I want to build a bunker

[iggypop]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

Are residential places allowed to have a 2 or 3 story basements? that would be pretty sweet.

I played golf with a guy recently who lives near the ridge on Crescent Heights. He mentioned a few of the massive homes on the ridge have multi-level basements, for both garages and lounge areas. He mentioned one has a squash court in the basement.

No idea if any of this is true. Anyone work on these massive custom homes, and see any multi-level basements?

[NuclearFart]

Originally Posted by mikephoen

This video is awesome, and so are the other videos by Colin Furze. Definitely watch those for ideas.

I'm hoping you actually do this. When we built our house in 2012, I wish I had done a two or three story basement. Building down is much cheaper than building up, and I would have loved the extra space. You could use one whole level for a kick ass gym, with a dry sauna etc. Or a ball hockey set up or something like that. Even just a small 2nd level basement for the mechanical room would free up enough space for another bedroom on the main basement level.

This is not true. I have a couple friends who have built these quasi 'iceberg' type houses in Calgary complete with 12-18 feet high subterranean theaters, basketball courts, squash courts and golf simulators. The deeper you go, the further the cost escalates exponentially because of the amount of foundation buttressing required to withstand the force of the earth pushing inwards, it destabilizes the land (when on perched on a hill), and you run into significant water seepage issues. At a certain point for one builder, every extra 2 feet of depth added another six figures to the cost.


Here's a calgary house with what I gather is almost exactly what Silver wants:

https://plintzrealestate.com/listing...t-boulevard-sw

The entire backyard was shelled out to the alley way for a 'bunker' 1.2 stories below ground, spanning the entire area from house to property line. The bunker roof is was covered by gravel, patio and garage. It's fully powered/plumbed/ventillated and connects to the basement with 2 additional seperate egress points. Silver should get Travis the realtor to go check it out for a taste, or just buy it to GTFO of Bonavista for a much nicer & central part of Calgary.

[Hessen]

I've seen a few examples of this in Mormon new builds where they have a storage area for food and water. The best one was on a house a few doors down where they had a storage room under the entirety of the garage. When they sold they listed it as "perfect place for storage or a man room".

[The Yen Man]

I multi level basement would be pretty sweet. I hope Sliver does this and we can all live vicariously through him during this project.

[Strange Brew]

Why spend exorbitant money on a big basement? Just buy a big enough piece of land and build a sprawling house. Golf simulator, theatre, squash court. All could be above ground and much more pleasant.

A few years back I attended a wedding at an MLB player's house. He had a separate building that housed a full sized basketball court, workout facility and racquetball court. That was pretty damn sweet and sure sounds better than putting it all underground.

[Monahammer]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

Why spend exorbitant money on a big basement? Just buy a big enough piece of land and build a sprawling house. Golf simulator, theatre, squash court. All could be above ground and much more pleasant.

A few years back I attended a wedding at an MLB player's house. He had a separate building that housed a full sized basketball court, workout facility and racquetball court. That was pretty damn sweet and sure sounds better than putting it all underground.

This is it right here. I already have a basement that I don't go into because it's cold and dark. Why would I build a colder, darker basement to not go into?

Buy a giant piece of land, build yourself a nice house that's not ludicrous to maintain, build an amenities building that even maybe includes a guest room for when the in-laws want to come over, and boom. You could even put the bunker on the back 40 for extra security.

[Northendzone]

just catching up in this thread, but have you been to go and vist the folks at Hunker Down in Bunker? Now if you don't like what they are trying to sell you there is a Bunker Barn, and The Bunknasium.

They are all conveniently located just of 8th in the Bunker District

[peter12]

It was only a matter of time.

[DoubleF]

I don't know the legality of it all, but I feel like for all legal and resale intents and purposes to avoid issues the structure built by Sliver should either be a "cold room" (if basement extension) or an "over sized powered shed/oversized walled gazebo/secondary small garage" built to blend into the landscape.

The fact he gussied it up to be a club house/storage space, is a different argument altogether than the base structure he gets permit approval for building. I think that might be a first major hurdle to address properly or avoid some "unnecessary" rejections or work that isn't required being done as part of the scope of the project.

I am assuming if Sliver does all of this for "garden variety storage space" and stores tools and other items etc. in his shed for inspection purposes, takes some pictures, then swaps it for cannabis, cots, cigars and consumables after it's all done, it's all easier and smoother to navigate those legalities.

Then also cost wise, I presume it's easier to ask contractors for a quote on a cold room/partial garage than get higher rates on a unique special project?

[Sr. Mints]

Originally Posted by iggypop

I played golf with a guy recently who lives near the ridge on Crescent Heights. He mentioned a few of the massive homes on the ridge have multi-level basements, for both garages and lounge areas. He mentioned one has a squash court in the basement.

No idea if any of this is true. Anyone work on these massive custom homes, and see any multi-level basements?

1106 Crescent Road has a garage with a sub-basement and car elevator. I remember when they were building it, the hole in the back yard from property line to property line must have been 40-feet deep.

[NuclearFart]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

Why spend exorbitant money on a big basement? Just buy a big enough piece of land and build a sprawling house. Golf simulator, theatre, squash court. All could be above ground and much more pleasant.

A few years back I attended a wedding at an MLB player's house. He had a separate building that housed a full sized basketball court, workout facility and racquetball court. That was pretty damn sweet and sure sounds better than putting it all underground.

Because you can't just buy a huge piece of land in established communities to build all that above ground. Sure you could go all Nicholas Hon building his Byzantine motel on acreage off highway 22, but alot of 1%ers want to live in the nicest areas of central Calgary.

Why wouldn't you put all that stuff underground? Most of it is a windowless activity, and in some cases having uncontrolled light pollution and inadequate sound proofing is a negative (eg. theater/golf sim).

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by iggypop

I played golf with a guy recently who lives near the ridge on Crescent Heights. He mentioned a few of the massive homes on the ridge have multi-level basements, for both garages and lounge areas. He mentioned one has a squash court in the basement.

No idea if any of this is true. Anyone work on these massive custom homes, and see any multi-level basements?

There's different concepts of multi-level basements. I've seen large newer houses in the Crescent heights area with both a B1 and a B2 type of full floor set up for home theatres, garage storage connected by elevator, rinks/play rooms etc. I've never seen a split level type design for basements in that area, but I haven't gone inside a ton of homes in those surrounding communities. I've seen it in Silver Springs before.

Split level designs for basements are kinda weird and claustrophobic at times, so I think that's why they don't really exist, especially in new homes where you want like 10-14 ft ceilings for opulence vs 6-8 ft basement ceilings in older homes.

In Silver Springs, I saw this with and without basement rooms that are split level and "cold room/storage rooms" which seemed like they were outside the building envelope. This was decades ago.

The one I was at had like 4 basement sections. You'd walk down the stairs into a normal basement type section which was a bizarre normal looking but small 500 sq ft ish basement with 7 ft ceilings that had extra doors that went to 3 sub sections. One subsection was like a weird set of steps UPWARDS from that basement room towards a random half door that opens to a strange horizontal shed sized crawl/storage space 5 feet tall (might have been under some stairs) with no light and power. One was a door with stairs that went down to a 300-400 sq ft typical basement type "floor" but with like 5-6 ft ceilings, so you had to crouch (Likely it was directly below a upstairs living room split floor). Another was had a door to short stairs towards a decent sized 10-12ft ceiling utility room around 3-4 ft below the main basement grade. The guy who owned the place said he hated the basement. His kids would always hide in the weird spaces then jump scare him, the floors weren't a good size or position to be used effectively by an adult, so that's where the kids played... but he was considering combining all of those spaces into a single full sized relatively single floored basement that was more useful.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by NuclearFart

Because you can't just buy a huge piece of land in established communities to build all that above ground. Sure you could go all Nicholas Hon building his Byzantine motel on acreage off highway 22, but alot of 1%ers want to live in the nicest areas of central Calgary.

Why wouldn't you put all that stuff underground? Most of it is a windowless activity, and in some cases having uncontrolled light pollution and inadequate sound proofing is a negative (eg. theater/golf sim).

Well just me but if I have the money to build a multi level underground lair replete with squash courts, I don't want to live in a neighborhood where I am space constrained by my closest neighbor.

I'm pretty sure a squash court takes up more vertical space than horizontal.
And yeah even if I have a windowless room, I will prefer that to something underground.

[NuclearFart]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

Well just me but if I have the money to build a multi level underground lair replete with squash courts, I don't want to live in a neighborhood where I am space constrained by my closest neighbor.

I'm pretty sure a squash court takes up more vertical space than horizontal.
And yeah even if I have a windowless room, I will prefer that to something underground.

I mean you arent alone in those wants, so why not both? That Engineered Air guy dropped cartoon burlap sacs of cash on the door sills of 4 consecutive homes at the top of Mount Royal just to demolish them and make way for a 3 storey high retaining wall supporting his hill top estate. He even allegedly tried to annex some adjacent city park land for his gazebo. You can bet his house has multiple levels of basement to go with sprawling ground level compound replete with all that good stuff.

[Cappy]

This just reminds me of London Iceburg homes:

https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...ons-super-rich

[Reggie Dunlop]

Here's a tip...

https://twitter.com/user/status/1564297118554243078

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Cappy

This just reminds me of London Iceburg homes:

https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...ons-super-rich

Holy...hell.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by iggy_oi

Ok

Imagine how many dead contractors there are from oxygen deprivation in the listings shown so far.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by Hessen

I've seen a few examples of this in Mormon new builds where they have a storage area for food and water. The best one was on a house a few doors down where they had a storage room under the entirety of the garage. When they sold they listed it as "perfect place for storage or a man room".

That's why I'm taking over the Mormon temple near my house if the apocalypse happens.

[D as in David]

I'm kind of disappointed there has yet to be any discussion so far in this thread about Sliver in a post-apoclyptic world.