Dirt basements??

[Brad J]

Our house had cement in half of the basement when we moved in and a 6-7' tall dirt floor "crawl space". It was a great storage room till we had a very wet winter and the floor was 4" deep with water. I dug it down to 7.5' using 5 gallon buckets, put in a sump and sump pump then put in gravel and cement and have not had any problems since then. We are one of very few houses in our area with a basement due to the high water level problem but the nice thing is our square footage is almost double of all my neighbors I would buy a house w/ a dirt floor again. The cement was about $500 several years ago, $275 for the cement pump, $200 for gravel and about a month of nights working in the basement

 

[bobmed]

Mine is from 1910 and still here. I've started digging it bigger toward the front of the house and putting cinder block up to reinforce the old brick. Originally it had a coal furnace and coal bin that took up all the open space.
Still a lot of dirt to take out with buckets. It has a 4 foot shelf and brick and sandstone block foundation.

 

[Caleb]

dirt basements are quite common throughout the country, not so much around here but other places they are. I can't imagine it being a real problem, but like the others have said, be sure to have a good inspection done.