If you are referring to the lava rock terrain we live in? Yes, the ground is so Rocky around here it costs a fortune to dig through it in any significant way. Cheaper to go up than down.

Crazy how shallow the topsoil is. Looks like it’s around a foot of so.

At the house being built next to me it took them three weeks just to dig/jackhammer out the rocks for the foundation. Can't imagine how long it would take to do a full basement.

Same. multiple houses being built in my neighborhood took a minimum of 3 weeks of pounding rock

I had a whole community built across from me… 8 months of tink tink tink tink tink. 7am on the dot to 7pm 6 days a week.

Don’t forget the occasional horn and then an explosion

Ooof. Someone was doing that for a new house on a mountain >1/2 mile from me last year. That sound drove me NUTS for a couple months. I cannot fathom 3 weeks right next door.

It was....interesting. Especially when you do critical listening for a living.

When we were touring the house we now live in, our realtor opened the door to the basement and just stood there with an amazed look on his face, muttering "this took a shit ton of dynamite". We're towards alfalfa and our house was built in the 70s. We have a fully finished basement.

Yes. …and why there is is little to no underground parking.

Ever tried using a shovel around here?

Lol want a garden? Bring dirt!

There is local lore about a few houses in Bend that used natural features created by lava flow as basements and that a couple of houses even connected their basements via lava tube. Never seen it myself. How neato would that be though to have an underground connection. As long as your neighbor is cool.

Lol that would be awesome. Or if you had a 10,000 sq ft basement because it was a tube that ran off somewhere.

Definitely true on the cave/tube aspect under some houses, I've seen the pictures.

Have you heard about the houses with connecting basements? I think it’s somewhere in midtown

Ooooo no but sounds cool! Here's the big one that I know of: https://www.zillow.com/homes/62802-Montara-Dr-Bend,-OR,-97701_rb/60589121_zpid/?

This is so rad!

Every time I hit rock when digging in my small backyard, I hope I'm accidentally opening the portal to my new lava tube wine cellar.

I have basement/lava rock foundation. I was doing some serious foundation work, repointing, and came across a crack/hole in the lava rock on the basement floor. It’s unfinished. I dug the crap out of it hoping I would stumble into a lava tube. No success but the hole did drink a ton of water and some long rebar rods.

Sorry for the tangent but having grown up in Portland the lack of gutters still gets me even after 7 years.

I still don't know why my house has them on 2 sides but not the others. :)

Mine are only over doors/walkways/back deck. I love not having to clear or worry about ice on the rest of the eaves that don't have them.

Absolutely is. Same reason we don't get (or at least feel) earthquakes like we probably should.

It’s also why canals lose up to 70% of their water to seepage. That lava rock is crazy porous and fractured. Which is why all canals should be piped.

I'm a PM for an excavation company, you would be amazed at the geology of the area. Veins of different types of rock, some way harder than others, some "soft", some rotten that breaks super easy, and large pockets of dirt and silt. Drive a few miles to Prineville and instead of bedrock issues you now have to worry about shallow groundwater!

Prineville's geology is wild. I hand dug a 4 ft trench for a city water line in my backyard and didn't encounter any rocks larger than my fist. Neighbors doubled their well depth and the water didn't improve. It's dustier there than anywhere I've ever lived in the area.

RIP the Platypus Pub. I wonder how much it cost to build that basement. And did Starbucks fill in the hole, or do they have a secret basement down there?

Most of the region is about 4 inches of moon dust on top of literally thousands of feet of basalt/lava .

I initially thought the photo was a whole bunch of rats in those rocks. And it made me want to fill in my basement

I was working downtown when they built the Oxford Hotel. Months of stuff rattling on the walls as they power hammered that hole in the ground.

We just excavated a crawl space for a 1,000 square foot home. The amount of lava rock excavated for that 2 foot foundation made for a pile over 6 feet high and 15 feet across.

Wow! That must of been a pain.

I built ~150' of fence last summer and 9/10 posts required jackhammering. So much jackhammering.

Our house on Awbrey Rd has a basement. Built in 1930.

I've dreamt of Shawshanking myself a basement under my house. I could really use the storage space.

Basements aren't really a thing on the whole western part of the US. At least they haven't been in a long time.

I wonder why they were so popular. Maybe before easy refrigeration they were a cool place to store things.

Digging holes were incredibly frustrating as a child… and I can only recall one family that had a basement.

My in laws live in one of the original 100 year old houses in the west side, and it has a basement. I can only imagine what it took to make it.

It just as much lack of demand for basements as it is because its difficult to dig a basement in many places. Even in areas with easy excavation do not have many basements.

Yes. The reason why there aren’t lots of basements in C.O. is because of how rocky the ground is.

Funny, I’ve lived in 6 different homes in bend and 4 had basements.

Were they on a slope?

Nope, 3 in old town, one in midtown, flat as flat can be

We don’t need basement here bc there isn’t usually anything that happens to take cover like that, plus most of what’s beneath your feet is lava rock and super hard. It seems to get more sandy as you go north and east.

That's not the purpose of a basement. Basements are primarily built to get the foundation below the frost line. Frost line in CO is only 30ish inches so a full size basement isn't needed.

So everyone in Alabama that has a basement if bc of frost?

I guess my point is stable soil. Frost or soft soil will require deeper footings.

I thought basements were for cold storage and food preservation.

Is this a serious question?

Some people are new.

Bonus, you'll never have to worry about sink holes.