Homes with walkout basements

[River Wood]

Perhaps a strange question.......but for those that live in a home with a walkout basement...do you find any draw backs to that...over a basement that is not a walkout? More leakage problems? or anything else??

 

[kaykay]

I happen to love walk out basements and they are typically a big selling point. We had one years ago and no problems. My parents had one and no problems there either. But it does depend on what area of the country you live in and how high the water table is. I know where I live now I have no basement as if I did it would be flooded all the time

 

[PHF Fancy]

I have one and love it. The walkout makes storing things like a lawnmower so easy. We move all of the summer things out of the garage as winter comes and simply roll them into the basement. Couldn't be easier.

 

[Shari]

Basements are very rare in the NW unless you have a really old house. I don't have a basement here but I do have a crawl space if you need to get under the house.

 

[Taylor Jo]

We have a walk out basement and it has a patio outside it and then it slopes down into our yard so there's no chance of flooding. We really like it. When we lived in CA we didn't have a basement and we only had about 2,500 ft here with the basement we've got a little bit more of about 3,000. It's our family room and we have some of our storage in there and my husband has a bar in there. He has his computer in there, and also in the basement is also our safe room for tornado's so when we get threats of those we take the dogs and go down there and sit. I'm THANKFUL for the basement otherwise WOULDN'T have bought the house, not with tornado's. TJ

 

[picasso]

When I lived at home my parent's house had a walk-out basement with a patio. We used it ALL the time. Loved it. When we built our new house that was one of the things that was on my must have list. The basement is finished with a kitchen down there and then we have a patio when you walk out. Makes it real handy when we have people over. Can cook down there and not mess up the upstairs of the house.

 

[Fancy]

In previous homes we have lived in, we've had walkout basements. We don't have one now, though. I much prefer a walkout basement, because it is much more convienent in pretty much every way. We have never had problems with them. I wish we had one now, because we have things stored down in our basement and it is like they are trapped down there.

Makayla

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

My only real complaint about my walk out basement is everything that needs to be on the main floor (groceries etc) must be carried up a flight of stairs. If we by new furniture/appliances they also must be lugged up stairs to get them in the living area. On the other hand my basement is far more used than a basement with no out side entrance would be or one where we had to go down stairs to get in.

 

[CyndiM]

I wish our basement was a walkout. Maybe I will get the hubby to remodel this year and that will be first on the list!

 

[AppyLover2]

I'm certainly no expert but it appears to me that being a "walk out" basement would not make a difference. A leaky basement is a leaky basement whether it has an outside exit or not. I've had several walk-outs and they're certainly a lot more convenient than the one I have now.

 

[yankee_minis]

We're on ledge so our downstairs is the basement but it doesn't go underground. Weird but when they built the house they made it a split level but didn't go underground. I wouldn't have built it that way. So my kitchen is upstairs and kid's bedrooms are downstairs. Groceries upstairs.

No flooding- top of hill. Cold floor though- which is awesome in summer and tougher in winter. And moisture downstairs. Less than a basement but more than upstairs. Heat is downstairs and we use passive solar upstairs and whatever rises.

Hard to get a comparable house for appraisals and stuff. That's a big drawback.