself. All this will lead to an increase in the cost of construction work;
  • if the construction technology is violated, during high water or heavy rains, the room may be flooded, and all things in it will be damaged.
  • the basement is a usable area and will be taxed as a dwelling, although it is not recommended to use it for housing;
  • most of the room is underground, so you don’t have to rely on natural light, you need to carefully consider the location of electric lamps;
  • to avoid dampness in the basement, you will have to spend a lot on waterproofing.


Design features

Most often, the building is designed from top to bottom: the most significant is the residential part of the building, and the project of the basement is adjusted to it. The plan of the walls of the basement must match the plan of the walls of the first floor, since the structure will be the carrier.

A few tips:

  1. It is better not to arrange a boiler room or gas furnace in the basement to avoid a house fire.
  2. If the exit from the garage to the basement will be through the vestibule, you should not store flammable materials in the garage.
  3. When building a garage in the basement, it is important to install a mechanical ventilation hood to rid the room of machine odors.

It is far from always that construction is carried out on perfectly flat land; projects for sites with slopes are somewhat different from the usual ones.

In the process of building on a slope, the following nuances should be considered:

  • it is possible that the finished standard project will have to be finalized taking into account the specifics of the area for construction. Here you will need expert advice;
  • please note that due to uneven ground, problems may arise with the use of special equipment;
  • it is extremely important to make correct calculations: take into account the composition of the soil, weather conditions, elevation difference;
  • the foundation on the slopes needs especially high-quality waterproofing: moisture flowing down the slope can have a destructive effect.


Design features

By design, the foundation of the basement floor differs little from houses, the design of which does not take into account the presence of semi-basement or basement premises. When laying, its sole is located a few centimeters below the floor mark.

The basement is an important part of the foundation. As a rule, construction is carried out using monolithic reinforced concrete slabs, which make the foundation hardy and stable. In the event that the foundation and walls are built from prefabricated concrete blocks and there are problems with the soil, they must be installed on reinforced concrete pads.

If the soil is dry, for the construction of walls it is necessary to take lightweight blocks. In addition, it is necessary to take into account the need for natural ventilation - there should be sufficient ventilation holes in the basement to help rid the lower floor of mold and dampness.

House layout

The convenience of the house largely depends on its layout and location on the site. The most familiar option is a rectangular house without protruding architectural elements.

One of the important factors is the position relative to the cardinal points. On the north side, it is better to leave a blank wall, and the windows should face the southwest and southeast sides. This will provide the room with enough light and keep warm in winter.

It is better to plan the interior arrangement “for the future”: sooner or later the family may become larger, and additional rooms will be needed.

How to choose a project

Choosing a project is the very first step towards your dream home. Before you settle on any one option, you need to consider many factors. Remember that it is impossible to significantly change the project during the construction process.

First of all, it is worth deciding on the number of necessary premises. How many bedrooms are needed? Do you need a workspace? Will you need a separate dining room, or a large enough spacious kitchen? During planning, it is worth considering the arrangement of the basement: a dressing room, storage room or workshop can be moved from the living area to the basement.

Think about the layout of the house: how many exits should there be? Where will they be? Which rooms should be adjacent, and which should be located as far apart as possible? If this causes some difficulties, you can find ready-made standard projects on the Internet and choose those that look like your dream home.

Ready projects for free

Demand for ready-made standard projects remains stably high. An individual project, of course, will be developed taking into account all your desires, but this takes time and additional funds.

Many construction companies are ready to provide a variety of ready-made projects that take into account the different features of the sites. In some cases, revision may be required, but in any case it will be cheaper than a project from scratch.


Project of a one-story house with a basement

Stages of building a house with a basement

Check out our guide to .
You need to start with an assessment of the quality of the soil: the cut of the earth is examined after preparing a trench of sufficient depth. Sandy light soil without large parts of clay is ideal.

A pit breaks out under the house, after which you can proceed to the arrangement of the base - a thick screed. The thickness of the structure depends on the total weight of the building. The standard thickness of the base is 10 cm, but again it is necessary to take into account the quality of the soil: if the soil is incompressible, “pillows” must be placed under the walls of the basement. After determining the thickness, you can start pouring the screed.

Advice: pouring the basement takes place with a continuous supply of concrete, it is necessary to use concrete with hydroshrinkage, without a porous structure.

The perimeter of the house is laid with foundation blocks (more about), and it is important to ensure that they fit snugly together. Also make sure that there are holes for pipes, windows and wiring. The blocks are bonded with cement mortar.

After communications (water, gas, electricity) are brought to the house, only the installation of doors and windows remains. The last step is the exterior and interior decoration.


A few tips:

  1. Building on a site with a flat relief will cost less than on a site with slopes. Keep this in mind when choosing a plot of land.
  2. A high basement will give the building scale, a house with a deep basement will look squat.
  3. It is better to start the construction of the basement from the corners of the foundation. Corners and walls should be even so as not to spoil the aesthetic appearance of the house.
  4. The sinking base is good for its reliability: its design will protect the foundation layer from mechanical and atmospheric influences.
  5. The protruding plinth is perfect for houses with thin (wooden or frame) structures. To protect the foundation, a protruding "belt" can be built on top of the plinth.
  6. A basement on the same level as the walls of the house is not the best option: the waterproofing layer will suffer from moisture, which is an undesirable nuance during the construction of the house.

One-story housing does not suit, and there is no desire and time to mess with papers during the construction of a two-story building. The projects of houses with a basement offered by "Domamo" are waiting for customers all over Russia. Finished works with additional space under the first floor are constantly replenished.

Pros of a house project with a basement

If you properly organize the underground space, then you can get another full-fledged floor, of course, you can’t equip a bedroom in it, but here are other rooms that could not easily fit in the house. But the advantages of the basement do not end there:

  • the basement will be heated, which means that the floor of the first floor will be warm;
  • on the received space it is possible to place residential and technical premises;
  • the total area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe building increases significantly;
  • favorable conditions are created for laying all communications and free access to them;
  • some of the outbuildings that take up space on the site can be moved to the basement.

But having decided to build such a structure, it is necessary to provide for the use of special equipment, since the basement will have to be buried much deeper into the ground, and its excess will need to be removed. The residential basement must remain dry, for which it must be waterproofed.

The basement floor is usually occupied by a boiler room, a workshop, a gym or a billiard room is equipped in it, with a lack of a bathroom, then it. An additional storage room will not hurt anyone, but the garage under the house will be convenient to use, to visit it in bad weather right from home. In the basement, excellent conditions are created for organizing a wine cellar, storing your own and purchased alcoholic products in it.

Choosing a cottage with a basement

Projects of houses with a plinth are ordered by people living on a hill who do not have the opportunity to install a garage and other outbuildings, since their backyard area is small.

But when choosing structures with a basement, there are limitations - they cannot be built in areas where there is seasonal flooding of the soil or groundwater is located close to them. Even with a strong desire, on such plots it will be necessary to invest a lot of material resources and efforts in order to fulfill the drainage system that meets safety requirements.

The cost of the selected project will depend on several criteria:

  • number of storeys;
  • relief of the built-up area;
  • project complexity and required drawings;
  • area of ​​the future home.

There are different project options in the Domamo catalog, if one of them does not quite correspond to the wishes of the customer, then it can be changed by adding or moving walls or ceilings. All adjustments will be reflected in the calculations so that the strength of the entire building is not affected. The same applies to the replacement of materials used.

Designing houses is a difficult and lengthy process, however, projects of one-story buildings with a basement are developed with even higher time and labor costs, since the housing itself turns out to be structurally complex, expensive to repair and operate. This is due to the adoption of a number of additional measures to provide basements with all kinds of communication networks and pipelines, insulation and waterproofing of all surfaces, arrangement of reinforced ceilings and ceilings, etc. Photo project of a house on one floor with a basement

Development of housing projects with basement areas

Any housing, including low-rise buildings with or without an attic and basement, must comply not only with SNiP and GOST, but also with the weather conditions in the development region. So, a light wooden house with a flat uninsulated roof is unlikely to stand for a long time in Yakutia or Transbaikalia. When drawing up a project, factors such as the properties and type of soil, groundwater characteristics and soil freezing points, average annual precipitation and temperatures are important. Therefore, the customer can make changes to any standard projects of one-story houses, making the housing individual and adapted to their requirements.

Why exactly houses with a basement and with one floor began to be in demand among all segments of the population instead of the so advertised and until recently popular two-story country cottages with a garage? After all, for those and for these projects, a reinforced deep foundation is being developed (most often a monolithic and tape type, and this is not the cheapest option), and a house with a high basement accounts for up to 20% of the cost of building the basement itself, which in a building with two no floors. The fact is that with all the existing costs, such projects will always be low-cost, and why - we will consider below.

The basement floor is not a basement, and its main difference and advantage is the presence of natural light that enters the basement through windows, which, by the way, cannot be in the basement. The windows here, although not high, can be made larger than in an ordinary room, thereby increasing the flow of daylight. With the standard requirements of SNiP for a basement height of 2.5 m, windows will be located at least 1.5 m, which is quite convenient for use. But compliance with the requirements of GOST does not mean that the basement cannot be made deeper or higher - you can raise the ceiling or lower the floor, and use the additional height of the area at your discretion.

Benefits of a basement project

Builders argue that with a properly designed layout, a house with a basement will cost less than a low-rise building. How can this be justified?

  1. In the presence of a basement floor, the total area more than doubles, and in a house with an attic - by another 50-70%.
  2. The basement is the warmer floors of the first floor, which means savings on insulation, energy, repairs and the health of residents, because the air in the house will always have optimal humidity due to heating and natural ventilation from below.
  3. An additional floor can be converted for various purposes, including for living. Often the basement is combined with a boiler room, garage or car repair shop, saving on the construction of additional premises or separate outbuildings.

The plan above shows that the prudent owner used the available space as efficiently as possible. The house has a swimming pool, a boiler room, a sauna and even a gym, and all this is in addition to the standard set of bedrooms, a kitchen, a hall, etc. Such a powerful increase in premises became possible thanks to the plinth. Projects of houses on one floor with a basement are the most diverse layouts. See the most interesting and original ideas below. Plinth:

  1. This is the best room for a warm garage, pantry, furnace or car repair shop, swimming pool, billiard room or bath.
  2. It gives a lot of space for a spacious dressing room or a huge entrance hall, and the ascent to the first floor is carried out through a vestibule with a spiral or (if space permits) a flight of stairs.
  3. Can be converted into a dining room to separate the kitchen, where food is prepared, from the area for relaxation and dining.
  4. These are separate bathrooms and bathrooms (precisely in the plural), a personal office or a home laboratory. And if you add a bay window to the plinth, then you can safely equip a small observatory. The bay window will protrude at 1.5-2 m, and this area will be enough for organizing or a winter garden, an all-season greenhouse or just a pavilion for relaxation with a bench and a small table.

Important! In the project of one-story private houses with a basement, a staircase is always provided - without it, the basement loses its meaning. A comfort staircase is a mechanism ≥ 90 cm wide with a tread spacing ≥ 30 cm and a riser height ≥ 16 cm. These parameters must be taken into account when designing.


Construction features

The plinth is erected in the same way as the strip base, only with improved insulation and waterproofing. All its protection must be done in any case, even if the house is on a hill and the groundwater is deep enough. These measures will not allow condensate to accumulate, which will eventually affect the integrity of the structure.

The most common foundation design that goes into the basement is monolithic concrete or slabs. But the regulatory requirements for building materials do not prohibit making a foundation of bricks of highly specialized brands.


Photo of a brick base for a concrete foundation

When building on solid ground for the sole of the foundation, it is possible to equip not a concrete, but a sand-gravel cushion. On loose and highly moistened soils, a concrete slab is laid under the foundation, on which the walls of houses are built.

Important! The presence of ventilation ducts and the arrangement of supply and exhaust ventilation in the basement is mandatory! Therefore, in the project, do not forget to indicate the holes for the ventilation pipes, which should enter the basement 20-25 cm above the ground.

Briefly about the construction:

  1. Digging a pit.
  2. Equipping the bottom of the pit with a sand-gravel or concrete pad with a layer of ≥ 20 cm.
  3. Filling the slab, which will act as a subfloor.
  4. Building foundation walls.
  5. Laying a layer of waterproofing on the surface of the walls, bringing the base to the zero level.
  6. Laying the next layer to protect against moisture and arranging the overlap. The remaining elements of the house box are mounted on the ceiling.
  7. Full heat and waterproofing in the basement, outside and inside.

Photo of the basement of a one-story house
  1. From surveyors: on a flat surface, construction will not be as expensive as on a slope or on a site with difficult terrain.
  2. From the architects: the height of the basement floor is an ambitious view of the whole house, because a low plinth will look rooted into the ground, unlike a building with a high one.
  3. From the builders: it is better to start from the corners - these areas determine the geometry and aesthetics of the building.
  4. A sinking plinth (recessed into the foundation wall) is more reliable than a protruding one: it protects the foundation from any undesirable influences, natural and mechanical.
  5. Protruding (beyond the surface of the foundation) - the optimal design for a lumber house. And to protect the foundation, a “belt” of decorative materials is applied over the basement.
  6. A basement in the same plane as the foundation of the house is an option from hopelessness: moisture damages waterproofing, it is more difficult and expensive to protect such a structure from frost and wind.

According to the established opinion, house designs that include a basement are considered impractical and are of little use in the future. However, today this room can bring tangible benefits, since a workshop, basement, boiler room or garage can be equipped in the basement.

The project of a three-story house with a garage in the basement

In practice, it turns out that the maintenance of such an addition to your own home does require some investment, but the garage saves time, keeps the car intact, protects from bad weather, and also allows you to use it as a warehouse for non-combustible materials. Gradually, people understand all the delights of having a basement garage in the house, because today the demand for such projects has gone up.

Modern house designs, including the presence of a "zero" floor, which is commonly called the basement, allow owners to significantly expand their available space. The garage today is not just an extension to the house or, in the case of a basement, part of it, but an opportunity to save money, since a person is freed from the need to pay rent.


A variant of the project of a house with a basement garage

He also does not have to look for a suitable parking space, in addition, if the car is located in a suburban area, it is completely protected from environmental influences. It is easier to use than it might seem, because it does not violate the overall harmony that the exterior of the house gives, the furnishings and interior do not suffer from such a neighborhood, and comfort, on the contrary, improves significantly.

The basement floor with a garage included in the design of the house makes the floors in the rooms on the first floor much warmer, since cold currents do not penetrate the house.

Directly the premises located on the ground floor become dry, they are not affected by mold or dampness, which can often be found in country houses.