Victorian Terrace Basement

[ClaudiaWankleman]

A property I am looking at has a basement. It's an old coal cellar type thing - 2 metres by 7 metres with sufficient head height. Entrance is below the stairs.

I don't think I want to expand/ extend it as there is no capacity to get any natural light down there.

If you have a similar space, how do you use it? Is it a bad idea to plan to put a washing machine/ chest freezer down there?

Bumping for the evening crowd.

We just have “stuff” down there.

Our neighbours have their washing machine down there but have plumbed it to feed out into the rainwater drains. Please don’t do that....

We have a similar space (about 2 m wide and a bit longer than yours) and we have a washing machine, chest freezer and sink down there, plus use it for storage. Ours is quite damp, so we can't use it to store anything that might get mouldy.

The power, sink and washing machine gubbins were all down there when we bought though.

I have a freezer in mine, plus tins of paint and decorating gubbins etc

Thanks for the responses. It’s not damp as far as I can tell - current owners have cardboard boxes down there with no issues.

A sink is an interesting idea - do you use the sink at all?

I used to have a cellar... I loved it!
No plumbing, but it was a good wine cellar/storage space.

When you have a space, it will inevitably end up filled with something!

We have a decent sized cellar in our edwardian semi. We have a washing machine, condenser dryer, boiler, freezer, all DH DIY stuff, plus quite a lot of storage.

It's a little damp, but dry on the floors. We keep everything from the fake Christmas tree/decorations, kitchen/toilet roll, drinks bottles, son's bike/scooter etc in it.Very similar to the kind of things you'd keep in a garage.

@ClaudiaWankleman

Thanks for the responses. It’s not damp as far as I can tell - current owners have cardboard boxes down there with no issues.

A sink is an interesting idea - do you use the sink at all?

Not that much to be fair, but it is really useful when you need to do things like clean the freezer out, or clean the washing machine dispenser drawer out. We also use it to wash out paint brushes and that sort of thing. I'm not sure I'd bother plumbing one in myself though.

If you are thinking of putting a sink or a washing machine down there you do need to think about drainage. Obviously to drain water needs to go downhill, but by definition the cellar is usually the lowest point in the house. In our case we are lucky that the main house drain runs through the cellar out to the public drains, but yours might not have that sort of setup in which case you would need some sort of pump which can complicate matters.

Also if things are not going to get damp and go rusty it is important that the cellar has good ventilation. That usually means getting a through draught, in other words having vents at the front and back.

Basically it's a really useful place for stuff that might otherwise go in a garage or shed. Also great as a bondage sex dungeon.

There stairs are often narrow and steep, so getting heavy bulk like a washing machine down there will be a challenge, if not impossible.

When we had a proper cellar, it was just used for storage. Christmas tree, suitcases, out of season clothes, bulk buy stuff like Costco toilet paper, that sort of thing.

DMs cellar has a proper walk in from outside the house that's only down a couple of small steps so that's a lot easier to get stuff like bikes in and out.

Thanks all. I don't think there is any chance of putting ventilation into the basement. I'm not entirely clear whether it has proper ventilation already, but would guess it probably doesn't. I think that rules out a washing machine etc.
I'm tempted to call it a wine cellar. I'd quite like to say to guests 'Oh, I'll just go get the next bottle from the wine cellar.'

Thanks all. I don't think there is any chance of putting ventilation into the basement. I'm not entirely clear whether it has proper ventilation already, but would guess it probably doesn't. I think that rules out a washing machine etc.
I'm tempted to call it a wine cellar. I'd quite like to say to guests 'Oh, I'll just go get the next bottle from the wine cellar.'

Thanks all. I don't think there is any chance of putting ventilation into the basement. I'm not entirely clear whether it has proper ventilation already, but would guess it probably doesn't. I think that rules out a washing machine etc.

I'm tempted to call it a wine cellar. I'd quite like to say to guests 'Oh, I'll just go get the next bottle from the wine cellar.'

Thanks all. I don't think there is any chance of putting ventilation into the basement. I'm not entirely clear whether it has proper ventilation already, but would guess it probably doesn't. I think that rules out a washing machine etc.

I'm tempted to call it a wine cellar. I'd quite like to say to guests 'Oh, I'll just go get the next bottle from the wine cellar.'

We have a double cellar - one small room leading into another small room.
We have a freezer down there, the boiler, suitcases, Christmas decorations, tools, tinned and longlife food.
And wine racks.

We heard you the first time, OP

I'M TEMPTED TO CALL IT A WINE CELLAR

I believe I was caught up in the weird posting issue yesterday.

We have a cellar in our Edwardian house - the utility room is down there and the sink and washing machine are pumped into the drains. There's also a huge original wink rack and loads of storage. If it's dry, a cellar can be really useful. We also have tools and electrical stuff down there as it's more secure than in a shed.

Wink? Wine!