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Can crawl spaces or low clearance basements be dug out and converted into a finished space?

The answer is absolutely yes! Although, this can be tricky work and should involve permits and engineers. If not done properly, it can lead to major problems and even building failure.

This row house in Baltimore had an original basement from the early 1900’s that was more of a cellar. The ceiling height was only around 6’. A flipper dug the cellar out and put in a standard height basement. Sealed everything up, and our clients bought the property.

A few months after moving in they started to get water and soil entering from under the wall. The wall appeared to be original brick and at the bottom seemed to be concrete. Our homeowner decided to start digging around and discovered that the “concrete” was actually just a thin layer of mortar/concrete spread out and smoothed out directly onto the soil below the original brick wall. There was no original footer, and the flipper decided to smear concrete to the soil beneath the brick wall. THIS MEANS THERE IS NOTHING SUPPORTING THE BRICK WALL.

Eventually this could lead to a complete failure of the wall as the water that was coming in was also washing away what little soil was holding up the wall.

A proper conversion would have included a new footer below the slab, with some sort of a way to connect the existing wall to the new footer. This was all skipped.

I recommended a licensed engineer to look at basement and determine what would be needed to make the basement safe again. Once a concrete plan was nailed down, contractors would be called and fielded to complete the work according to the engineers specs.

We never like to break bad news like this to clients, but we are happy to be able to help make a nightmare situation easier and as stress free as possible.

Send a DM to set up a free 15 min call to see if we can help you!

05/11/2024