Crawlspace to workshop conversion?

[Jim O'Dell]

Andy, I'll add my welcome to the Creek as well. It's a great place to bounce ideas around, as I believe you've already experienced.
I agree with John...is it possible to add on to the garage? If not, do the current garage as is with the upgrades you need in electrical, and plan a shop based on mobile equipment if you still need to get other items in it from time to time. Keep us informed on what you decide, and remember, pictures of the progress are required!! Jim.

[Alan Schaffter]

Digging out a crawl space is doable. A guy with a frame over brick/block house in my neighborhood had his 3' crawl space dug out for a 9' full basement. A small backhoe dug holes for temporary footers, one at a time, around the foundation. Then he undercut the footer to the inside edge with a shovel. Concrete was poured for these new "big" temporary footers. Once they were done - don't remember how many, but at least one in each corner and maybe one each, midwall- enough to support the house, he punched a hole in the foundation wall and had a small Bobcat dig down until he could get under the sole plate and excavate the crawl space and. He also dug out for new drain tiles and a sump pump well (wet soil area), poured new footers, and installed block up to bottom of (inside?) the old footers, then poured a new basement floor. He did it fairly cheaply- friendly labor and a lot of self-help. It made a mess of his yard and not sure what he did with all the dirt. He also lost about 1-2' of floor space around the perimeter because the new basement walls were located inside the inner edge of the old footer. I think you would need a "certified" engineering plan to get approval to do something like that.

You might also be able to dig out the duck space, by punching holes in the foundation and install temporary I-beams to support, without actually jacking, the house.

[Bart Leetch]

When I was about 17 years old my Dad who is a retired building contractor & I dug out under the house.
Here is what we did. Using 4x12 across under the existing beams & steel posts with concrete pads we raised (jacked) just enough to bear the weight & installed short posts & pads & installing a beam then knocked out the foundation at the end of the house & started digging with a tracked loader leaving the current foundation in place under the old part of the house we kept the new basement back 3'- 4' everywhere accept the end where we knocked out the foundation & dug down installing a beam & 10’ posts as needed to help support the house. We also added a big living room with basement under it. After the digging was done a 4’ high foundation was poured & the wall was studded up from there to the ceiling. I don’t see why you couldn’t dig the basement as deep as needed to get the ceiling height you want.

Oh I forgot we didn't disconnect anything & lived in the house the whole time.

[Bill Fields]

Andy--

Trust me on this--sell.

The incredible hassle, expense, dislocation and probability of an unsatisfactory outcome of trying to force the property and existing structure into something it is not--arrggh!

Well you get the idea. There is developable property somewhere -- be it an existing house , or a new contruction--that can fit your family and woodworking needs.

I say all this with no knowledge of your goals, means and energy level--so forgive me for that.

BILL FIELDS

[tod evans]

andy, welcome! if it`s within your means try to keep the sawdust seperate from where you live, you will be much happier and your marriage will not be taxed .02 tod

[Sparky Paessler]

Andy

I just finished digging out 300sf of crawl space out from under my house. Having Very hard clay I was able to dig to within 18" of the old foundation. I then poured the floors and layed block walls. I poured concrete on the shelf that went from the top of the new wall to the old wall. I did mine by hand since I didn't have room to manuver a bobcat in the basement. Used a demolision Hammer with a clay spade on it to break up the clay. Shoved it into a yard cart and pulled it out with my lawn tractor. Was a lot of Work but now I have a lot more room and was a lot less money per square foot than building a seperate building. I will post pictures sometime now that it is finished.

[CPeter James]

Looks to me with the options you have and the fact that you said you don't mind moving, that this would be the thing to do. Find a place that either has or you could build a separate shop. My shop is 50 feet from the house. Near enough to make the run on a cold winter morning and far enough to keep the noise, dust ans smells out of the house.

CPeter

[Neil Bosdet]

My thoughts were similar to what Bart has done. I wouldn't lift the house. I'd move instead of doing something like that.

[Kelly C. Hanna]

I think it would be very costly to raise the house. I decided to move to a place where the shop was detached and I LOVE IT! Good luck in whatever choise you make!

[Chris Mann]

I had my foundation underpinned last year. Dropped the floor in the basement 2 feet and excavated the crawlspace under the porch/living room. It was much more than $20k. The job was pretty much a disaster. Took three times as long, went way over budget, lots of bickering and pointing fingers, but it's done now. The house was built in 1912, the current basement was a glorified root cellar and had a creek through it when it rained. Now we have 8.5' ceilings and radiant heat in the slab. Plus with the cost of housing in the DC area we couldn't have found anything better anyhow. Especially not in the area we wanted to live. Most everything has 6.5' basements around here.

For a new house in the burbs I'd recommend moving or building a bigger garage.

[Bart Leetch]

Referring back to my previous post I don't believe this is all that hard of a job. The width of your house will determined if you can step back 3'-4' from the current foundation. If you can This is the way to go because you don't need to raise the house & can live in it while you build the basement. I know from first hand on the spot experience.

I still remember how before this project I thought Dad had an easy job running the dozer on another project.

Well he put me on the Dozer to push the dirt away that he dug out & dumped up on top of the bank of the basement with the tracked loader. Gee Dad it isn't easy running a dozer all day but to this day I still love running a dozer & used to run a D7 in the National Guard.

I wouldn't hesitate 1 moment to get in there & jack & set the beams & start excavating.

So how big could your shop be if you set your walls back 3'-4' from the original foundation accept on the end where you would start the excavation?

[Reg Mitchell]

Hello Andy,
I would only inject one item....insurance. I am not sure what it would be but I do know that a workshop attached to your home will raise the insurance.
Thats the reason when I was looking to build a home it didn't include looking into restricted property. And I really do like looking at deer, turky and an occasiona fox or cyote running through the yard

[Andy Fox]

Bart,

Here's a GIF drawing of my current basement and another of my potential basement if I get off my behind and start digging. I'm not sure I understand where all the footer setbacks would need to be, so maybe this drawing will help me figure it out. A 3' ledge (along back wall at top of drawing, adjacent to deck) sounds like it my reduce my narrowest workshop floor dimension to a max of 10', and I don't think I could put in a walkout if there's a 20" ledge there?

[Andy Fox]

My wife and I were talking about the duckspace to workshop conversion, and she recalled how we were thinking of adding on living space to the back of the house. We were thinking of a den and maybe extending the kitchen. She pointed out that we could also add a laundry room and storage closet, and that would free up even more space for a workshop in the basement without digging out the duckspace. If the addition gets big enough, it could have a full basement which could be a workshop. An addition would be easier to build, benefit the entire family, and increase the value of our house more. But, that project is probably a year or more into the future.

This weekend I was looking at the sketches of my basement I posted, and I realized that it wouldn't be that difficult to setup a shop in my partial basement as it is now. I had hoped to wall off the duckspace section and use it to reduce dust getting to the rest of the house and the laundry area and furnace.

I started a new topic for my temporary? basement workshop setup.

Thanks to everyone who replied for the many ideas and suggestions and reality-checks!

Andy