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Walk Out Basements
Walk Out Basement Advantages and
Considerations
By: Mark J. Donovan
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One major advantage of a building lot
that is sloped to the side or back is the ability to include a finished walk out
basement in the home design plans. A walk out basement, or daylight basement, is
simply defined as a basement that has a side that includes a doorway to the
ground level. A building lot that slopes to the side is ideal for incorporating
a garage under a portion of the home. Building lots that slope to the backyard
better lend themselves to a finished walk out basement with a door and windows on
the back side of the basement.
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Walk out basements also offer a
number of additional advantages to homeowners. First, they afford the
opportunity to incorporate a great deal of natural light into finished basement
plans. In some basement renovation designs, a finished walk out basement can
feel as if it is a finished room above ground. Second, a walk out basement makes
easier access to the home for furnace and plumbing maintenance. Third, walk out
basements lend themselves to a separate entrance into the home which can be
useful for operating a side business or for renting out the lower level of a
home.
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Finished walk out basements commonly
exit out to a patio or backyard. My home, for example, includes a walk out
basement that enters out to a patio and a backyard that overlooks a lake. Since
the building lot sloped gently down towards the water’s edge, it was an ideal
situation to include a large sliding glass door and windows on the walk-out side
of the basement.
Designing a home with a walk out basement does present a few additional
challenges and considerations.
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First, the walk-out side of a
basement requires some special attention in its excavation and construction. It
is important to remember that even though it opens up to soil grade, it still
needs to include a proper footing, which means even the footing on the walk-out
side of a basement has to be installed below the average frost line depth for
the local climate region.
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As a result, the foundation wall on
the walk-out side of the basement has to be built up from the concrete footing
to the finished grade of the soil adjacent to the walk out basement. In
addition, it is important that the finished soil grade on the adjacent basement
side walls, are sloped away from the home so that water doesn’t funnel down into
the basement walk-out side.
Also, when considering including a walk out basement in your home design plans
it is important to consider future property taxes. |
Photo by Mark Donovan |
Because a walk out basement lends itself so easily to a finished basement, a
home with a walk out basement is often taxed hire than a home without a walk out
basement, even though the basement maybe left unfinished. However, there is some
justification to the higher property tax as most homebuyers prefer a walk out
basement to a basement with a bulkhead door, and assessed property tax values
are much about home market values.
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