Do you have a basement?

[Samsalone]

I don’t and don’t know anyone who does.

Seeing the horrific scenes from Ukraine and how many people have been sheltering in their basements to give them a degree of protection from bomb blasts. I wonder if Ukrainian houses were built with basements with this in mind .

We live in Germany and have a basement. Its incredibly unusual not to have a basement in our area. Its absolutely nothing to do with wars - the term "Wäschekeller" means laundry room in the basement - in houses in rural areas the washing machine is always in its own room in the basement and there's often a "hobby room" and a pantry and another storage room and the boiler room. Flats usually have a communal laundry basement plus a communal bicycle storage room in the basement and seperate small storage rooms for each flat in the basement.

I'm in Finland, basements are common here. Apartment buildings have them and they're used for storage for the residents and double as bunkers (housing associations have the responsibility to provide and upkeep some kind of shelter and provide iodine for all residents) and older detached houses often have them but newer ones don't.

Ours is a post-war house that had a basement added in sometime in the 60s I think (has our shower and sauna as the house originally had these in an outhouse, boiler room, store room, and music room/office), its not completely underground so there are small windows (though we've already blocked them up for insulation reasons, but only with Styrofoam). The store room has no windows so if we ever need to shelter we'll go there.

I noticed the local newspaper has a letter in it from a resident, asking where the public shelters are for people living in detached houses in our town. Will be interested if it gets a response from the town council.

We are in the uk, live in a house built in the late 80s and we have quite a big cellar. No idea what it was originally built for or why (basements/cellars are expensive AF to build) It is only under part of the house…It’s tanked, tiled and dry down there (we use it for storage) but I’m not convinced it would save us in an apocalypse!!!

@Papertyger

Switzerland has to have nuclear bunkers?

Lot's of European houses seem to make far more use of space than in the UK. With basement's and room's in the loft.

Yup…

warisboring.com/swiss-are-required-to-have-bunkers-in-their-homes-in-case-of-war/

Depends on the area. Hilly former industrial towns in Yorkshire have lots of stone terraced houses with cellars.

No.

My parents live in a Victorian house & their basement is very big. It has 3 separate rooms in it.

Here in Canada we all have basements. They come with roughed in plumbing so you can finish them if you want for more living space. Furnace etc down there.
We use ours for storage, man cave reasons and making wine 😄

My old house and my partners (Victorian terraces), had a small cellar/coal hole. Our current 1950s house has no cellar space.

Not only do we have a cellar, but it's a WW2 bomb shelter. How effective it would be against modern bombs, who knows though!

Wow I am amazed at how many people in the UK have them. I literally can’t think of a single family member or friend who lives or has lived in a house with a cellar. Crossing many different villages/ towns/ cities.
Those of you who do have them they sound great, so useful.
I’ve never seen it mentioned on a Rightmove ad either, are the usually just a little added surprise when you went for a viewing?

@Papertyger

Switzerland has to have nuclear bunkers?

Lot's of European houses seem to make far more use of space than in the UK. With basement's and room's in the loft.

Yes we are in Switzerland and have a bunker room in the basement. Its storage atm, but we hve someone come to the house every few years to make sure the air machines etc are functioning. And we arent allowed to install anything inside it that cant be cleared out within 48h i think.

I live in Edinburgh, some people's entire homes are basements. (Or 'lower ground floor' as the estate agents have it.)

Old rural village house.. Yes we do.. Use it for storage etc.. Its very dry (and cold) but so useful to put rubbish what we need taking to the tip in there.. Too cold for having as another room though. Smells damp also!

I'm pretty sure most of the UK is too low lying for practical basements. Making a basement in an area close to sea level watertight is incredibly expensive - in areas 500 meters above sea level its much more practical (except in river flood planes).

@Samsalone

Wow I am amazed at how many people in the UK have them. I literally can’t think of a single family member or friend who lives or has lived in a house with a cellar. Crossing many different villages/ towns/ cities. Those of you who do have them they sound great, so useful. I’ve never seen it mentioned on a Rightmove ad either, are the usually just a little added surprise when you went for a viewing?

A cellar would always make it into the description. They’re a definite plus point. But normal in Victorian terraced houses where I am. Remember, we don’t have garages or driveways. My neighbours converted theirs into a laundry room - they have their washing machine etc down there, as well as storage. Mine is full of junk - tent, lawnmower, diy stuff, Christmas decs etc.

Our neighbour told me that ours did have one but it's been filled in. I assume it must have let water in as there's no other reason why anyone would fill it in as it would have been really useful.

Sorry meant to say UK.. Yorkshire

I keep things like Christmas decorations, camping stuff and other junk down there.

My DC had a cellar in their student house too in a northern city. Two-up two-down terrace, Coronation Street style.

No, our house is around 150-200 years old, but its quite rural and I wonder if they didn't bother as we have outbuildings for storage? Also it's an area where they used to quarry so perhaps digging into the stone would've been too expensive/difficult.

Yes. We love it - it has space for our gym with an attached bathroom, cinema room, wine cellar and utility plus an additional room for that we use for hobbies.

@MapleMay11

Yes. We love it - it has space for our gym with an attached bathroom, cinema room, wine cellar and utility plus an additional room for that we use for hobbies.

I think I’m realising I come from a different world than many posters here .

I've worked in high street workplaces where they have vaults/cellars which extend under the pavement.

It’s just down to the type of house. It’s not a rich/poor thing particularly. Obviously a full conversion with cinema etc would be fabulous, but not really typical. As I said, lots of bog-standard small terraced houses in industrial cities will have them.

I grew up in a Victorian house in Devon and we had a basement that was converted into a flat.