Foundation Question

[JiAngelo]

Long story short - On a plan I've finished, can I move every level upward so that the current foundation is on LEVEL 1 so I can then draw a new sub basement on LEVEL 0 ???

Thanks.

The long version

I've designed a new plan, 3 floors above grade and a basement/foundation. However the site drops 22' from front to back. In round numbers, the front half of the basement is 12' and the back half of the basement is 22' tall (measuring from the slab - meaning frost footer is 4' below this point.) Everything looks good, but I have a situation where the front half of the basement has a bathroom that is under the stairs (10' above the back basement's floor)

The back half is actually a basketball court, so I added a bathroom under this bathroom at the basement floor. I did this by cutting and pasting the bathroom fixtures, then moving them downward on the z axis. I then manually drew the slab at the back half depth (-22') because I'm using the level's normal floor at (-12') to be the front half's bathroom floor.

Everything looks great. Cross sections, etc... - I even Topo'd the site and have all my step down footings.

My problem is the room schedules, material lists, RES calcs, etc... The lower bathroom isn't recognized because it isn't really a room. This was minor, until I found out that due to site conditions, I can have other areas extending under other parts of the front half's -12' floor . Now I've added some locker rooms, a wine cellar and I really need these "rooms" recognized.

I've attached a cross section with some dimensions and notes. Thanks again.






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The front half of the basement

[Curtis Johnson]

John:

Did you go to your current foundation level and try to insert a new floor?

[JiAngelo]

I didn't think you could insert a floor below the foundation. (Thought I read that somewhere.) Just tried it and it did insert the new floor at 0 (it's blank). Thanks.

At first glance, I see the house is now sticking 10' out of the ground. (I think it moved all floors up a level). If I can tie the terrain to the new front door elevation, this should work. I will play around with this tonight. Thanks for the tip Curt.

[JiAngelo]

Curt,

Here's an ISO of the plan w/ the new Level 0. I drew a room on the level and it appears to start about 2' below top of Level 1 walls (which was level 0) - I'm not sure why that is. You'd think it would be below this level instead of "beside" it (or inside it, in this case. Perhaps Level 1 is now 2' but I've already drawn the walls -22' ???)

As for the grade, my terrain is 845' 4" at the garage doors, pad was at 846' 10" - I probably need to spec the pad at around 834' 10' to get the 2nd floor to be at 845' 4" if the first basement level is 12' walls.

In the ISO I notice all the stairs are 1 level lower (about 10'). Look under the patio door and you can see the slab and right stair tread from my original cross section is now ~10' lower than where it should be in relationship to new Level 1.

I just deleted the floor and it won't let me move Level 1 back down to Level 0.....

Perhaps I should go back and insert the new level between Original Level 0 and Level 1 - I'm going to have the terrain issue regardless, but if I reduced the original 0 level to 10' walls, and the new level 1 was 12' walls, then I'd be at the -22' .....

Let me know your thoughts. Thanks.

[JiAngelo]

I found this in the manual, "Note: Chief Architect allows only one floor, the foundation/basement, below the first floor. Keep this in mind when you begin an as-built or plan for a multi-story building. See Foundations."

I tried inserting the Floor between 0 and 1. The results were even uglier.

Moving the Pad to -837'4" put the terrain back to the proper relationship with the garage doors.

I may have no choice but to delete the basement level, add the level like you recommended (pushing 1,2 & 3 to 2,3, & 4, respectively) then redraw the -12' basement at Level 1 w/ open below over the basketball court, and the -22' section basement becomes Level 0 - thus allowing me to add rooms below the -12' section and have them show up properly on the room schedules.