{home & garden}
Digging Out
Excavation of the Basement by Rindy O’Brien
L
et’s face it, as charming as our Capitol Hill homes are, sometimes we just need more room. Or maybe we are thinking longterm financial security and figure that a rental unit could be an easy way to stay in the neighborhood we love and put money in the bank. Making additions to a row house can be tricky, especially if it sits in the historic district. Even with the new changes in zoning and occupancy rules, most Capitol Hill homes don’t qualify for adding additions in the back or going up. The “pop up” phase has proven not to be the golden answer. DC law mandates that an addition cannot take up more then 70 percent of the lot. If a home footprint is more, the homeowner must go before the Board of Zoning Adjustment and ask for a variance or special exemption. In the historic district there must be a ruling also by the Historic Preservation Board. The number of Capitol Hill homes that are determined non-conforming far exceeds those that get a green light for an addition. Happily there is a way to add extra footage that more and more homeowners are turning to. Hill residents are digging down, turning crawlspaces into rental apartment units or making super cool dens, playrooms, or entertainment suites.
Deciding to Dig “Deciding to expand your house by digging down is a complicated and costly decision,” says Brian Brown, a partner with Roderick Williams in R.W. Enterprize, one of several firms that specialize in the art of underpinning and basement excavations. The firm typical-
ly will work on 10 or more such projects a year. Each can predictably take two months or more to complete the basics, or maybe as long as six months given the size and circumstances. Taking on such a project is a big financial commitment. Williams estimates that pricing starts at about $100,000 for a small row house. According to Brown, it is not unusual for the project to cost $300,000. According to Jeff Keil, owner of Keil Construction, cost and deciding how the space will be used are the most important consideratons when deciding whether to excavate a basement. “It is very expensive storage space, so I don’t advise excavating to store Christmas decorations. It’s typically easier, and better living space to go up,and add on to the roof, rather then going down if you have a choice. Water management is another central concern when going down. I have hit running water before when digging down, as in an aquifier, but only once thankfully!” In business since 1996, Keil Construction is a full service residential and commercial renovation and remodeling companythat has done dozens of dig-downs. The large cost is why many people decide to do the project in phases. Homeowners commonly start with digging out the basement and putting in new underpinnings, and then sometime later building out the space. The good news is that a rental unit and extra space can add great value to the home. Lending institutions look favorably upon loan requests for such work, especially if the addition guarantees a legal
rentable unit as the end result. Sometimes a front entrance needs to be constructed in order to make the apartment legally rentable. “We do front entrances all the time, says Keil. “There is a special permit required when working in the historic district. Typically they want no visibility from the street, and the new steps down cannot project into the yard any more then the front entrance above.” Before a project begins there is of course a lot of homework to get permitting from the city.
Party Walls and Permits Another basement excavation expert, Manuel Hernandez, has been working for over 30 years on Capitol Hill and is the go-to guy for many of the construction firms like Sestak Remodeling and Ramos
Keil Construction working on a Capitol Hill Home
July 2016 H 137