getting started from scratch - putting home on basement!!

[lbair1]

Hi - am very excited to have found all of you!
Just purchased an 87 Chief Bonneville with a sunken living room and want to put it on a poured cement basement ( about half the length of the home. Home is 16 X 80, basement will be only 40' and will be an apartment. Will have floor heat in the basement plus some other type of electric storage heat (off peak) for the home. What are the issues around the basement to home connection. Do you leave the belly pan intact thereby limiting the amount of heat that transfers up into home? I am guessing a suspended ceiling is the way to go. I understand the basement walls will have to be two heights to accomodate the sunken living room? Still want to keep some kind of barrier for sound since basement will be an apartment.
I have read quite a bit on here about the need for ventilation under the home - how does a basement change this?
Thanks

[Sylvia]

Do you have drawn up plans to do this? I'd be cautious if not. You have to make sure the rest of the structure will be sound. It would probably cost almost the same just to have it go the entire way. The digging and walls were the least expensive thing we did in our basement project, it's just finishing that's horrifically expensive. I think we have *almost* everything now.

We stripped everything off. We now have windows and doors for ventilation as well as bathroom vents and a furnace vent. If not insulated well the top floor will get unbearable hot, even in the dead of winter. We're struggling with this.

A problem we're running into is accessing the water pipes and other wiring and such with a drywall ceiling. We're going to have to make access panels in the places that have the most going on from the upstairs.

[Greg]

Hi & welcome to the forum. Sylvia brings up a point that you may or may not have overlooked. If you are going to turn it into living space yon will have to plan for windows that will allow for escape in case of fire. Basements have been done on mobiles infact Mark has a section on it in his book (the bible for mobile home owners). I'm sure others will add their thoughts as well. Greg

[Maureen]

Hi lbair1,

There's a whole that goes into placing a mobile on a basement foundation.

There's one word of information that we like to give to everyone on the board. Anything can be done with enough money! The second most used advice, would be that it depends on your particular location.

Where I live, I can't build a basement. Water table is too high, if we have wet years. It's just not worth the headache or the engineers that it would take to do.

Learn your local codes first. If you aren't real sure of what you're doing, you'll need an engineer and architect to make sure it's viable.

It's also helpful for you to fill out a profile. This will give us your location and skill level in one keystroke! It goes a long way in helping you.

Maureen

[Sylvia]

Maureen brings up a great point about the water table. Had we had someone come out and check our land, we would have known about the high water table. There was a stream that ran through what is now the middle of our basement 60 years ago.


My husband brings up a valid point as well. Without egress and plenty of it, if you're renting out this apartment, you'd be waiting for a major lawsuit if something happened.

[Yanita]

Hi,

Up North many mobiles are set on basements. BUT you need to go to a building inspector, who in turn sends you to an engineer, who sends you to the architect to get the plans drawn up.

I know of 2 different mobiles in Vermont that are basements, but the homes had to be moved out, it required blasting of the land, the further north you go on the east coast the more solid the land becomes.

If you are still interested in a basement I believe you have been given links to look at, and you could also purchase Mark's Mobile Home Repair Manuel and Upgrades. It is informative but in no way way does it cover all that is unforeseen.

No one on this site can give you exact how to instructions, without a site inspection...hence the reason for a building inspector, engineer and architect.

Have a great day,

~Yanita~

[lbair1]

Thank you all - I do have some help in the engineering regard so I hope that is covered and the water table issue has been addressed as well. The entire front of the apartment is walkout and an egress window in each of the other rooms.

[Yanita]

Your Welcome.