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<DIV>Bob--</DIV>
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<DIV>I have the same problem with my basement--I had a stepper for a while, but I was always in danger of hitting my head on something. I don't know what street you live on, but in my block on Guilford the basements tend to be wet, so lowering one wouldn't be an option.</DIV>
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<DIV>I've seen people put exercise equipment in the bedroom they use the least, a solution that is a lot easier (and cheaper) than digging out a basement. Another solution would be the new YMCA over on 33rd--good exercise equipment is expensive enough that joining a gym is not an unreasonable option. </DIV>
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<DIV>Good luck! Let us know what you decide to do.</DIV>
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<DIV>Emily<BR><BR>-----Original Message----- <BR>From: Stephen J Gewirtz <GEWIRTZ@BELLATLANTIC.NET><BR>Sent: Mar 28, 2005 7:49 PM <BR>To: The Charles Village Chat List <CHAT@CHARLESVILLAGE.INFO><BR>Subject: Re: [Chat] digging out a basement? <BR><BR><ZZZHTML><ZZZHEAD><ZZZMETA content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"></ZZZHEAD><ZZZBODY text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff">Bob,<BR><BR>I can't answer your specific questions, but I do know that there is one more problem you may or may not have. In my house and I suspect in many others, there are pipes carrying waste water from both my house and one next door to the sewer system. It is very possible that the house next door (to the north) does not have such pipes in the front two thirds of the basement, since a pipe comes into my house from that house. I have never seen the actual pipes, but there are cracks in the concrete floor where the pipes are, and waste water pipes from the bathrooms and kitchen can be seen to go under the concrete basement floor to that system of pipes. The pipes run from near the rear of the house (where the kitchen and bathrooms are) all the way to the front, so the sewer must be under the street in front of the house (Guilford).<BR><BR>Years ago, I thought about doing what you want to do, but I quickly realized that the pipes would prevent it; hence, I never really looked into it.<BR><BR>Steve.<BR><BR>Robert Watters wrote: </DIV>
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<P>Hi all,</P>
<P>I had a question for you all. I desperately want to be able to fit some exercise equipment in my basement. My ceiling height is roughly 77 inches, but it seems like the magic number is 84 inches/7 feet for good clearance. </P>
<P>From what I have heard, my home didn't have a cement basement floor originally (it was built in 1900). I have heard of people digging out their basements in their rowhomes, but was curious about hearing some firsthand experiences of cost, etc. To get me by, I would only need to lower a section of my basement that was roughly 16 feet (width of the house) by 10 feet.</P>
<P>I believe I have heard that you can "dig out" a basement as long as the bottom of the load bearing walls has sufficient lateral support. With concrete, I'm sure you would need less of the wall buried than the original design that was supported by compacted dirt, but I'm definitely not an architect. Has anyone been through this process?</P>
<P>Thanks for any tips!<BR>-Bob<BR></P>
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