Build Under Your House: Melbourne Basement Company is Formed

Outgrowing an inner-city house may no longer mean selling up and moving to the 'burbs. The team behind a novel North Carlton renovation, which turned a 200-square-metre terrace into a 350-square-metre family home by creating a basement level, has opened up a business in Melbourne.

Extending up or out wasn't an option for storage consultant Alan Contini, whose heritage-protected Princess Hill home occupied almost all of his 140-square-metre block. To make space for three home offices and a living room, more than 1000 tonnes of clay were excavated from under the house. The bright basement level has almost four-metre ceilings.

Mr Contini and the architect of the HIA award-winning renovation have now set up the Melbourne Basement Company. Mr Contini said that in the past, small blocks, heritage issues and community dissent had turned people off renovating inner-city homes, with many forced to move out of the city to bigger homes. Extending below ground level cost about $3500 per square metre, he said.

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