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Well...ranches are strictly one level homes, but what happens if you have finished walk out basement? Not so much one level anymore. I haven't seen any house in my area without basement, some of them have crawl space but 90% have basements, some are finished + walk out. Most of them have laundry in the basement and laundry on the main is a feature.
So apparently if we were strict then ranch house is a one level house with crawl space because this actually means that everything in that house is one level. Any deviation from that definition is no longer a ranch.
Prove it. Quote or link to a legal parameter, a building code regulation, or other definition from a ruling authority with jurisdiction.
You are right, in your world. You are wrong in much of the rest of the world.
In my area, we have 1 story homes and 2 story homes, the end. When people from other states move here asking for a "Ranch", I ask "so you want a 1 story home?"
Some can be stated as 1.5 story if all main living is on the main floor, and there's just a Gameroom or 1 bedroom upstairs. Others, if there are stairs in the house, that's a 2 story house.
Where I live in Texas, if you say "I have a ranch" you'll get asked "how many head?"
How would that be rude? Legitimate question where I live, in an area with several multi-acre horse farms nearby.
Because you might be talking to a "big hat, few cattle" so-called "rancher" that has 35 acres and lets a neighbor graze four cows; or you might be talking to the real thing - someone that is running 20,000 head on 100,000 acres. The first one doesn't want to be shown up as a poser and the second one doesn't want to sound like he's bragging.
The correct Texas terminology, unless you truly make your FULL TIME LIVING from ranching, is to say "place" - as in, "Yes, I've got a place out near Jacksboro." This might be 3 acres and a small cabin, or it might be 3000 acres with a 6000 SF house.
At any rate, what I saw as "ranch houses" in New England had NOTHING to do with what actual ranchers live in; it was mostly little pokey two or three bedroom houses, that basically looked like high end double-wides, usually with a moldy basement.
Your points are very much location and local market specific.
Our local market in the Southeast differs widely from yours.
Ranch houses on concrete slabs or crawlspaces are not at all uncommon here. There are some basements, but they are not at all the rule in any style of home.
Sunken living rooms, a bizarre pox on common sense in design, are not uncommon here in 1970's, 1980's, and 1990's houses, whether one or two stories.
Yeah, California ranch houses are low, all one level, on slab, with no basement or attic.
None of those pictures say ranch to me, but may be considered ranch style where they are.
Most basements/cellars you will see are in northern climates and primarily do to the frost line (how far down the ground freezes in Winter). Up north water and sewage lines are typically 6ft underground to get below the frost line thus avoiding freezing. In the south there basically is no frost line so no need to go deep thus more slab construction. Our water and sewage lines are rarely more then a foot deep in the ground.
Well...ranches are strictly one level homes, but what happens if you have finished walk out basement? Not so much one level anymore. I haven't seen any house in my area without basement, some of them have crawl space but 90% have basements, some are finished + walk out. Most of them have laundry in the basement and laundry on the main is a feature.
So apparently if we were strict then ranch house is a one level house with crawl space because this actually means that everything in that house is one level. Any deviation from that definition is no longer a ranch.
Around here, a ranch with a finished walkout basement (with a family room, bath and a bedroom or 2 or 3) is a “reverse 1 1/2 ranch.” Master bedroom is on the main living level. A “story and a 1/2” would have the master bedroom on the first floor but other bedrooms on the second floor. I don’t know what you would call it if it also had a finished walkout basement with a bedroom or two down there, other than “too many stairs.”
Well...ranches are strictly one level homes, but what happens if you have finished walk out basement? Not so much one level anymore. I haven't seen any house in my area without basement, some of them have crawl space but 90% have basements, some are finished + walk out. Most of them have laundry in the basement and laundry on the main is a feature.
So apparently if we were strict then ranch house is a one level house with crawl space because this actually means that everything in that house is one level. Any deviation from that definition is no longer a ranch.
No.
The presence of a basement, walk out or not, is mostly a function of your geography and irrelevant to the what you'd call the house.
Turn it around and think of it this way: The house I grew up in is a 2 story Colonial Revival. Where it is, it has a full basement. If you built the house in Dallas TX, you wouldn't have a basement at all. Across the street, a very similar home has a finished walkout basement because the lot slopes. It's still a 2 story colonial revival.
My .02 a ranch is a house where all the living space is on the same plane. Finished or not I wouldn't consider the basement in the equation, no different than the garage or carport.
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