My Basement Renovation Diary

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1864DIY

DIY Ninja
Joined
May 9, 2015
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In January, we purchased a home built in 1864. The house currently has a basement with headroom of between 5'9" and 6', we are currently in the process of digging out the basement. Before everyone cautions me about the risk of such a project performed by a homeowner let me tell you that I have consulted a structural engineer and have a solid set of instructions for moving forward. I also have a background in construction having owned a remodeling company in the past. I originally got started in the trades working for a home building while in 8th grade (tieing rebar and setting forms, I can still smell the diesel fuel :rofl:). I continued working for this builder up until I was about 25 and got tired of framing in the winter :clap:

I will from time to time post new videos and photos in this thread so you can see our progress and challenges. We will be taking the basement floor down to allow for approximately 8' of headroom and also adding a bathroom. In total, this will add 400 sqf to the home and make it a 3 bed 2.5 bath hopefully adding a decent amount of value to the home.

We have updated the heating and hot water systems this helped in two ways, our new system is more efficient and we saved lots of room by going to a combo tankless hot water and heater system.

if anyone can tell me how to add pictures, that would be great I have a bunch to share.

Wish me luck, :banana:
 
:welcome: to House Repair Talk!

Adding pics is easy, looking down at the bottom of your screen, scroll down past the Submit Reply button and click on the Manage Attachments button to add pics from your device.
 
Welcome to the forums! I'm excited to see your progress -- digging out a basement is a huge job, so it'll be great to see how you tackle from the beginning. Good luck! :)
 
Thanks for the info on adding pictures and for the welcome.
This is a set of before pictures,

before 5.JPG

before 3.JPG

before 2.JPG

before 4.JPG

before.JPG

photo 1 (1).JPG
 
Hi, 1864Diy!
It looks like you have you have a lot of work to do. Ugh.. on those short floor joists and the taped up wire-- although, better taped up than floating around live.

The old brick in there looks neat.

I'll have to watch the videos later (the only internet I can get has a 10gb per month limit but has a "late night free zone" when I can watch videos and such-- after midnight). Hopefully, your prior experience will come in handy.

Best of luck! I look forward to seeing your progress.
 
The dead wire might be right, If it is left in the wall the black and white should be tied together so if anyone trys to power it up it will just kick the breaker. Looks like you are in for a lot of work.
 

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