My 1950s house has a partial basement and there's one section that doesn't contain any pipes or ductwork that has a 6' high ceiling. Does anyone have any advice about the possibilities of lowering the basement floor. It's an area that's about 10-12 feet square and at the moment it has a gravel floor. I'd like to lower the floor and maybe cover it with cement so that i can install my washer/dryer down there.

 

Start digging! You can just dig out what you need to get the clearance you want. The only thing you need to worry about is not getting too close to the footings. If the dirt under the footings starts falling out you have a problem. Some one should be able to tell you how far away you should be. You can go down to level with the bottom of the footings without any problems but going down lower you'll need to be careful.
Good Luck
Bryan

 

Id say forget it not worth the work and what size you will end up with. Call code and check there with them first.You have to stay far away from the old footing so as you go down the room gets way smaller in a 10X12.

ED

 

1. You would have a lot of dirt to remove to do this, and as others have stated you probably won't have a very big room.

2. The basement is a very inconvenient place for a washer & dryer. A much better location is as close as possible to your bedrooms.

3. You will need drains and vents in the basement for the washer and dryer.

I would suggest finding a better location near the bedrooms (maybe you could use part of a closet or ? that could be opened to the hallway) even if you have to get a stacked unit. BTW, some of the newer stacked units are pretty good size.

What you don't want to be doing is carrying laundry up and down stairs. Most of it originates in the bedrooms and has to go back there after it's been cleaned.