Hi all,

Thought I'd ask something a little different for my first post....

I currently work (for fun) out of a mostly uninsulated and underpowered two car garage which is always either too hot or too cold, and it tends to attract cars , trash, lawn tools, and mosquitoes. I have a partial basement adjacent to a "duckspace"--called this because there's enough room in there to walk rather than crawl, as long as anyone over 5'7" ducks a little. When we had the house production-built 8 years ago, we could've had a full basement for $3,000, or a walkout basement for $8,000. I'm thinking about hiring a contractor and having the house lifted and the duckspace excavated to create a full basement with about 1/2 of it being workshop.

I've heard that house movers and foundation contractors do stuff like this, but would like to hear how it went from someone who actually did it. Disconnecting all mechanicals and lifting the house sounds pretty scary!

Here are the duckspace facts:
  • Dimensions 9'6" x 26'
  • Potential full basement dimensions: 25' x 26'
  • Potential workshop dimensions (includes part of current basement): 13' x 26'
  • 8" Concrete block walls supporting two story wood-framed house
  • 20" high concrete block wall to step up from the basement
  • Floor is plastic/gravel-covered dirt
  • One 26' wall of duckspace is 3' exposed above grade due to slope in backyard. This could allow a small Bobcat access to the crawlspace with a little digging and wall demolition. The access hole would be a convenient location for French doors for walkout access.
Questions:
  1. Maybe not worth the risk of property/mechanical/dust damage?
  2. Am I crazy?
  3. Any guesses what the cost might be?
Other options I'm considering:
  • Finishing and heating attached garage and running a subpanel ($2,000-3,000 cost)
  • Moving to a house with a big basement ($10,000-$20,000 min. cost, but we wouldn't mind moving anyway, for other reasons)