# Basement Crawl space removal?



## loukin (Apr 12, 2011)

In the basement of my house I have a crawl space in the back and I was wondering could that be removed to create more square footage? I was thinking of making it a laundry/tool room.


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## nealtw (Apr 12, 2011)

How much head room do you have in that area. The outside of the concrete wall would have to be dug up and waterproofed and drainage added, if you don,t have enough height you would have to underpin the footings.


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## joecaption (Apr 12, 2011)

If you mean can I change a crawl space into to a full basement, any thing can be done if you have enough money. It would be a really big under taking to do it. The house would need to be supported while it's being dug out and a whole new foundation and footing would have to be done. There would have to be one great big hole dug out in the yard made into a ramp so a bocat could get in to remove the dirt, Then a new slab floor would need to be pored after the plumbings in.
Not A DIY job at all.
Just the plumbing and pit so water can be pumped up and out would be over $2,000.


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## loukin (Apr 13, 2011)

We have about 8 or 9 feet of head room and the basement itself is completely finished and waterproofed. I was just talking about getting rid of the basements back porch crawl space which is the size of a small room.


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## mabloodhound (Apr 13, 2011)

Sounds like the outside wall is accessible.   You might be able to get a backhoe in to dig out most of it under the porch and then some hand shoveling.
But it will require supporting the porch and adding a new foundation like mentioned above.   It is not a DIY unless you've had experience in this.


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## joecaption (Apr 14, 2011)

If you look over some of the older post and post on pourches under decks on other DIY web sites you will soon see all the posters are complaining about the room always leaking and being damp and moldy.


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