Lowering your Basement | Step by Step Underpinning Explained | How to Lower a Basement
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ก.ค. 2024
- Looking to lower the basement in your personal or investment property? Stuck trying to figure out the proper steps to accomplish your underpinning project? Pay close attention to this video as Darren Voros does a full walkthrough of one of his underpinning projects from start to finish and goes into amazing detail on how you can achieve these amazing results!
Join Canadian real estate investor and developer Darren Voros as he dives into the topic of underpinning! Darren starts off the video by explaining what underpinning consists of and why it is important to know if you are ever looking to lower a basement floor in one of your properties. Darren does a full walkthrough of the three phases of underpinning and explains a few different methods you can use when going through the process yourself.
Darren also goes into detail on the process of installing the plumbing, sump pit, and interior waterproofing and ensures you will be equipped with all the knowledge necessary to complete any underpinning project without missing a single step. Lastly, stay tuned until the end of the video as Darren breaks down what it cost for him to have this entire process completed.
For more information about this project or any of Darren's future projects feel free to reach out at info@darrenvoros.com
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With any and all investing you should always obtain independent legal, taxation and financial advice from a licensed professional before investing any of your own money.
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Darren Voros
Darren’s diverse skillset has taken him to many stages around the world. He has been featured as an on-air renovation expert on “The Goods” (CBC) and “CityLine” (CityTV). Darren was also the behind the scenes contractor on “Save My Reno” (HGTV) and “Game of Homes (W Network).
Darren is an accomplished real estate investor, trainer and coach. He controls a portfolio of properties worth just over $10,000,000 and has travelled across North America educating, inspiring and motivating audiences on the subject of real estate investing, financial independence and financial literacy. Darren’s willingness to give back prompted him to launch his TH-cam channel in 2020 in order to have a wider reach in educating investors. - บันเทิง
Just as informative as This Old House. Whoever you hired did an impeccable job.
Can you do more construction videos?? The way you elaborate and explain things in detail is very clear
Thank you. I appreciate the kind words.
Great video, information, procedures, ideas and work! A neighbor hired and an engineer that charged hime about $40,000! I have done a few of these with no engineer. One job, with one helper I removed about 210 cubic yards of dirt, foundation and walls. We supported the house as we dug it out. I did this in one day, it was in good working conditions with no problems. What I use on jobs depending on the conditions is a CAT 1 1/2 yard track loader, Bobcat mini track loader, conveyors and a back hoe. The inspector said this was the best design and constructed job he had seen. I sometimes sub out the concrete work, if it is small I will do it myself. I will not work for someone if they will not install the pex pipe. Before this policy had I too many people call me for a price to tear out their new slab and put in in floor heat!
It's a good idea to put rebar pegs between the sections to pin them together.
I’m honestly surprised that wasn’t required. Those underpinned sections will now settle independently.
Yeah, really surprised the see a general lack of steel.
I started my basement with shovels and buckets. Then I got smart. I bought an electric rototiller for about a hundred bucks. Then I just made piles of loose dirt. And called a company that had a vacuum truck and they suck the piles and took them away.. pure genius..
I would have opted for key ways that would help on keeping the water from bleeding thru the wall later.
@@lostintime8651 I picked up an electric dirt conveyor made for basements for $400 and sold it a couple years later for $2000. Had some ledge and picked a ton but a roto tiller would have been great for 3/4s of mine. Definitely an experience in full house remodels I will never forget.
We are waterproofing company in Canada and we put the Delta membrane all the way up to the ceiling not just the lowered section. Also we would run the Delta membrane throughout the floor so it's completely enveloped so that no hydrostatic pressure water would make contact with the concrete slab
As a flooring installer, I like what what your are saying! Not enough builders/engineers consider hydrostatic pressure.
@@brotherbill1000 lol 100 year old farm house here with a very high hydro. drilled a 3/4 hole in the floor and had water spouts. 100gal a min sump pumps. good times!!! 6 inch tile from pit to creek did away with all 3 pumps. hand digging craw space now and will be sealing it up properly
We actually did something like this 40 years ago. We had a 3 story apartment building with 6 …4 room rental apartments. We noticed that the brick had cracked and was moving away from the building. We called a local contractor and he bid the job for $10,000, just to stop the brick from moving. I had a cousin that was this type of engineer in the old country (Poland). He suggested we did the foundation from the outside and pour concrete under the footing. This being an English basement, the footing was only 4 feet below the ground. We dug by hand the west wall for 15 feet and put concrete under the footing that was half exposed. The next weekend we did the north wall the same way. We then put foundation coating (tar) on the new concrete and covered up the hole thing. We used premixed concrete in bags and mixed everything in a wheel barrow. It was hard work. The repair worked and the brick did not move any further. We repaired the brick that had separated. The job cost $1000 and a lot of free family labor. Jim
PS…..the reason the wall moved was a dry well that was in the front yard was too close to the house and some settling took place, bad design by…?
Awesome project and explanations! Y
Thank you!
Extremely valuable to assess how realistically feasible something like this is.
Very informative. The editing was great. Very well put together! Thank you!
Superbly executed, and highly educational. Thank you.
Amazing video. I’ve been trying to understand this process to gauge if it was an option for me. I’ve watched dozens of videos of people digging out basements but this was the first to break it down and explain how it’s done step by step so actually have clear idea of what’s involved.
Many thanks for the clear walk through.
Fascinating video and wonderful to see an older structure renovated and not simply removed for the new build. In Toronto/Mississauga single-family neighborhoods consisting of homes from the 50’s & 60’s, the trend is to tear down and build new that max to the original setbacks. This dwarfs the remaining lovely old bungalows. It is very sad to see the transition.
What an incredible undertaking Darren! Love the idea of the radiant heat in the basement, it's efficient, energy-saving, and cozy for the people who will live there.
We're using it as our main heat source throughout the house not just the basement. I'll have to do another video on that soon.
@@DarrenVoros that sounds like a good idea, it would be definitely interesting
I have electric radiant strip heaters (also known as "cove heaters") in my house. They look similar to baseboard heaters but mount up on the wall near the ceiling. The face plates get up to 300 degrees which does a terrific job of warming the floor and other surfaces, including furniture. Gives a very cozy feel similar to a fireplace. The heat pump provides baseline heat most of the time, and the cove heaters give us zoned control. The operating cost hasn't been too bad for the level of comfort.
Radiant in floor heat is so worth it! Did it in our own house. Great video Darren! Looking forward to more videos on your channel!
It's the best kind of heat. Thanks for the kind words Kory. I follow your content as well. A great compliment coming from you.
Did you mention how they tie the new concrete into the old? Drill and epoxy rebar or adhesive applications?
Interesting to see how this is all the rage in city building homes in england because there is no other direction in which to expand...lol.
Well done Darren. I started building in 1997 in Toronto. Started with Single family homes and now have "graduated" to land development and condominium builds. When I used to underpin we tied the Pex pipe to wire mesh. I would love to know why it was not done in the above video.
Terrifically done video. Thanks for putting this together. Very informative.
Fantastic!! I learned something new today. Another bullet in my bandoleer. Thank you.
Great job the best explanation I been looking for to do my basement bless thank you so much for share
This is the best video I had ever seen of this process I whish I could fo this to my house, great information good job
This was very informative and extremely appreciated. Thank you.
Great video, perfect actually. Thank you Darren!
Glad you like it.
Just what I needed to watch. Thank you. Subscribed!!!
Awesome! Thank you!
Highly Valuable. Thank you Darren :)
Well edited and highly educational. Thank you.
This was awesome. Nice job, and Thank You!!😊😊😊
Excellent video, very clear details.
Cheers
That was amazing, very cool and insightful. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
This is extremely helpful and just plain cool!!
Glad it was helpful! Thanks Ibi!
Great video, well done! Thank you for sharing. I'm wondering how they conquered that load bearing middle section while still supporting the load? That's the only thing missing. Thanks again.
Great and informative video! Thanks for posting!
Glad it was helpful!
You answered every question I didn't know I had! love(d) seeing every phase so clearly & concisely laid out!
this is a very complete work! thank you sir
Thanks for watching and for the kind words.
When I was in my late teens my father got me and some friends to dig out our cellar which extended under the back third of the house. The old ceiling was about 5ft and we dug out about 2ft more to make a decent room. Then we extended under the next third of the house where the ground level was about 2ft below the floor joists, removing about 12 skip loads of earth so he could put in an internal staircase. We actually dug below the foundations of the 1890's house which consisted of the bottom course of bricks corbelled out by a half sitting on about 18" of cinders then put in strip foundations and built up blockwork walls and finally backfilled between the blockwork and the old wall/foundation with concrete a section at a time. That was 40 years ago and there's been no movement since.
I am a recently retired building inspector and I would just like to say that I wished every homeowner/contractor did the work correctly as portrayed in this video because my job would have been made so much easier. After all these years I’m really happy to be retired because it seems like every project I had to educate everyone and argue with the ones that were too thick headed to understand!
This job was well done and I would pass with flying colors! Let me sign that inspection card!
That's amazing insight. Thank you for sharing. Are you sure you don't want to come out of retirement? We could use some good inspectors in T.O.
Gr Delaware::: I don’t know your employer, but I suspect your boss would not agree with your opinion that “This job was well done and I would pass with flying colors!” Notice the new underpinning footings are constructed as several individual piers along the perimeter of the building. First error: the new footing needs horizontal reinforcement steel ( rebars) at top and bottom tying together all the individual footing piers. Second error: each new underpinning footing piers needs vertical rebars tying together the new footing to existing footing. Third error: the new footing needs rebar dowels tying together the new footing to the new slab. Fourth error: the constructed concrete slab had no rebars; it needs at least the minimum rebar density of 0.007. Fifth error: need shear reinforcement placed in each column pad foundation so as to resist punch shear. Sixth error: need perimeter rebars, typically #4 rebars, around an opening in the concrete slab. Seventh error: floor joist supported by masonry wall shall have positive connections each capable of resisting a horizontal force of about 300 lbs/ ft. Possible eighth error: the masonry wall appears to be unreinforced; unreinforced masonry must be reinforced when major structural renovation is made to the building as required in the building code.
As to your “Let me sign that inspection card!” The Host of the Apprentice would say, “Your fired!”
I was wondering why he wasn't using reinforcing Rebars? pouring concrete on a dry section. What is your thaughts? Thanks
@@ubermenschen3636 Some excellent observations. The rebar is in my opinion an absolute must. Really makes a huge difference in strength and tying everything together.
@@ubermenschen3636 The host was fired!
Another extremely informative video Darren! 🎉
Thanks Evan!
Fantastic job explaining this process - Thank You!!
You're very welcome!
The walk through was much appreciated.
Glad you liked it.
great explainer. I'm inspired for my own basement project!
😁
So clear and helpful, thank you!
You're so welcome!
Wow what an informative video. I’m from Toronto as well.
Thank you for the insight!
Glad it was helpful!
Wonderful video!!!! Very nicely done, well explained and easy to follow along! As a former contractor, this was a great job, done by the contractor. You gained a new subscriber!
Thank you very much!
This is by far the best video explaining underpinning I’ve watched on TH-cam. What area do u work in?
Thanks Matt. I'm an investor based in Toronto, ON.
Thank you, Darren, for the best underpinning video on TH-cam!
Immensely helpful, thanks.
...brilliant, a great help for me in the job i'm looking forward to completing!
Glad it helped. It's a fun process to go through.
@@DarrenVoros ...thanks, again. i've started by insulating the roof and tweaking a few centimetres out of the plaster under the rafts in the attic flat. got loads of irons in the fire right now and i'm letting all the ideas i'm seeing here gell and take on the form of my to do next list. The family think i'm crazy!!!!
Thank you so much for this! You're a role-model for the rest of us. I've been interested in basement digouts for years and am contemplating doing the process on two of my properties.
...also, how dare you not show us the finished product?!?! :D
Great video! Awesome to see all that progress. I am curious about rebar in the footings and slab, and seeing it all tied together though.
thanks for all the great info!!
Glad you liked it!
Great video, price given is good info!!
Great job!! Liked subbed🤠👍
Thank you for sharing the video.
My pleasure Frymzim!
Nice. Good educational video how it should be done.
400/ft. Thank you VERY much. Will use that as a guide to get estimates. 50x20 footprint. If I can get it done for that it would be lots less than I expected. Looking at a quote I got from 2017 for $550/foot. Must be the competition in Toronto.
Wow! Looks great!
Thank you! The project is coming along.
Amazing video thanks so much!
You're so welcome!
Waaw I’m impressed… hopefully I didn’t proceed with the contractor who wanted to this in my basement as I didn’t understand the process… wish to see the project completely done … 5 star ⭐️ buddy
Amazing job done
I’m doing a similar project but the engineer that’s designing it wants to do horizontal rebar between each poured bay. And so I’m using hydraulic jacks to dig out 6 to 7 foot wide sections at a time even though I’m only coring 3 feet at a time because I’ve got all this lap rebar hanging out.
Great video.
Did same job on grandpas 1875 house in Stillwater. Whole house redo. Next to park. Nice.
Amazing job done!
Thank you
Great video with ton of information for people like me who has a plan for converting a crawlspace into a basement. I was wondering why I-sections are not used to support instead of many posts.
This is amazing!! Indeed. Would be really helpful to know how the main wall support beam/wall was built, then removed the support pole. Any idea how? Thanks!
All of the bearing walls were removed with temporary shoring post and beams. Support on either side of the load bearing wall and then remove the structure. Once that's done, you can reposition the load bearing temp walls to make it easier to work around them. Hope that helps.
Very informative!
Great info! New sub from this video. Will this be a property you rent out? If so, how did you go about running the numbers in terms of how much this would cost vs the additional income you would generate from the two additional basement units?
Thanx again. I have a field stone foundation so I guess underpin won’t work but if you know let me know! Thank you
Thank you Darren
Excellent video Darren!
Thank you very much!
This is great, but what about the reinforcement? Would like to have seen the cages.
what a my first construction jobs when I was 16 was digging with a shovel and pickaxe doing exactly this, the no hydro connection at the home so they brought in a generator through part of the wall that was opened up and my dummy boss forgot to remove the generator untill after the wall was repaired 😂😂🇨🇦
So useful thanks
Really informative video. That is the neatest and tidiest building site I've ever seen! I subscribed.
Since the new foundation is NOT monolithic, rebar should have been installed in the foundation pour with the rebar overlapping at least 24 inches. Currently your new foundation is a series of unattached pier footings.
Was going to ask about this exact thing.
Disclaimer up front. No engineer here. That said, I was thinking the same while watching the video.
Im wondering if the following was considered with the non-use of rebar... Each key's rough and uneven edge provides subsequent pours something to bite into. Also, the ground at each key has supported weight for quite some time, and so it's packed and solid. There's the step (or "bench") at the base with the floor poured up against it. There seems to be appropriate joisting to support weight distribution and it doesn't appear that any specific key stands to be overloaded. I dont know enough to make any of this an argument. Simply asking if the decision not to use rebar was made on any of the above.
I'm fascinated by the subject and enjoyed this very well made video and appreciate the work that was done.
I do have another question with regard to the use of waterproofing membranes inside the home. Could holding the water behind them compromise the integrity of the masonry (concrete/brick) over time? I've never used them and don't understand how they work. Water moves in the direction of gravity and where's there's the least resistance. It seems that membranes applied against masonry walls would present the outward resistance and slow the movement of that water, keeping it in the brick/concrete longer.
10:26 The “bench footing” is also needed to support the weight of the entire building. It looks to be about 8” thick and 24” deep which is about right to support this building which has brick walls about 1’ thick and is at least two story. Bench footings are all we see in my area though we just call them footings. This is a great video. Learned a lot. Thank you
Good questions. I can't answer most of them, but I can answer about the membrane. If you look closely, you can see it's dimpled. This keeps the vast majority of the membrane away from the foundation, giving water a place to escape. In this case, they have installed a French drain that runs into a sump pump.
The way it is shown here is how underpinning is done. The “hit and miss” way of excavating means that there is no way to overlap the rebar. Depending on the location it may not be necessary, but if you did need to interlock the adjacent underpins then the only way would be to either fully lift and shore the building (to allow for a continuous excavation/pour, or (depending on the loads) you could drill and dowel bars into the primary underpins when building the secondary ones.
Very interesting.
what steps do we need to take to deter radon from entering the house home? Thanks you! Your videos are amazing and helpful! Thank you!
We put down gravel, a layer of 6 mil poly, then the 2" of rigid foam and then radiant infloor pipes and then the concrete. This area is not known for radon but if it was there are some additional measures that could be taken.
Good day, do you need to overlap and join rebar during underpining of single storey residential house! Thanks
Good stuff mate!
Glad you enjoyed it
Very nicely done.
Thank you very much!
great video and explanation
Glad it helped
Outstanding
In NY its min 8 feet apart for the pins. If closer, then the engineer has to provide structural stability
calculations to the dept of buildings that is safe
Amazing!
Thanks!
I’m doing a research project and am able to use this as an example for my presentation
Ya go for it!
Amazing explonation thank you
You are welcome!
Thanks for the great narration and pictures. I’m going the same thing in my cabin in Tahoe. Do you have videos of them digging, forming and pouring the concrete for the underpinnings? Thx Joe.
@Kyle White yes. It will be a great diy project
@Kyle White hi Kyle. Sounds great. I’ll be start work again in the late spring. Lots of snow up here. I’m sure you got your fill too.
Good communication and information
Thank you Robert.
Great video but I’m curious as to how you address when lowering the floor you inevitably expose the soil pipe embedded in the old concrete floor and exits the foundation perimeter wall at a fixed height. If the new floor height is now below this point, how do you ensure proper drainage? Do you install an ejection pump? Thanks😀
At 15:00 - what material is the under floor insulation and what are those clips holding down the pex tubing called?
I had a bear of a time trying to route pex under my ice rink liner. This looks like a better solution. 👏👏👍🏻
very interesting.
13:20 was my burning question: What about water seepage? I like the water proof membrane. And I didn’t know you could place drainage tile on the inside.
This whole project is awesome!
I want to do this to my basement!
I wanted to know more about what happened next. I mean we didn't see the center wall get replaced which you spoke about and I wondered how that would work out but we also didn't see what happened with the rear wall! I assume you had to replace the rear wall to maintain the support for the house. Perhaps there could be big windows in the rear wall? Or was it going to be a contiguous space? I also wondered how the rear extension would work as you didn't dig down further for that? Left at an annoying cliff hanger.
Vow. What a great piece of Civil engineering
Right! The brilliant people who think these things up are amazing.
This is the most informative underpinning video I've seen, by far! I own a 1960 brick home in Ohio that currently has 6'10" finished basement ceilings. I am planning a complete remodel of the property in a few years and I am considering dropping the floor to get a 8'6" ceiling height. My foundation is much smaller than this property (basement is about 1000sqft total), but based on the cost of this project, I suspect it would still cost about $25,000 USD to complete my underpinning, which is about 25% of my total budget for the remodel. One thing that isn't clear from the video is whether or not all the waterproofing/management, drainage, sump, etc were included int he price. Also, it doesn't look like you added any rebar to tie into the existing footer.
Finally, did you consider using closed cell spray foam to insulate under the slab? I think it's a superior option because in addition to being an excellent insulator it is also an effective vapor, moisture and radon barrier all in one...especially if you run it continuously up the foundation wall into the rim joist.
The previous owner of our house did an underpinning early around 2002/2003, but I have seen pictures were they used conveyers to move the dirt out of the basement.
Tried to do this in my 1859 brick farm house. Im six two so needed a few inches for comfort.
No problem as the fieldstone three feet thick foundation went far lower than the dirt floor.
Found a large brick tunnel, evedently it was a wibe cellar (used to be a winery) and was used as part of the underground railroad where they would hide slaves crossing the Ohio to freedom. .
Ive been chopping away at the old grape vines and they are very productive now. I prefer brewing so. I may make some wine and beer.
Great video thinking of doing this on an old house creati g a 9ft basemen5 for more living space
9ft ceilings in the basement doesn't even feel like.a basement anymore.
@@DarrenVoros yep that's the idea
Great video! But I am wondering why you didn't use rebar in any of the new concrete you poured?
I'm wondering too! Also I wonder if they mixed Helix in with the concrete. Helix can do away with the need for rebar but I would think the cold joints would need rebar to keep the individual pours aligned.
I guess it's no different than an old stone foundation... But why not use rebar?
Is the new footing poured separately and then the underpinning or is it all a single pour?
The forms for underpinning are just 2x4 and osb/plywood or is there actual forms?
@DarrenVoros Excellent Video... but you didn't make mention of adding any rebar into the underpinning walls? Is that something that was done and just not documented? Or is rebar optional if you use a specific kind of concrete?
I WISH I could get a perimeter underpinning done for $400/ft. I am stabilizing a shifting/cracked (no rebar) concrete foundation in a 65 yo house on medium clay. All accessed from the outside. 210 LF. Should be around $85k. Bids range from $170K- $280k. Going with helical piers might save me about $50k, but half the engineers say it needs to be "capped" (essentially a partial underpinning) before the piers are set or sometime in the future, the foundation between the piers (23 of them!) will settle and the local contractors will need another infusion of $$. As best as I can tell, the "capping" (weird because it's under the existing foundation, I think) adds about $50k, so it's a wash. GREAT Video, btw. Lots of excellent information in less than 20 minutes. (Many arrogant inspectors and contractors have spent more time just telling me how many years of experience they have...)
Yours sound exactly like mine. 800 sqft house with poured 4ft deep foundation with no rebar. cracked due to settling on clay. I planned on doing this once i get an engineer to give me the plans. need a wider base to support the weight of the house. maybe double the width at the bottom. I would over engineer the rebar though i dont want to have issues in the future. need to find me a structural engineer that can let me know if this is viable.
Why is there no rebar hanging out of form 1 to connect to form 2 when poured?