Another question about basements

[Alpo]

 

As you can see from the bottom panel the watercraft has grounded on the beach. This is Lake Superior by the way.

 

 

And, again in the bottom panel, you can see that the church is extremely close to the lake shore.

 

 

In the first panel, for a change, we see that the church has a basement.

 

Now my question.

 

Could you actually put a basement in a building that close to a large body of water? We don't have basements in Florida. Water table is too high. But it just seems to me that if you're 20 feet in from the lake shore, a basement would probably be soggy.

 

And yes, I am aware that this is a comic and it is fiction and it is not real.

 

Haven't gotten that out of the way, would it generally be possible to put a basement in a building that close to a large body of water?

[Crooked River Pete, SASS 43485]

I would say the rules for basements are the same near any body of water. You are going to need the bottom of the basement above the highest level of the water. That said many places around Lake Superior rise quite fast as you move away from the lake, you could be 20' away and 20' higher, The church I go to up there is about a mile from the lake but a good 100' above it, it has a basement.

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

Sump pump(s)

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

3 hours ago, Alpo said:

 

 

Haven't gotten that out of the way, would it generally be possible to put a basement in a building that close to a large body of water?

another Otto? “Having”?
 

I suspect it’s quite uneconomical to do such a basement.

[Rye Miles #13621]

Here in Northeast Ohio on Lake Erie shores, we have basements right up to the lake. I’m a mile from the lake and practically all the houses here have basements. 

[Cypress Sun]

While homes/businesses with basements that are near water in Florida are rare, there are a few that I've seen.

 

One was at a "guest house" that I wired. It was actually a party house built on an estate of an extremely wealthy lady in Tarpon Springs.

The estate was right on a salt water bayou and I'm sure that the basement extended down into the water table.

 

The way they built the basement was they dug the hole (approx. 30' x 30' x 12'), framed it up, put a s***load of rebar in it, poured the framed walls with concrete, waited until it cured/took the framing off, water proofed it with some kind of sealer, then sprayed it with a concrete like substance similar to what they do with in-ground swimming pools but not as thick, nailed the furring strips to that and drywalled it. The roof consisted of scissor trusses spaced at 12" on center. It was designed to be a hurricane/bomb shelter although it ended up as a pool (table) room with a bar complete with sink, icemaker, liquor and wine cooler.

Sounds great doesn't it. I asked before they poured it, if they were going to put in a floor drain with above ground pump with an in-ground float switch. No was the answer. I told the GC, who was an acquaintance of mine, that was probably a mistake. It was, but not why one might think.

 

Seems a few years later, the ice maker developed a bad leak. Since it was a party/guest house, no one noticed it for weeks and the basement filled up with about 4' of water that had nowhere to go. Ruined the expensive pool table, walls/ceiling (ceiling due to absorbing moisture), bar and associated equipment. The waterproofing did it's job though...none of the water leaked out.

 

 

Another large basement is located at Presbyterian church in Dunedin Florida. Don't know how it was built as it was there long before I was born. It had a billiard table in it, along with many other items. It's size is approximately 70' x 70' x 8'.

 

 

Yet another basement was in a house in Clearwater that was on a ranch type setting. It was a larger type basement about 50' x 40' x 7'. The house was torn down when they sold the house/ranch to developers and is now a large medical facility across from a major hospital.

[Alpo]

8 hours ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

another Otto? “Having”?

Dammit otto.

[Alpo]

When I was in the 12th grade, English class, we read Alas Babylon and Failsafe. And this led to discussions about the Cold War. Well, actually the Cold War was still going on but not like it had been in the 50s.

 

The teacher told us that they had a bomb shelter in her backyard. They didn't live there anymore, but she told us where it was, and I drove by and looked and you can see it from the street. A big grass covered hump in the backyard.

 

She said they couldn't keep the water out, so it was a waste of money having it built.

[Texas Joker]

@Cypress Sun: so i guess it really did become a pool room!

[Cypress Sun]

37 minutes ago, Texas Joker said:

@Cypress Sun: so i guess it really did become a pool room!

 

More like a pool.

[Cypress Sun]

44 minutes ago, Alpo said:

When I was in the 12th grade, English class, we read Alas Babylon and Failsafe. And this led to discussions about the Cold War. Well, actually the Cold War was still going on but not like it had been in the 50s.

 

The teacher told us that they had a bomb shelter in her backyard. They didn't live there anymore, but she told us where it was, and I drove by and looked and you can see it from the street. A big grass covered hump in the backyard.

 

She said they couldn't keep the water out, so it was a waste of money having it built.

 

There was one of those two streets over from where I grew up. They took it out in the 70's because of water intrusion and teenagers getting in to smoke cigarettes, pot and amateur sex education lessons.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

I knew several people who lived in Seal Brach, Ca. when I was stationed there.  At least four families had basements in their homes, f'or instance Ray and Jackie Taylor who owned The Flintlock at Hobby City in Anaheim.

[Finagler 6853 Life]

As a rule buildings even near lakes are at a higher elevation than the lake. We always referred to going down to the lake as the house was on an incline above the lake.

[Rye Miles #13621]

4 hours ago, Finagler 6853 Life said:

As a rule buildings even near lakes are at a higher elevation than the lake. We always referred to going down to the lake as the house was on an incline above the lake.

True. The houses here with lakefront property are about 50-100 ft or more  above lake level. This is Lake Erie I’m talking about.