basement

Also known as cellar

thumb|An unfinished basement used for storage and exercise thumb|Chillon Castle (Château de Chillon) basement thumb|A former Stasi basement hallway

AI overview

A basement is the floor or level of a building located below ground level, commonly used for storage, utilities, or other purposes. Basements matter because they provide additional usable space in buildings and can serve practical functions like housing mechanical systems or offering extra room for activities and storage.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Wikidata facts

Subclass of: storey
Part of: building
Image: Fotothek df tg 0001289 Architektur ^ Gebäude ^ Perspektive ^ Keller ^ Schalung ^ Gewölbe.jpg

Show 5 more facts

described by source: Gujin Tushu Jicheng
Commons category: Basements
topic's main category: Category:Basements
different from: root cellar
on focus list of Wikimedia project: Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/4

Sources (5)

via Wikidata · CC0

~29 min read

Encyclopedic overview

19 sections

Contents

Purpose, geography, and history
Types
English basement
Walk-out basement
Subbasement
Finished fully underground cellar
Underground crawl space
Design and structural considerations
Drainage considerations
Basement culture and finishings
Unfinished basement
Finished basement
Partially finished basement
Fully finished basement – retro fit
Use in hospitals
Real estate floorspace measures
See also
References
External links

thumb|An unfinished basement used for storage and exercise thumb|Chillon Castle (Château de Chillon) basement thumb|A former Stasi basement hallway

A basement is any floor of a building that is not above the grade plane. Especially in residential buildings, it often is used as a utility space for a building, where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, car park, and air-conditioning system are located; so also are amenities such as the electrical system and cable television distribution point. In cities with high property prices, such as London, basements are often fitted out to a high standard and used as living space.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “basement” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.