Digging deeper for extra value and room
BASEMENTS, so common in the East and Midwest, are gaining cachet again in Southern California where they were pretty much abandoned when forced-air heating replaced messy furnaces, and slab foundations became the speedier construction alternative in post-World War II housing.
“There is tremendous demand for basements now, particularly in the new home communities because most homes still don’t have enough room for storage and little room for kids to play indoors,” says John Burns, whose Irvine consulting firm analyzes construction industry information. “Also, basements are a tremendous competitive advantage for builders because few offer them.”
Architect James H. Eserts in Santa Monica is installing three basements for clients, one in Redondo Beach and two in Malibu.
Even if digging for caissons and other anchoring devices is needed, he thinks basements make economic sense.
“When I started 20 years ago, clients would have laughed if I suggested a basement because they would have thought of it as a place to store the Christmas ornaments and the water heater,” says Eserts.
“But that was before property values and the need for space and our love of media equipment skyrocketed.”
Cities that have height and setback restrictions, especially those along the coast, are seeing a rise in basements because they are a way of getting maximum space on an expensive lot.
Real estate broker Barbara Patman of Marina del Rey says she has seen basements burrowed out of flat ground and hillsides. They are so large, so plush and so sunlit from skylights, windows and walls of glass offering million-dollar ocean or canyon views, she wonders, “Should we even call them basements?”
Some California tract builders began experimenting with basements in the mid-1990s and consider them an attractive add-on that sets their offerings apart from others. K. Hovnanian Homes offers 800-square-feet basements in its new Skye Isle development in Orange County’s Ladera Ranch.
Some of the cost of building a basement -- excavating, footing and shoring -- is already part of some construction budgets. Seismic give-and-take is also part of the entire design; smart engineering and efficient sump pumps handle water-table issues, says Eserts.
Architect Jonathan Segal, who built a basement in his La Jolla home, has noticed other developers putting underground spaces in new residential projects. Some he calls “disastrous. They look and feel and smell like basements. You just can’t magically dig a hole and put in a light well and make it work. A basement has to be crafted and done well.”
Cultural critic and author Winifred Gallagher says basements have their ups and downs. “From a behavioral perspective, what makes the basement different is its freedom from noise,” says Gallagher, who devoted a chapter to basements in her new book, “House Thinking: A Room-by-Room Look at How We Live.”
“Noise is arguably the worst environmental polluter. It takes an enormous toll on those of us living in urban areas. In a basement, you are in a much quieter place, which helps you feel either creepily cut off from the world or pleasantly sheltered from the world.”
