Basement, Below Grade

basement, below grade

A basement is an excavated area below the ground floor, typically at least 8 feet in depth, which includes the walls, a slab floor, and a stairway from the ground floor. A below grade basement is the portion of the basement that is below the ground or grade level.

Note: If the foundation type is basement, (below grade, daylight, and walkout), make sure that all of the following data fields are also included:

Basement Depth
Number of Basement Levels
Staircase, Basement

When using RCT standard entry method, if the ZIP code of the home is in an area where the foundation type is typically basement, the knowledge tables automatically supply values for each of the fields necessary to accurately calculate the cost of a basement.

If the foundation type supplied by RCT is something other than basement (for example, slab) and you need to change the entry to one of the basement foundation types (below grade basement, daylight basement or walkout basement) then the entries for the above four fields are required. If you omit any information, your basement costs will be incomplete.

In addition, you should also enter the following:

Basement Stairs (under Basement Information) – the number of staircases to the basement from the level above. There is typically at least one staircase to either a below grade basement or a daylight basement. There may or may not be a staircase to a walkout basement. When the basement has 2 levels, include the staircase to each level (typically a total of 2 staircases).

When using RCT advanced entry method, you are building the homes from the foundation up, and RCT does not automatically populate any data fields from the knowledge tables. Therefore, if you select any of the basement foundation types (below grade basement, daylight basement or walkout basement), entries for Foundation Type, Foundation Material, Basement Depth and Number of Basement Levels are required to accurately calculate basement costs. If you omit any information, your basement costs will be incomplete. You should also enter Basement Stairs, under Basement Information, if you selected a basement foundation.

When entering the foundation material, enter the percentage of each foundation material type (concrete, block, brick, fieldstone, or wood, treated) with a total percentage of 100%.

Enter a percentage of the basement between 0 and 100.

Help file last modified: 7/26/2018